by Riley Hunt
“No,” she said.
“I might know a Daemon who can get us in.” I hummed in delight while my mind raced with hundreds of thoughts. “He owes me a favor.”
“I will not work with another Daemon,” she hissed. I’d thought her prejudices of Helius were fading away after spending so much time with me. I was wrong.
“Fine. We’ll get by ourselves. But how are we going to get proof?”
“We can save it on file. Every Reaper needs a disk to report to the Angels.” Ana pulled a small device that looked like little more than a pebble out of her pocket.
“Who knew that you Reapers were so handy?” I was impressed. “This will make our little project so much easier.”
Hesitation brewed across Ana’s face, and she bit down on her lower lip. Her tell. I wondered if I should inform the Angel of Death that I could easily read her thoughts. Expect for that kissing part. “But I still don’t think that this is a good idea.”
“Why not? We’re both citizens of these realms. We have the right to know what’s happening in our world.”
“What are you talking about? No one owes us anything. That sounds like a bunch of entitled millennial mumbo jumbo.”
“I’ve seen Reavers lose their arms, legs, and even peckers to that damn Adam. You think that this is normal?” I shook my head. “I know I live in a bad place, but no one should ever be condemned to live without a pecker. Not even the damned.”
“Something is wrong, and no one is talking about it except for the folks in Helius. Isn’t that strange?” she asked. “Or is it because the Angels don’t give a flying fuck what happens to anyone in the bad place anymore?”
“Lucifer is gone. He probably isn’t coming back, and maybe there’s a reason for that.” I shrugged; the pieces of this puzzle didn’t make any sense. “I mean, the all-powerful Fallen Angel ruled a whole realm, and he ditched the gig? That is suspicious.”
Ana snapped her fingers. “What if he found out that there was something wrong with Adam and that’s why he disappeared? It’s possible that he didn’t want to deal with the problem any longer.”
“See? I told you there was something going on. Between your brains and my scumbag charm, we can get to the bottom of this and see if these Angels fucks are messing around.”
“I have a bit of time to spare before I have to make my usual rounds and they notice that I’m missing. We need to do this fast and efficiently, no kissing or fucking around.” Ana tapped the side of her cheek with her finger. This was bothering her just as much as me. “I shouldn’t care about this.”
“But you do.”
She sighed. “I guess I do, but I don’t want to get punished.”
“You won’t. I solemnly swear that there will be no kissing or any fuckery whatsoever. Scout’s honor.” I held up three fingers in the air and saluted.
“Were you even in the Scouts?” Her eyebrows furrowed in disapproval.
“Your guess is as good as mine.” I shrugged.
“That’s strange. You should know at least the basics—your name, your family, and what kind of person you were. How can you not remember?” She paced back and forth.
“One day, I think I’ll find out, but for now, I’m just happy being good ol’ me.”
Ana held out a hand, which I took, and with that—out of nowhere and quicker than I expected—appeared a worn out wooden red door. I knew that it would lead us to where we needed to go from the vile scent of sulfur and shit. Adam was cooperating, at least for now. I suspected that he didn’t get too many Reapers attempting to portal into the middle of Helius.
“Neat trick. Have you ever thought about moving to Earth and working at kids’ parties? I bet they would love that.”
“Do you ever stop talking?”
“Nope.”
Ana scowled and yanked me through the portal. It was unlike any I had ever been in.
On the other side of the door was an overly bright blue-lighted hallway with another stupid-looking door at the end. The light seemed to move in erratic waves.
It felt as though I were falling, but that couldn’t be possible. My legs were on solid ground. I had to resist the urge to flail, and Ana must’ve sensed my unease.
Chapter Nine
Ana
Inhaling a deep breath to avoid the onslaught of rotting eggs and heat, I paused, not yet opening the entrance to Helius. Bile threaten to erupt out of my mouth as I clamped my lips tight and swallowed.
Vex hunched over next to me. He was still recuperating from the portal, something that didn’t faze me after a millennium of using them. It made me wonder if Helius portals were different. They had to be, or he wouldn’t be bent over. Or maybe they didn’t have portals like Reapers did? Spending so much time with Vex made me realize how little I knew about life in Hell, and everything the Angels told us about the bad place seemed to be wrong. The wide-eyed expression made his eyes glow larger than life, and the slight grimace of his sensual lips, lips that had almost been on mine just moments before…
A shiver shot up my spine, not from the cold but from something I wasn’t used to feeling and definitely didn’t welcome in this situation. That almost lip-smack made me think about what it would be like to have him kiss me. I’d never been with anything from Helius before. It was something that wasn’t even a slight blip on my radar before meeting Vex and his attempt at sticking his tongue down my throat. What if I had let him?
I groaned, trying to burn the thoughts out of my head. Maybe walking through the fires of Helius would help.
“You doin’ alright?” Vex asked as we stood awkwardly in front of the door. Warmth radiated from the wood, and the white peeling paint crumbled in areas. It was as if the door itself knew where it led to, a place dark and hot.
“I’ll be okay once this shit show is over.”
Vex
I had to take a moment to orient myself. My head was spinning in circles and slimy bile coated the back of my throat. I placed my hands on the curves of my hips, hunched down, and took deep breaths in.
The portal didn’t bring us right into the main square, which I supposed was a good thing. I, for one, didn’t want to alert the Lords that there was a Reaper hanging about. I’m sure they would try to use the fact that she was here to their advantage. Plus, my job for Davos was finished and I would have to run after this, but I had the strange feeling that this was important.
A looming mountain range stood behind us, and below that was the Styx. I hate seeing the river and the never-ending blood and drowning souls reaching for the sky. I avoided looking that way and continued to focus on the pebbles and crawling insects on the ground. But at least we had a forest full of dead trees to block the view of any on looking Daemons.
“Where are we?” I rolled my head around and stood up straight. I didn’t recognize anything.
Ana bit down on her bottom lip. “I have no idea. How the hell are we going to get around? Can you create a portal?”
I shook my head. “Us unblessed folk need to rely on public transport.”
“There’s a bus here?”
“Nope, something even better. A train—and it always runs on time.” After my stomach and nerves settled down, I had a pretty good idea where we had to go. “But let’s see if you can keep up with me.”
“Is that a challenge?” Ana’s eyebrow sparked up. “You look like you’ll vomit soon. You’re in no shape to keep up with me.”
“Pfft,” I scoffed. “We’ll see about that. I won’t let some Reaper beat me.”
I lunged into the ashen forest, dodging the burning embers on the ground and hopping over rocks and fallen dead trees. But Ana was right. Within a few seconds, she overtook my lead position as she leaped over the obstacles without even having to look. I hated to admit it, but that last portal made my stomach feel as though it were full of rocks. At least in Helius, it was easy enough to find the train, since there were stations all around the realm. It seemed like Lucifer didn’t want anyone to get lost in this
dead forest for all eternity. That was strange. Some of his decisions about the realm were human-like, almost bordering on kind, but no one really talked about his humanity.
Once we found our way out of the forest, the train station sat in the middle of a barren field that looked as though dozens of bombs had gone off. A layer of gray ash covered the ground, and the remaining plants drooped without the slightest hint of life.
We were lucky that no one was around, except for a group of vultures that circled overhead and a couple of rotten Daemon corpses laid to waste. It wasn’t long before the ground started to shake and a deafening whistle blasted through the air. A black steel train burst out of the forest as gloomy smog filled the sky.
This train looked as though it had been ripped out of the 1900s with wooden passenger cars hauled by a steam engine. The only difference was that I didn’t think the Earth trains had bloodied skulls roped onto the pony truck. Or the strange red goo in the tender which wasn’t even close to looking like coal. A Daemon covered in the red substance stood in the middle of the tender as he ladled sludge into the chute. I pitied the poor sack and wondered who’d offered him this dazzling career.
“All aboard!” someone called out from the train.
It was my turn to grab Ana and guide her onto the nearest passenger cart. We made it just in time as the train chugged forward, jerking us around like a bunch of rag dolls. I pushed a hand against the wooden siding and steadied myself, regaining the balance that the train stole. Ana stood her ground and didn’t let the sudden movement unbalance her.
“We should find somewhere to sit.”
I continued down the aisle and opened the door to the first cabin. In the room was a Daemon the size of a boulder. He even had a similar shape. His skin was gray and cracked, as if he’d just spent a long-ass time in the desert. There wasn’t even a tuft of hair covering a single part of his skin.
The Daemon looked up from his newspaper. “Can I help you?”
“No, sorry to intrude. We’re just looking for a cabin.”
“The next one over should be free. There weren’t many passengers who got on.” He went back to his reading.
“Thank you.” I nodded in appreciation and shut the door.
Ana whispered into my ear, “Since when are Daemons polite?”
“How many Angels do you know who are polite?” I retorted as I arched my eyebrow.
She thought about it for a moment. “Okay, fair enough. Daemons aren’t all that bad.”
“Don’t twist my words. There are some Daemons who are disgusting and pieces of flaming shit, but the majority are everyday people just trying to survive the cards dealt to them in their past life.”
We finally found an empty cabin, and Ana flopped down on the crushed red velvet seat.
Before I joined her, there was a tapping noise from our cabin window. The door slid open.
“Can I see your tickets, please?” A robust man dressed in a red and black bell boy uniform reached out his hand. He had on a belt that held a shiny silver ticket puncher.
“We don’t have any tickets,” Ana said.
The man’s bushy black eyebrows furrowed. “Now, that’s going to be a problem. Do you have any coins?”
She shook her head.
“We don’t need them.” I rolled up my sleeve until I bundled the cloth over my elbow. I took a deep breath and summoned the mark Davos had placed on me. My skin burned, and the dark red etches of his fingers appeared.
This seemed to satisfy the man, and he went on with his business down the hallway. I rolled my shirt back down.
“What is that? It looks like it hurts like hell.”
“Uhh, it’s nothing. Don’t even worry about it.” I shrugged it off, hoping that she would just leave the topic alone.
“We didn’t come this far to lie to each other. You promised no fuckery.”
“You don’t have to bust my balls or anything.”
The corners of Ana’s mouth curled into a smirk. “Well, maybe try the truth the first time. Then I wouldn’t have to bust your apparent balls. Do Daemons even have balls?”
“It’s a mark from one of the thirteen Lords, Davos.”
“Do you work for him?”
“Not usually, but I took a job, and that’s how I met you, my witty, kind of a turd companion.”
“Did you just call me a turd? That’s real mature of you. So, what was the job? Piss off the first Reaper you find?”
“I was supposed to grab a soul or two from the middle place, but then you and I got a little distracted.”
“What? You can’t do that. Those souls might not be destined for Helius.”
“Davos is falling apart, and he needs them for something.”
“He can’t fall apart. I mean, not completely, right? We’re all technically immortal,” Ana reasoned.
“I don’t know what to tell you, but the man is vain as fuck. I’m pretty sure that Pride was made one of the Seven Deadly Sins because of him.”
“I can’t believe you were going to steal some souls.” She shook her head and turned away from me.
“Well, as you know, I didn’t do it and chose a different route, to save all the realms. Sounds pretty fucking heroic, if you ask me.” I beamed with smugness, even though she wasn’t looking at me.
“But you were going to.”
I placed a finger in the air. “But I didn’t.”
She scoffed and whispered, “You’re such an idiot.”
Ana
We sat there in the cramped cabin across from one another, my eyes glued to the window as the train passed through the ashen forest. Vex sat across from me, bored at the landscape. It wasn’t pretty, but then Helius wasn’t meant to be anything but awful. Everything looked normal, like you would see if you traveled through time. The outskirts of Helius, where we had boarded the train, was the countryside, with burning and smoldering grass and leaves. Every once in a while, as if by a breeze, smoke would drift in various areas.
There wasn’t any fire from what I could see, just barren wasteland. Then a desert shifted into view, the entire landscape changing almost immediately, the sun burning down from above, the air dry and hotter if that were even possible. The sulfur smell was ebbing, either because I was used to it or because it was only around the entrance. It explained why Vex didn’t reek.
I glanced over at Vex. His eyes were on me, and our looks connected.
His lips stretched in a lazy grin. “What devious little thoughts are brewing in that Reaper head of yours?”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, still holding my gaze. The intimacy of such a look made me uncomfortable. I turned away, afraid that his ever chartreuse orbs would trap me there forever.
“I was thinking that I’ve never heard of the Angel Vex, fallen or otherwise.”
“So, what? I’ve never heard of you before.” He shrugged, then leaned back in the wooden seat, appearing to be comfortable on the purposely uncomfortable chairs. “Not that I know any other Angels.”
“I mean, everything about you is… odd.” And ever since the moment I’d met him, I’d tried to figure him out. He wasn’t an Angel, Soul, or Daemon. So what was he? If only the Angels weren’t so particular with the rules, I would’ve asked one of them. Or maybe once our whole trip was done, I could find his death records in the Reaper headquarters.
“And?” A hint of annoyance flickered across his face.
“It’s a little suspicious… that’s all.” I tried to keep my voice as innocent as possible.
“What are you trying to say? That I don’t belong? I’m a freak? An abomination? I have no place in any of the realms?” His voice sounded sour, and I thought I might have poked a nerve. “I’ve said these things to myself a hundred times before.”
“I was just trying to make sense of everything.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s how all the realms work. There is always a reason for…”
“No, everything isn’t al
ways so cut and dry. Okay? We need to drop this. I mean, there’s no point in trying to guess why am I the way that I am.” His dark eyebrows seemed to furrow from my curiosity.
“Fine,” I muttered as I turned back to the window, deciding that distance between us was a safer venture for now. I watched the shifting of the landscape and the darkening of the sky. The heat had increased just a few degrees. Angels didn’t sweat, but in extreme conditions, we were known to glisten just somewhat, and I felt the moist residue begin to form on my skin. One quick glance at Vex revealed that he wasn’t even fazed.
“How hot does it get as you go closer to the center?” I was starting to worry. Would I… could I burn to death? I thought about a book I had read that talked of the core of Earth and how it was 10,800° Fahrenheit. Reapers weren’t keen on testing the limits of our so-called immortality, but I wondered… could I survive? Angels only told us of a few God-touched weapons that could destroy a Reaper—and, of course, they could too. But no one was brave enough to test that theory out.
“Hot, but you’ll live. You lasted this long in Helius.” He chuckled, the action changing his entire demeanor, as if he had been faking his relaxation. Now, whatever tension he had held onto was seeping from the taut muscles.
“Great.” I groaned. That was code for you’re going to damn near burn to death or wish you had. “Where is Adam located?”
“Somewhere close to the center. But it’s going to take a while to get there.” Mountains, deserted towns and wastelands flashed past the windows. But for some reason, I was eager. This was the first time in forever that I was doing something that wasn’t reaping. But I wouldn’t tell Vex about my thoughts. He would get all cocky about it. After at least thirty minutes, the sound of wheels and clanking came from the hallway. A plump woman dressed in a uniform that was muddied head to toe stuck her face inside the room. Half of her face was fire touched with sores that oozed green goop.
