by D. N. Hoxa
“I don’t hate him,” I said, focusing on the walls in the distance. To the right, I could see shadows moving in a row, about five of them if I were seeing correctly, and they were all connected to something.
“You hate him more than you hate me.”
I stopped walking for a second, words at the tip of my tongue, words I would regret saying without a doubt. I don’t hate you, I wanted to say, but I bit my tongue and continued.
“Yes, well, you’re not exactly good guys. You’re bad by default.” And so was I.
“So? He’s still your family. The only family you have,” he reminded me.
“Did he put you up to this? Did he tell you to talk to me nicely? Because it’s not going to work, dove.” And it was probably true. Why else would he be so nice to me right now?
He smiled. “No, he didn’t.”
Like I believed him. “Is that an actual Reaper?” I said, pointing at the shadows to the right. They were sort of floating in the darkness, and the only reason I could see them was because of the fire that was burning somewhere behind the Lego wall. They were all connected with what looked like a rope or a chain, and their wrists were shackled, too. But in front of the shadows, when I focused really hard, I could see another figure floating. For a second there, I thought I saw a scythe in its hand, though technically I couldn’t see the hand. He was nothing but a black mantel, the edges of it rising and twisting as he went.
“Yep. He’s sending souls to their appointed Circle,” Lexar said.
“That scythe is wicked cool.” It was big and it shone silver against the dark, and the tip of it looked extremely sharp even from a distance.
“Maybe you should send in an application. I’m sure they’d hire you as a Reaper right away.” The fucker laughed.
“And the first soul I’d be coming for would be yours—if you had one.” He didn’t. Neither of us did.
“Oh, I have a soul,” he said, still chuckling.
“No, you don’t. And neither do I.”
“You know what you should do? You should try giving yourself a break sometimes, Sassy Pants. It’s not your fault how you were born. Get over it. It’s going to make you feel better, I promise.”
I wanted to bash his skull in so badly. “Right. And while I’m at it, you should try reminding yourself more often that you’re a creature of Hell.” How in the world could anyone feel great about that, ever?
“And you should try to be less stubborn, too,” he whispered, and I heard the mock in his voice loud and clear. Thankfully, we’d reached the first Lego wall, and I wouldn’t have to endure his shit for much longer now. Almost over, I reminded myself. Just a few more minutes and I was gone.
The wall in front of me was at least a hundred feet tall, or so it looked. The truth was, from so close, I couldn’t even see the tip of it. I looked behind me, but the Reaper and his souls were no longer there. They had probably gone into one of the walls.
“Ready?” Lexar said, putting his hand over the glassy surface of the pitch-black wall.
“As ever.” I took in a deep breath, and while he worked his lightning into the wall, I tried to see more. I’d been young the first time, and I hadn’t had patience for much, but now I was curious.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see. To my left was a maze of walls that looked like they just dropped from above and nobody bothered to fix them. The corners of some of them were even sticking out of the ground, and the ground was nothing but very thin black sand that shimmered orange sometimes. Definitely not a place I wanted to visit frequently. There were probably more Reapers and more souls coming for the walls from all over the world, but I didn’t see another.
“Here we go. Hold on tight,” Lexar said and offered me his hand. I grabbed it and he intertwined his fingers with mine. His hand was too warm, too soft, too nice against mine. I hated that I noticed it, but before I could protest, Lexar walked into the wall’s surface and pulled me with him.
Music reached my ears before anything else. It was a slow melody, the sound of the flute almost like the wind blowing, and it was oddly relaxing. We were in a hallway that didn’t look anything out of the ordinary—if you discounted the black floors, a ceiling made out of all-consuming darkness, and the cracks on the wall that showed you just what lay inside them—fire. The same fire that ran in my veins.
And Nevermore wanted me to give myself a break.
I tried not to get lost in the open ceiling, the darkness that seemed to call my name every time I looked at it, by staring at the shiny black floor that probably hadn’t seen a particle of dust since its creation. Did they even get dust around here? And why was nobody there?
When I’d been here before, Hell champions had been all over this place. They were hellhounds, soldiers controlled by the Fallen, and even though they weren’t all that powerful, they turned into the nastiest three-headed beasts I had ever seen. They were basically minions of the Fallen, but I hadn’t seen a single one of them here tonight.
Much too soon, we were in front of the double doors at the end of the hallway, and Lexar pushed them open without a second thought.
And I saw what was in the room.
Or rather, who.
The four men and one woman in there took me by surprise, to say the least. I threw Lexar a pointed glare, and only then did I realize that he looked like somebody had slapped him, too. He hadn’t known these pricks were going to be here, either.
But it didn’t matter. I could ignore them. In fact, I was going to ignore all five of them and pretend they didn’t exist at all. There were plenty of things in there to keep me distracted, and I looked at them instead, all the while reminding myself to just breathe.
The room was a sort of a waiting room. It was round, and the floor was made out of the same glossy black stone as in the hallway. The ceiling was pitch-black darkness, too, but that’s where the similarities ended. There were no cracks in the walls here, but pillars inside them every few feet, decorated with golden vines that made their way up, crawling like living things before they disappeared into the darkness above. There were seats—black leather loveseats, three sets of them spread out, right across from the three doors to my left. There were mirrors, too. Round mirrors of different sizes hung on the black walls, as if desperate to catch some light and throw it wherever they could. There was no electricity here, no lamps and no chandeliers, but orange light reflected everywhere on the mirrors, and it was coming from outside.
To the sides of the three doors, there were open windows, separated into four by the pillars tangled in golden vines. Before I could check myself, I started walking toward the window closest to me, and I looked outside.
The view took my breath away just like it had the first time.
The city was vast. I couldn’t see the end of it, even though the rivers of fire that ran through it like snakes gave off more than enough light. It was like watching a scene from a movie, except if I actually reached out my hand, there would be no screen separating me from what was out there. The sky was no sky at all. It was just nothingness, and for the second time in my life, I was reminded just how much we took the moon and stars for granted every night. Without them, the world would be empty, meaningless, not to mention really dark.
There were no trees, no grass, no bushes, no nothing to give this place any semblance of life.
And then…demons. They moved about their business like people did on Earth, like existing was perfectly normal. The houses, or whatever they called them, were like igloos—round and small, except these were made out of solid black rock that spit fire every now and then like they had miniature volcanoes on the surface. They had streets, just like we did on Earth, and they had monsters—what they called animals. I couldn’t see them from so far up, and I was glad for it, but I could see the figures moving, walking, and almost hear the sound of them speaking like I was right among them.
Over the second, thicker river of fire, there were more buildings, but those weren’t built lik
e igloos. They were tall, like castles, made of the same black rock, and they were surrounded by torches, as if calling for attention. They were shaped like spikes, with holes on the surface that were probably supposed to be windows, like the one I was looking out of. All twelve of them were a smaller copy of the building I was standing in. I put my hands on the windowpane, as if called by some distant voice, and I leaned out to get a better view of the walls from the outside. Just like I’d imagined, the structure looked more like a monster than a building, with veins of fire pulsating on its surface, mesmerizing as the flames danced on the magma coursing down toward the ground.
Shivers broke over my body, chasing away any feeling of calmness I was trying to hold onto. I pulled myself inside again, racing to catch my breath.
It was okay. Hellfire couldn’t hurt me. I was hellfire. The building wasn’t going to collapse any second now, and I wasn’t going to be swallowed by a river of lava like my paranoia said I would.
I would be just fine. Just focus on the music.
But then I saw the creature that had literally climbed atop the rock igloo—and he was staring right at me. I only saw him because his igloo was the closest to the gates of the castle and because I could feel his eyes burning holes in my face.
Try as I might, I couldn’t look away from him. He had a humanoid form for the most part, except he had two horns coming out of his temples, curling upward. His skin was dark, almost completely black, and his eyes were pure yellow—not like shifter yellow, which leaned more toward brown. This guy’s eyes would look orange if he turned his head the other way and light from the fire river fell on his face.
For now, I was glad that it didn’t. I didn’t want to see details—like his nose or mouth or fingers. I’d seen pictures of them—Joleen, the woman who’d raised me, had shown me some drawings once. I did not want to see the real thing.
But I had to wonder—if this was considered one of the nicer Circles of Hell, what did the others look like?
“If it isn’t Sapphire Donovan herself.”
The voice came from behind me, and for a second, I wanted to thank them for pulling me out of my trance. With the demon no longer in sight, I could breathe properly and focus on other things—like my surroundings.
And the five other offspring of the Fallen I’d hoped would go away without talking to me.
Let’s be clear—it’s not like I hated them. I’d only ever seen them once before, and the worst they did was make inappropriate jokes and tease me for being weaker than them, but…
Yeah, okay. I did hate them. And they might have been stronger than me, but only because they lived in Hell and I didn’t, and that was perfectly fine by me.
The guy who’d spoken went by the name of Orin Moloch’an. He was about five foot nine, with pitch-black hair and pale skin, eyes so green they looked like crystals, and he had the biggest mouth I had ever seen on a face. Strangely, it suited him perfectly.
“I thought you were too scared to come here,” one of his friends said. Tobias Belial’an was his name, but I’d named him the Biggest Prick of All. He was about my height but twice as wide, with muscles so defined you’d think he’d carved them with a knife himself.
“Of course, she’s scared,” Orin said, laughing. “She knows how close death is to her down here.”
I pulled my lips inside my mouth and forced myself to cool down. It wasn’t worth it. Any second now, my father was going to call me into whichever room he was in, and I wouldn’t have to see these guys again. They just wanted to piss me off, and I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction.
“She looks so human,” the only woman in the group said. Effeyet Chemo’an. Tall and slender and lethal without having to even sweat about it. Her black hair fell straight down to her waist, shining like it had no business doing without the sun falling over it. Her black eyes took all of me in, and the look of disgust in her face gave away her feelings about me, even if I hadn’t heard her words.
“And you look like such a bitch,” I said, unable to bite my tongue.
Then I chided myself in my mind. Don’t let them get to you.
The guys laughed—even the other two, Baron and Dominic Beelze’an. They were brothers, though they didn’t look anything alike—aside from the black hair and pale skin. I was the only one of them with red hair, actually. Thank God, I got it from my mom.
Effeyet smiled, but she was pissed off. I could see it in the way she pulled her hands up in fists, her nails nearly tearing through her black leather pants in the process.
“Oh, that tongue on you,” the prick Tobias said, shaking his head.
“What are you doing here, Sassy? Did Daddy force you to come? Or was it Lex? Did you do something good? Because you know there’s punishments for that,” Orin said with a grin, and the others laughed.
I opened my mouth, but Lexar beat me to it. “Let it go,” he whispered, and since we were across the room from the others, I doubted they could hear it. “Not worth it.”
And he was right. These guys were not worth it. They were just spoiled children of the Fallen who got treated like royalty around here, and it didn’t matter what they said. They had nothing better to do but figure out how to piss people off.
With a sigh, I ignored Orin, who had continued to tell his friends a story about something stupid that had happened while he was on Earth once. I looked at the three doors at my side and surprised myself with wishing my father could call me in sooner. Just a second ago, I’d been on edge about seeing him, but now I couldn’t wait to get away from these people.
“Hey, Sassy, is it true that you run out of fire all the time?” Baron asked. His power was hellfire, too—just like his brother’s.
“Is it true that you were unconscious for a month after Lex beat you?” Tobias asked.
Oh, shit. I bit my tongue until I tasted blood and looked at Lexar. Had he told them that? Because I hadn’t been unconscious at all. I’d been wounded, yes, but he’d been far worse than me.
But the way Lexar was looking at Tobias, jaw locked tight, head slightly lowered, fists in the pockets of his jeans—it told me that he wanted to slap the shit out of that guy just as much as I did.
And then I reminded myself that Lexar was not my friend. He was one of them. They hung out together all the time because they all lived here.
“Is it true that you’re still a virgin?” Orin went next.
“I bet’cha. Who would want to fuck a weakling like her?” Tobias said.
“And why the hell do you wear those things all the time? You had the same hoodie on the last time I saw you, remember?” Baron said, scratching his chin like he really was curious.
“Maybe she’s poor,” Effeyet said, leaning her head back so she could look down at me and make herself feel big.
Until then, my phoenix had remained calm. Now, as I looked at Effeyet’s face, she raised her head, fire burning in her eyes. It was only a matter of time now before the phoenix started to fight me for control, just so she could tear that bitch’s face off.
“Maybe she’s hiding her deformations,” Orin offered with a shrug, looking at his friends, as if to say, hey, it’s a valid suggestion.
“You know, being a dick doesn’t magically make yours bigger,” I said before I could stop myself. It was the phoenix. The added pressure of her rearing her head up to fight me for control made it impossible to keep my cool. “And, no, I never run out of fire, Baron. I am fire, just like you. And I wear this hoodie because I want you focused on the important things.” I also wanted to tell them that no, I hadn’t been unconscious at any point in the fight with Lexar—he had, but they would never let Lexar live that down, so I just turned to Tobias. “You would fuck me if I so much as gave you the time of day. You would beg for it like a little boy begs for ice cream, and you know it.”
They all laughed, but it was forced now. “What I know is that you’re worthless. Completely worthless, weakling,” Tobias said, standing up with his arms crossed in front of h
im. “But you know what you’d probably be good for? Sucking. My pipe’s right here, since you wanna fuck me so badly.” And he looked down at himself.
Steam was probably coming out of my ears. “Thanks, but I’d rather not. Small objects are a choking hazard for us weakling humans.”
Another real laugh from his friends. To my side, Lexar put his hand in front of his mouth and turned his head the other way.
I didn’t want to calm down anymore. I just wanted them to shut the hell up and leave me be. So what if they were stronger than me? I turned into a fucking phoenix, and if they could beat her, then I did deserve to die and rot in this place for all eternity.
“She’s just jealous because she probably doesn’t even know how to do it,” Effeyet said, hand to her heart as she laughed, fingers tipped with pitch-black nails.
“But you do, right? You could deep-throat a cactus with that mouth of yours,” I spit. “You probably have, haven’t you? You’ve sucked the Biggest Prick of All.” I pointed at Tobias, then forced myself to laugh.
Oh, the look on both their faces was priceless. I just knew that we were only getting started—this was going to go on for a while, and you know what? I was going to enjoy it. To hell with self-control, since, you know, I was already in Hell. I could take all of them on.
But things didn’t exactly go as planned. Oscar Wilde once said, the things one feels absolutely certain about are never true, and I was experiencing that firsthand. I was sure that we were going to keep bickering—until Effeyet stood up and slowly came to us. The way she walked, the way she smiled—she was effortlessly sexy in a way I could never dream to be.
And her eyes were on Lexar. Her hand was on his shoulder, her fingers touching his neck. “Are you going to let her talk to your girlfriend like that, Lex?”
Fuck. Me.
