Shock colored Austin’s face before he masked it. “If you don’t love yourself, how can anyone else? Let’s start there.”
I straightened my spine. He was right. I was a freaking queen; it was dang time I started acting like one. Love myself. Hey, yeah, I was going to get that embroidered on every pillow I had back in my chamber. I would love the hey out of myself.
I opened the box’s latch. A transparent ball lay before me. Half of it was tinged black and the other half white, and yet neither of the colors mixed together.
“It’s beautiful.” A thought occurred to me. “I won’t get to keep these clothes. Could you let me borrow your T-shirt and turn your back for a second?”
He mumbled something about a modest demon, and how he had officially heard it all now. I wasn’t paying attention. I was too busy staring at my beautiful shell. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Austin folding his shirt and laying it at my feet. I had a brief moment to take in his muscular form before he turned his back on me. Just as well. I didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole. But if I did, I would have noticed he didn’t have an inch of fat on him. Or how his muscles rippled when he placed the cloth at my feet. Or how blond hair trailed happily from his lower stomach to below his jean’s line. But good for me, I didn’t notice any of that.
I closed my eyes and concentrated on what was truly important—leaving the human body I had taken over months ago. I sighed like a weight had been lifted off of me when Becky collapsed to the ground. I should feel sorry for her, but the truth was she’d been evil before addiction ruled her life, and she’d hurt her kids. They were honestly better off without her. Once I was out of her body, the multi-colored ball I held in my hands rammed into me, pouring over me like water down a windowpane. The box hit the ground as energy flowed through me, and all traces of exhaustion washed away. This was the best I had felt in years. For the first time in a long time, I felt as if every molecule in me danced with pleasure while my shell and soul merged together in unity. My body arched as my chest tightened, as if it was sewing itself together. Minutes went by before the transition was complete. I stretched long and hard, reveling in my body before I put on Austin’s shirt. While his back was still to me, I took a quick second to bury my nose in the soft cotton, letting his scent wash over me. Letting the hem drop, I frowned as I saw his shirt almost came to my knees. I was sort of hoping I would be a bit taller.
“Done yet?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. You can turn around now.” I looked over at Austin, who stood with his mouth open. He stumbled back, as if he had been sucker punched. Both hands interlaced behind his head, causing his six-pack to ripple as he looked up at the ceiling.
“No freaking way. Come on. Seriously?”
I watched in amazement/horror as he had a whole conversation with himself. He paced back and forth. Every once in a while he would cast a glance my way. I could hear him silently cursing Ariana. He said something about wayward plans and dancing? I arched an eyebrow, waiting for the rant to be over. Then he said that word again but it was Dansby. He stopped pulling on his hair. His face contorted with rage before his eyes caught mine again. Then his expression changed to … disgust?
What was I missing? This couldn’t be good. Oh no. I patted my face. “What? What’s wrong?”
He cleared his throat. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“Am I hideous?”
“Huh? What?”
I pointed to my face.
“Your looks? You're worried about your looks?”
Uh. Kind of. Especially after that weirded out display he just put on. I rested my hands on my hips and just stared at him.
He finally answered me. “No. You might be vain but you’re not hideous. Mary is going to flip.”
I pumped a fist into the air. “So I’m smoking hot?” As he tried to give a casual shrug, failing miserably, I laughed.
I needed to see what he was seeing. I felt my cheeks for dimples and came up empty handed. Dang, I always wanted those, but at least this time around I had boobs. Beggars couldn’t be choosers. We needed to backtrack our way through the maze. Since our mission was completed, all the connecting doors should be open, and as soon as we were close to the first golden door, I could teleport us to back to my chamber. Austin mumbled to himself again. Then two random thoughts hit me at once. First, there had been only eleven steps in retrieving my shell. That seemed way too easy, and second, Austin had called his girlfriend Mary instead of Sarah. Foxing hilarious if I did say so myself.
Chapter Nine
Before we could start walking towards the golden door and our freedom, the cavern walls started to shake. If the walls collapsed and I had to dig us out of here, I was going to be super upset. Then I realized whatever was about to happen to us was step twelve, and it was meant as a fail-safe to make sure that if I somehow managed to retrieve my shell, I didn’t survive with it. The cavern ceiling crumbled above our heads, and our only exit quickly became blocked with huge boulders. The walls on either side of us were slowly closing in, as spikes jutted through the cavern floor.
As I dodged fallen rocks and spikes, I said, “Mr. ‘this will be a piece of cake,’ what’s your plan now?”
The cavern wall behind where my shell had been disappeared, and there was nothing but blackness as far as the eye could see. A boulder fell from the ceiling, and unfortunately I couldn’t dodge it in time without impaling myself on a spike. The impact from the rock hit the side of my head and shoulder causing my knees to buckle. Strong arms scooped me up before my knees hit the ground. Blood dripped down my face and ran into my eye making everything blurry.
“We have to jump into the darkness,” he said, just as another rock fell from the ceiling, barely missing us.
“Keep in mind my uncle designed this so you can bet he wanted us to jump.”
He leaped over spikes and dodged the falling rocks. “We don’t have a choice. We jump, or we become buried under the rocks, and before you make a decision, those spikes are coated with some form of magic even I do not recognize.” I glanced at the spikes glistening with liquid. “We have to jump.”
I tried to slide away from him, so I could stand on my own two feet, but his arms tightened around me. “No, Queen. We’re in this together and if I jump, you jump.”
He never took his eyes off of me as he flung us into nothingness. Things, or perhaps beings, snatched at my arms and legs as we continued to fall. I turned my head into Austin’s warm, protective chest to keep my face from being clawed. Screams and shrills became louder as we continued our descent into the pits of the underworld.
In a moment of clarity, I knew where we were. The underbelly of the underworld, and this wasn’t my domain. Underneath all twelve levels was where all souls went when their time had expired on earth. The only being who was allowed in the underbelly was Death himself, and even that arrogant ash didn’t frequent these parts.
We finally landed with a thud. Souls flew past us at unimaginable speeds. As they lashed out at us, I tried not to cower with fear, as Austin stood and helped me to my feet. His hand gripped my forearm.
“I have a feeling I know exactly where we are.” He shook his head. “I can’t teleport. I wonder if I’ll be able to use any powers?”
“No, you won’t and neither will I. Perhaps you could have prepared for this if you would have read the book, but no, your cockiness has landed us right in the middle of irate souls who will probably rip our flesh from our bones thousands of times before we figure a way out of this mess.”
A soul came too close, taking a hunk of flesh out of Austin’s cheek. His jaw clenched in pain, but that was the only hint he gave it hurt. Blood dripped down his jaw and onto his bare chest. He jerked my arm to the ground, and we crouched just in time to avoid an angry soul.
“Right now is not the time to get in a discussion. We need to move from here. Focus. Souls, what do they hate? Water and light. We move until we find either one of those.”
“Guess what
demons hate? Also, water.”
“You’ll get over it.”
He pulled me to my feet, and we started to jog over the thick dirt. The shrieks grew louder. A creepy iron gate was before us. He began to pull me through, but I jerked out of his grasp as a wave of despair and loneliness hit me so hard it stole my breath. Whatever was past the gate, I wanted nothing of it.
“Carmen, we don’t have time for this.”
“But don’t you feel it?”
He gave a nod. “Yes, but every soul is now aware intruders are here. Look behind you.”
Thousands of souls swirled around one another like hornets, forming a black ball above us. We would be consumed by them in less than thirty seconds. Austin extended a hand, and after one more glance at the screeching souls, I placed my hand in his. He tugged me past the gate just in time. The wall of souls hit an imaginary barrier, blocking them from following us. Their screams over their lost victory made me shudder.
An overwhelming sense of grief and anger pulled at me as I glanced up at Austin. “Well, we’ve avoided being ripped to shreds, but I can honestly say it might’ve been a better choice.”
The soil we were on seemed isolated and quiet, but one look at his face, and I knew he was being slapped with emotions as well. Within a blink of an eye, a teenage boy stood in front of me. I immediately recognized him. He was from a Louisiana werewolf pack. When I was nine years old, my father had claimed me weak and soft. He and his comrades took me to Louisiana to show me what happens to the weak. They’d had no plan in mind, but when my father found the young werewolf too far away from his pack, he’d quickly come up with a sickening idea. They’d tortured that boy while the crickets chirped in the bayou. He’d pleaded and begged for his life as they laughed. When his soft brown eyes had met mine with a plea for help I couldn’t give him, I’d humiliated my father even more by retching in the underbrush. Now, that boy stood in front of me with accusation in his eyes.
Chapter Ten
Austin steered me around the boy. “He’s not real. Keep your feet moving.”
I followed behind Austin, as the boy trailed behind me. His anger washed over me. Finally, I turned around. “I’m sorry.”
He mouthed the words, “Are you?”
“Yes, yes, I am. I was nine. Nine. They were the most powerful demons in the world. What could I have done but join you in death?” My voice cracked. “I was a child.”
Austin gripped my arm. “Shh. You’re okay. There is no reasoning with these beings. They are not who they once were. We cannot talk to all of them without losing our minds. Keep moving.”
All of what beings? My eyes whipped off of the boy’s face to take a look around. We were surrounded by souls. Some I recognized, others I did not.
“Who are all of these souls?”
“I’m assuming,” Austin said, steering us around a woman in her early thirties who glared at him while she mouthed words we could not hear, “they are all people we have ended or have witnessed their death firsthand.”
“Why are they so real? Why are they not like the souls who chased us?”
“Again just an assumption, but I believe these souls died in violence. It seems like they are locked into this state. Perhaps our minds brought them here. I’m not sure.”
After I recognized a young witch who had tried to take my life and ultimately it had cost her hers as she’d died at the end of my blade, I decided to keep my head down and let Austin lead me through wherever we were. “Who was that woman back there?”
“When I had just turned eighteen, I was approached by that woman. She wanted me to join her against the Lux. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. She could tell I was powerful, and if I refused to join her, she could not allow me to join forces with the Lux, so she followed me one night. She tried to run me off the road, and instead I ran her off the road. She didn’t survive.”
I did a quick scan of the people crowding in on us. Yes, I knew half, but the other souls must be what haunted him at night. Austin acted as if they meant nothing to him, but I could tell he was just as affected. He was just better at hiding it. For both of us to be so young, there was a lot of dead bodies left in our wake. Remorse and grief made my steps heavier and heavier, as we headed away from the souls trailing in an angry mob behind us.
Austin gave my hand a tug. “What’s done is done. If you allow their emotions to assault you, then you might as well lay down and give up. Keep moving.”
“How are you doing it?”
“I have never taken a life when it wasn’t self-defense. Yes, I have been forced to kill, and somewhere along the way, I have grown good at it. But when a life is lost, it is just that. A loss for everyone. I regret their death, but I don’t regret surviving.”
I nodded. “I’ve never attacked first, either.”
His eyes darted to mine in shock. It was clear he didn’t believe my words but they were true. I had never drawn first blood. It was pointless to try and convince him. It was clear what he thought of demons, and after all that’s exactly what I was. Instead, I focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
I tried to shake off the feelings of despair, but the cries and resentment kept hitting me with every step I took. It felt as if days had gone by, and just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, we had reached an exit gate. A demon’s worst nightmare lay in front of me. A girl just couldn’t catch a break.
Chapter Eleven
Dingy water flowed north to south.
“Tell me no.”
“We have to. The banks of the river will be littered with souls that literally want a piece of our flesh.”
I looked at his face that was still raw. If he had healing powers, it was evident they would be of no use to him here. We were at the mouth of the river, and it seemed if we planned on escaping the underworld, we would need to swim against the current.
“Demons hate water.”
He gave a small smile. “Yeah, I know. But if we want out of here, we’ve got to get a move on it.”
Finding my courage, I jumped into the murky river first. It was icy cold. Just another thing demons hated. Austin’s T-shirt billowed around my legs, making it hard for me to swim. Floating in the water, I knotted the ends of his shirt around my waist. The water was dark. I couldn’t see my legs, so I felt confident that neither could Austin. I began to relax and was startled to realize I didn’t hate treading water. In fact once I figured out which way to move my arms and legs, I found myself enjoying the feel of the water sliding over me. Austin stood on the bank with a look of puzzlement on his face.
“You don’t hate the water?”
“I’m just as confused as you, bud.” With little grace, I cut through the water to the edge of the bank. “And look at me, hotcakes. Swimming and shirt.” I groaned. “The only thing that would make this experience better is if I could legit cuss.”
Austin mumbled under his breath as he kicked off his shoes and stripped out of his jeans. I turned my head, but not before I caught a glimpse of muscular thighs pushing off the bank to dive in the frigid water. Kicking with those sturdy, powerful legs, he swam past me. With one last sigh, I swam after him. Hours passed before we took a break. Austin grabbed hold of a root jutting out of the bank. Snagging me by the waist, he held us anchored there for enough time for me to realize I was exhausted and cold. My teeth chattered, and just before I pleaded with him to allow us to crawl up the bank and take a quick nap, he was barking orders.
“Break’s over. Swim like your life depends on it.”
So we did. I lost all track of time. After several breaks and hours later, we reached the mouth of the river. I unknotted Austin’s shirt, so it would fully cover me before I exited the water. My legs felt rubbery as I climbed the bank. Austin stood in front of me, shameless in nothing but a pair of skin-tight, black boxers, and honestly with a body like that, why would he have any shame? His hands were on his hips, as he studied our surroundings. He acted as if we had just gone for a fun dip in a
pool.
Meanwhile, my wet hair hung about my shoulders in clumps, and I was freaking exhausted. At this point, I would willingly battle some angry souls before I got back in the dirty, cold water.
I followed the barefoot Austin as he made his way up to a narrow trail. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I knew it was enough for my thick hair to completely dry. Austin’s shirt clung to me with sweat. My feet were cut open from all the sharp rocks I trod upon. At first I’d tried to avoid them, but somewhere along the way, I stopped caring. Austin came to a stop in what I had hoped was to take a break, but then my senses became aware. In front of us was a massive rock wall with a gigantic stone at the base. What was behind that stone had me grinning from ear to ear.
He grabbed a hold of the stone and pushed. His back muscles strained, as the stone finally began to move. To be so strong without his powers was amazing. He moved the stone eight inches, but there was still no way for him to fit through it. The boulder hit a crevice in the wall and wouldn’t budge any farther.
My powers were still not accessible, but I knew home when I smelled it. Beyond that boulder was level six of the underworld.
I hurried past Austin. “I think I can squeeze through.”
“Yeah, but I can’t.”
Turning my face to the side, I narrowly made it through the opening. My powers once again came alive. I flashed a smile as I said, “Stick your arm through the opening.”
Once his muscular arm crossed into my domain, I clasped onto it and teleported us both back into my chambers. I squealed with laughter as I spun in circles.
“We did it! I have my shell. No more souls are chasing us. We did it. We really did.” I stopped spinning once I realized Austin wasn’t sharing in my excitement.
“You could have left me,” he said in astonishment.
“Um, yeah, but I didn’t and we’re out.” He crossed his arms over his muscular chest, as his blue eyes squinted at me. Was he angry? “You’re right. I could have, and I probably should have, but you know what they say about hindsight being twenty-twenty, and you should have taken the time to read the stupid book. I guess we both screwed up.”
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