Descent

by Tara Fuller

  Tears streamed down her cheeks. No. Not tears. Blood. Her body convulsed, and the souls beneath us began to clamor for what she had to offer. Hands clawed and grabbed for her, pulling up over the edge. I snapped out of my stupor and lunged for her.

  “Gwen!”

  I was too late. She slipped between my fingers, and greedy gray hands dragged her over the edge. Pure terror gripped me by the throat, freezing me into place. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see anything but her disappearing. My not stopping it. My not saving her. Her needing me and my failing her. Oh, Jesus…no. Not Gwen. Not this…

  Before I could form a coherent plan, I gripped the side of the boat and dived into the inky black water. The sudden temperature change from blistering to freezing stole my breath. I sucked in a breath, and with it came a mouth full of fetid water.

  All around me bodies thrashed and kicked, drowning over and over again. I grabbed an arm and used it as leverage to push myself to the surface. I gasped when I broke through, coughing and choking on the water in my lungs, then inhaled a deep gulp of air and dived back down.

  Shoving through the layers of souls, I swam down, down until I spotted the flickering flame of Gwen’s hair. It was a beacon in the darkness, drawing me in. The fact that I’d found her at all was a miracle. It would have taken an army to stop me from getting to her. I pulled my scythe from my belt. Even under water, it smoked, the swirling plume of black snaking its way through the bodies toward the sky.

  I cut my way through the crowd, staining the water with blood. It was brutal, but I didn’t care. Not when their hands were pulling her deeper, shoving, clawing to get every last ounce of the light that poured through her. When I got close enough, I reached through the only opening I saw, grabbed her arm, and kicked for the surface. My lungs burned. My muscles ached. What I would have given to be numb again, to leave behind this body and the foolish addiction to the girl in my arms.

  I broke the surface next to the boat and heaved Gwen up over the side before pulling myself in after her. Souls screamed beneath us. The currents swirled, rocking the tiny boat and tossing it on a restless sea.

  I crawled across the deck to Gwen. She was wet and limp and pale. She wasn’t breathing. I knew she’d reanimate. You always did, just in time for another round of torture, but still fear slammed into me, jolting me into motion.

  I pulled her into my lap, away from the edge, and smoothed my thumbs over her cheeks. Bloody tears smeared across her soft, flawless skin.

  “Wake up, Red,” I urged, tapping the side of her face. “I know how much you enjoy torturing me, and I promise later you can do it all you want. But right now, I need you to wake up. Wake up!”

  Her eyelids fluttered before she choked on a cough. I jerked her forward and patted her back, watching her heave, spitting water over the deck. Once her lungs were clear, a sob ripped free of her throat and she shook with the force of it. When she clutched her heart, some rusty, unused part of my chest ground into motion, twisting until I couldn’t breathe.

  I didn’t want to lose her. Not like this.

  “Gwen…” I pulled her into my arms, not knowing what else to do. I’d never held anyone other than my little sisters, but having Gwen with me in that moment felt as necessary as breathing. “What the hell were you trying to do back there? Do you have any idea—”

  “Too much,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to take so much.”

  She’d taken their sadness and given them her joy. Souls that had done nothing to deserve it and had offered her nothing but torment in return. And those greedy bastards had nearly sucked her dry. I closed my eyes, fighting the urge to dive back into the water to give them a lesson in what torture really was. She gripped my T-shirt in her fists and buried her face against my neck. Her tears turned to steam against my skin. I knew I was the one burning her, but it was only fair. She was the one branding me. Her lips brushed my cheek, leaving a bittersweet imprint. I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth, forcing myself not to hold her too tight.

  “Red…I have to let you go. I’m burning you,” I said, hating the constant heat of Hell that radiated from my skin.

  The boat rocked, the souls around us becoming stronger with the relief she’d given them. I pulled my T-shirt up and wiped the blood and tears from Gwen’s face. She stared back at me blankly. I was certain if you looked hard enough you’d be able to see the heavens hidden in those eyes. She’d stopped crying, but the effects of what she’d endured still lingered. I gave in and did the one thing I’d been thinking about since I’d laid eyes on her. I smoothed the stray hair back from her face.

  It felt like silk.

  I knew it would feel like silk.

  My throat worked with an unfamiliar emotion, thick and achy. I swallowed the feeling down and picked the paddle back up.

  “I have to get us out of here,” I said. “Don’t go near the edge again, okay?”

  She didn’t answer, but I took the slight bob of her head to mean she understood. I dug into the sea of bodies, working as hard and fast as I could to get us to dry ground. What lay ahead wasn’t going to be any better, but once we reached the other side, the city wouldn’t be far off.

  “Easton?” Her voice cracked, and when I turned back to her, her knees were drawn up to her chest, her eyes red and puffy.

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank you.”

  I turned back to the water, focusing on the shore growing closer with each paddle. “Thank me when we make it out of here in one piece.”

  Chapter 13

  Gwen

  I woke to the sound of thunder. Heat blanketed me almost to the point of pain, but even with my skin screaming, I didn’t want relief. Instead I burrowed further into it, wanting it to consume me.

  “Hey.” It was Easton who pulled me into consciousness. “You’re awake. I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to come back to me.”

  He sounded hoarse, and I detected a note of relief in his voice. When I tried to sit up, he adjusted in the cramped space we were in to give me room.

  “Where are we?” I patted the rough walls around me.

  “A hollowed-out tree,” he said. “I had to get us somewhere safe before the rain started up.”

  “You carried me?” I turned my head and gasped when I realized just how close we were. His breath fanned across my lips and our noses bumped together. My face felt hot, my stomach fluttery and strange. I backed up a couple of inches to give him some space, and Easton’s smoldering gaze dropped to my mouth.

  “You passed out by the time I got us to shore. It wasn’t safe to stay there. You caused quite a frenzy.”

  “You saved me,” I said, unable to distract myself from the way he was looking at my mouth, the riot of strange sensations it stirred up inside me.

  “I’ll always save you, Gwen,” he said, without hesitation. “As long as I have you, I mean.”

  He cleared his throat and looked away, leaving me feeling slightly bereft without his violet gaze on me. I bit my lip and stared down at our knees, which were pressed together.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen,” I said. “You shouldn’t have had to put yourself in danger for me.”

  “Want to tell me why you did that?” He dug into a backpack wedged under our legs and handed me a metal canteen. I turned it over in my hands, not quite sure what to do with it.

  “I didn’t mean to,” I said, turning the metal container upside down, listening to the liquid swish around inside. “It started with just one. A woman. She was so sad, searching for her husband. I just wanted to give her a little peace.”

  Easton grabbed the canteen from me, twisted the lid open, and handed it back. “Well, you gave it to a lot more than just her. I thought I’d lost you. I’ve never seen anything like that. Didn’t even know it was possible. Not down here, anyway.”

  “There’s always the pull to fix them…the ones that are lost, hurting. It’s the same pull that drew me to Tyler,” I said, staring into the dark,
shuddering at the memory of a thousand souls, filling me up with their misery, draining me of my joy. “I’ve just never been around so many at once. I guess I got overwhelmed. And then they pulled me over and—”

  “And the rest is something I don’t care to revisit,” Easton interrupted, dropping his gaze.

  I tilted the canteen, trying to see inside.

  Easton raised a brow. “You do know what to do with that, don’t you?”

  I shook my head. I’d seen humans drink, but never had to do it myself. Though the dry, scorched feeling in my throat told me I probably needed it. I’d heard humans talk about feeling weak before, but I’d never known it until now. It was taking everything in me just to keep a firm grip on the canteen.

  “It’s water,” he said, scooting closer. He took it from me and placed the rim to my lips. “Open.”

  I parted my lips and he tipped the canteen up. Cool, crisp water flooded my mouth and I swallowed, closing my eyes and moaning at the decadent taste. It was amazing! The cool, foreign feeling rushed through me, making me feel alive and awake.

  “Easy.” Easton pulled it away. “You’ll make yourself sick.”

  He took a long pull himself, never taking his eyes off of me as he drank. I licked the last bit of moisture from my lips and looked away. When he looked at me like that, I felt like I was falling. God…if Sky could see me now. Wanting things I was never supposed to want. Wanting them with my father’s most feared Hell’s reaper. She’d be furious. Who was I kidding? Furious was putting it mildly.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “Sky.” My throat closed up around her name. As angry as she might be right now, she was still my Heavenly sister. Even if Father had put us together with the intent of her keeping me out of trouble, she was still my best friend. “I was just thinking about all of the ways she’s going to punish me when I get back.”

  He smirked. “The blonde, right?”

  “She’s my best friend.”

  He smiled and shook his head seeming far away. “Yeah…best friends can be a real pain in the ass. Though I have a feeling you’re the pain in the ass in this equation.”

  I laughed. “I wish I could say you were wrong. But you’re not. Sky’s perfect. She never makes a mistake. She’s not like me at all.”

  “Perfect is boring,” he said. “Trust me. She’d be lost without you around to keep her on her toes.”

  “You say that as if you know from experience.”

  He reached down and wrapped his hand around his blade, choosing to stare at his legs instead of me. “I used to have a pain in the ass of my own.”

  “Who?”

  A brittle branch broke off the tree, and we both looked out at the thin layer of sticks protecting us from the storm. I was finally starting to believe what Father had been telling me all along. Nowhere was safe in this place. At best, you could hope for a few inches of space between you and the danger, but it was never really gone. Easton scrubbed his fingers through his hair, pushing it back off his forehead.

  “Finn,” he said. “He might have pissed me off to no end. Made terrible decisions every chance he got…but that’s Finn. You can’t tell him anything. Hell, if he’d listened to me, he wouldn’t be happy right now. He’d just be another miserable dead guy. Just goes to show…he’s better off without me.”

  The air was dark between us, but it was thick with regret and pain. I swallowed and curled my reaching fingers back against my palm. He didn’t want my comfort. In fact, if I hadn’t coerced him into this, he wouldn’t want anything to do with me. I searched my mind, trying to think of a way to make him happy without touching him. A way to make him smile. Even if it was just for a moment. Humans managed to do it for one another every day and they didn’t have an ounce of the power I had. I chewed my bottom lip and peeked up at him.

  “Why did the skeleton cross the road?” I asked.

  Easton squinted at me “What?”

  “Why did the skeleton cross the road?”

  “Are you trying to tell me a joke right now?” He raised a brow. I sighed, and he held up his hands in surrender. “Fine. I give up. Why did the skeleton cross the road, Red?”

  “To get to the body shop on the other side.”

  His lips twitched as he sank back, resting against the bark, watching me. He lifted a finger and waved it at me. “Another.”

  “Okay…” I sifted through the endless supply of jokes I’d collected from humans over the years. Sky always thought they were stupid, but I liked them. How a few simple words could bring a laugh or smile where only tears existed before. I settled on one and looked up to find Easton watching me, a small grin on his face. The fact that I’d put that there with nothing more than the sound of my voice and a few lines I’d learned from a nine-year-old filled me with glee.

  “What kind of room does a ghost never need?”

  He shrugged.

  “A living room,” I said, smiling when a small chuckle slipped past his lips. A tiny flare of joy lit the space between us. I closed my eyes, basking in its warmth, feeling like I could breathe for the first time since we’d crash-landed through the portal and into this awful place.

  “Your jokes are terrible,” he finally said.

  I shrugged, resting my chin on my knees. “I like them.”

  “So do I,” he said. “But then again I’m kind of wired to enjoy terrible things. Well…usually, anyway.”

  I tilted my face to escape the way he was looking at me, unraveling me, burning me with his intense gaze.

  “We can go if you want. I don’t mind the rain,” I said. “I’ve always wondered what it would feel like against my skin.”

  He twisted the cap to the canteen, then reached out and moved aside the branches shielding us from the storm. Outside the sky was bloodred. The clouds looked angry and electric. Rain created a curtain making the world around us look blurry and gray. Souls wandered across the muddy field like zombies, aimless and wanting, crying out for God to save them.

  “Will they hurt us?” I asked.

  “No. But the rain will. It’s acid,” he said, watching a man fall to his knees. His skin sizzled under the relentless storm, and he cried out in pain. “And melting like a Popsicle on the Fourth of July wasn’t on my agenda for today.”

  Acid rain? Of course there was something as horrific as acid rain. This was Hell. And every bleeding, screaming corner of it told me I didn’t belong here.

  Between the skeletal treetops, gleaming metal buildings glinted in the distance. The roaring sounds of a city drifted in with the wind. I leaned forward to get a better look until Easton grabbed my arm to stop me from getting too close.

  “Is that…”

  He pulled me back against him and shoved the branches back into place to keep us hidden. “The City of Sin.”

  “And that’s where you think Tyler is?” I turned to face him and he winced, reaching down to adjust the blade at his hip.

  “I think so. We’ll know soon enough. I’ve got contacts in the city that can point us in the right direction. A soul like Tyler’s wouldn’t fall between the cracks. There’s bound to be talk. How close do you need to be for this bond thing to work?”

  “I don’t know. I always feel it to an extent.” I ran a finger across the smooth part of my wrist where I could feel the faint presence of Tyler beneath my skin. “It’s been getting stronger.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll get us close enough for it to work.”

  I nodded, and hope filled my eyes with strange moisture. I just prayed we found him before the demons burned away everything that made him the boy April loved. If I were ever going to fall, it would be for this, for not listening to Sky when I should have. For not letting go. I would never forgive myself if we didn’t save Tyler.

  Easton wiped a tear from my cheek. “I’m going to get you out of this. I promise.”

  “I’m not worried about me.”

  His jaw tensed as he searched my face. “I know you’re not.”
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br />   The air between us felt charged in a way that had nothing to do with the storm and everything to do with the fact that he was touching me. Easton’s free arm slid around my waist. The sensation of his fingers making contact with the sliver of bare skin there made me hot and quivery inside. His thumb lightly stroked my side, and my breath caught in my throat while his other hand lingered against my face.

  As always, his pain was a constant cloud around us, more potent in such close quarters. But hiding beneath the darkness was a flicker of light. A burning ember of…desire? Hope, maybe? I reached out and touched his chest, wanting a better look inside. He grabbed my wrist, but didn’t pull my hand away. Instead he moved it so my palm lay over his heart. It beat fast and erratic, saying things I could never imagine someone like him admitting out loud.

  “Your heart. It’s pounding,” I said, breathless and unsure of what was happening between us. “Are you afraid?”

  His hand tightened around mine. “Yes.”

  “Of what?”

  His thumb traced my bottom lip, and I closed my eyes, afraid to move. Afraid he might kiss me. Afraid he might not.

  “You, Red,” he whispered. “I’m afraid of you.”

  Chapter 14

  Easton

  The city was alive with sin. The iron streets were burnished black from flames. Dilapidated high-rises shadowed the streets, and screams rang out from broken windows ten stories high. It was a sick, twisted version of life on earth. A cold copy, just close enough to torture the souls with what they’d never see again.

  Out in the open, the streets were cluttered with demons looking for ways to inflict pain and souls looking for a way to outrun it. They never did, of course. If a soul ever found itself free this deep into Hell, it was only because the demons were in the mood for a little cat-and-mouse. Shoulders knocked into mine, and an occasional claw caught on my coat. There was no escaping the contact. I felt the crowd trying to pull Gwen and me apart, bodies working a wedge between us. I reached behind me to wrap Gwen’s hand in mine and pulled her closer. After our moment during the acid storm, I couldn’t seem to get her close enough. I told myself it was just self-preservation, the need to keep the boss’s daughter safe. But as her fingers laced through mine, I knew I was full of shit.