by Ciara Graves
“What?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Kexan, just tell me. Not in the mood for you to be all cryptic and weird, too.”
“Don’t punch me,” he grumbled. I promised not to, and he said, “It’s just that if you had your holy light, I think you and Mech would’ve had the best chance at making this work. You two are meant to be together, you know? It might’ve come more naturally for you.”
“I know,” I said, and he looked shocked that I hadn’t, in fact, punched him. “It’s a harsh reality, but I’ve been thinking the same thing.”
Mech probably had issues with the holy light because of his link to me. His hellfire would most likely be perfectly compatible with me, but there was no way to really know.
With the army of evil encamped, we’d gained a few precious days. With luck, it might be enough to make these shields work. If nothing else, it could give us an edge during the fight. Zeraxin proved he could cut off the demons’ hellfire, but he wasn’t able to do shit against holy light. Not yet, at least. If demons could tap into the light, they wouldn’t be powerless when the fight finally did arrive in Dakota.
“Keep trying if you want to,” I told Xavier and the others. “Don’t push yourselves too hard, though.”
“Uh, Lela?” Kexan patted my shoulder then turned me around. “Think we have trouble.”
Mech had only been gone a few hours. Was it too much to ask that nothing went wrong while he was gone? Tim, Helen, Freddie, and the rest of the scouts sprinted toward us. They were covered head to toe in mud, but there was no blood. I counted and was relieved to find all six scouts returning this time.
“Lela,” Tim gasped as he finally reached us. “Zeraxin and his army are gone.”
I blinked, not sure I heard him right. “What do you mean gone? As in they moved somewhere else?” How had we not seen it? I checked the map not too long ago, and the army had been sitting in the exact same spot.
“No, as in they’re gone. There are no tracks leading away from the camp,” Tim informed me. “It’s like they just up and disappeared. We didn’t check out the whole area, in case Zeraxin left some of his troops behind, but it looks deserted.”
It only took half a second for me to make up my mind. I hustled through the streets to the armory and grabbed my shotgun. Kexan, Tim, and several others were right behind me.
“What are you doing?” Kexan asked.
“Going to the encampment. If Zeraxin is missing, I want to know why and where he went. You coming with me or not?”
I waited for the argument he and Bobby had been using every time I tried to leave Dakota. Mech wouldn’t be happy. He wanted me kept safe, blah, blah blah. Instead, Kexan grabbed a rifle and ammo. Tim did the same as did the rest of the returned scouts. Xavier, Melinda, and finally Bobby found their way inside the armory. I waited outside for them to be ready and hoped what my gut was telling me was wrong.
“Lela? What’s going on?”
Nathaniel, with the aid of Harriet, came toward me. I knew he was recovering, but still, I scowled to see him out of bed. “Just doing some quick scouting. Nothing to worry about.”
“How about you do not lie to me? It’s about Hadariel, isn’t it?”
I screwed my mouth to the side then sighed. “No. It’s Zeraxin. His army is missing.”
“You think they’re coming here?”
“I don’t know, but we’re going out to look for them. You need to get your ass back in bed,” I said.
He pushed away from Harriet and headed for the armory.
I blocked him, shaking my head. “No, you’re in no condition to fight.”
“I’m not sitting around while you have all the fun.”
I shoved him back gently then grabbed his shoulders. “You need to rest and heal. You’ve done enough so far, trust me. If Zeraxin is coming here, I need everyone to be prepared. Do you want to help? See to the defenses.”
Kexan, Tim, and Bryan, who had snuck by me apparently, and all the others filed out of the armory. Several more angels had joined them. We were taking a decent number of fighters with us. Nathaniel gave in. “I can do that. Be careful, Lela.”
“Always.”
“And if Mech returns before you do? What do you want me to tell him?”
There was no more room for lying. I owed Mech that much. “Tell him the truth. We’ll be back as soon as we can. Just make sure everyone’s ready.”
I holstered the shotgun at my back and led the way to the gates of Dakota. Once we were outside, Kexan opened a portal that would take us close to where the encampment had been. As the last demon stepped through, the portal sealed behind him. I placed a finger to my lips to ensure everyone stayed quiet, then motioned for Tim to lead the way. Ten minutes later, he pulled up short and waved for me to come closer.
“See? They’re just gone.”
I stared through the blackened branches of the trees. The glade about a hundred yards away had tents and old bonfires, but there wasn’t a single enemy in sight. Quietly and with my shotgun at the ready, I left the cover of the trees and walked one cautious step at a time toward the camp. Kexan and Tim flanked me. The rest of our group spread out to form a line. Every few feet, I paused. No traps were sprung. No one was there to ambush us. The whole clearing was just quiet. Deathly quiet. When we reached the center and what appeared to be the largest fire pit, I stopped and took one more look around.
“Where the hell are they?” Bryan asked.
“That’s a damned good question.” There was no sign of them leaving this clearing. Kexan, standing a few feet away from me, held out his hand, eyes closed, and frowned. “You sense something?”
“It’s faint, but it’s here.”
The angels shifted uneasy as if they too were feeling a presence nearby that was invisible to the humans, and me. “What is it?” I asked.
Kexan’s eyes shot open, and he growled. “Rift.” He took off across the camp. I fell in line on his heels. We sprinted through the deserted camp and reached the outer edge when Kexan threw his arm out to stop me. “Wait.”
I saw nothing but deadwood ahead of us. “There’s nothing here.”
“That’s the trick.” He kicked a few rocks on the ground. They rolled a few inches then dropped into nothingness. “At least none of the scouts were close enough to fall in.”
The magic camouflaging the rift had to be damned powerful to keep anyone from seeing it. “Rift to where?” As soon as the words left my mouth, I cursed. “Hell. He’s in Hell. And so is Mech.”
“I’ll go and warn them if it’s not too late already,” Kexan said and created a portal nearby.
“I’m coming with you.”
“You’re staying right here,” he argued.
I grabbed him by his shirt and dragged him down to my eye level. “That is my demon down there,” I snapped. “If anyone is going to see if he’s alive, it’s me. You’re either letting me go, or I’m going to knock you out the second you try to go through that portal, hijack it, and go myself. Your choice.”
“She’s got a point,” Bobby said, standing beside me.
Kexan worked his jaw then removed my hand from his shirt. “Fine, but if Mech starts shouting, it’s all on you. I’m not going to have him kicking my ass because I let you come to Hell when there was no need.”
As long as Mech was alive, he could give me all the lectures he wanted. “Bryan, you head back to Dakota with the other humans.”
“Where you go, we go,” he replied. “If Hell’s in trouble, we’re coming with you.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
His brow rose and he laughed. “Really? That’s the best you can do? You said it yourself, we can handle Hell for a few hours. We’re not leaving your side.”
Tim, Xavier, and the rest of the humans nodded in agreement. The angels and demons who’d tagged along with us looked ready to go, too. No one was staying behind. I waited for Kexan to open the portal. He hesitated, but the worry that Mech was in trouble won out. He stepped
back from the camouflaged rift and opened a portal. He stretched it so it was wide enough for us to pass through, five across. Me, Kexan, Bryan, Tim, and Bobby were the first ones through.
And the second we were, my heart was in my throat. “Kexan.”
“I know,” he muttered, eyes wide. “We’re too late. They’re already here.”
The rest of our scouting party stepped out of the portal and literally into a warzone. Zeraxin’s army had laid siege to Olem. I had no way to know if the other realms were still standing or if any of the demon lords were alive. Kexan dumped us at the main gates leading into the heart of Olem. In the distance, towering over the walls, barracks, armory and rest of the kingdom should have been the fortress. All that was there now was a smoldering pile of rubble. Mech. If he was here, he could’ve been inside when it fell.
My hands tightened around the shotgun as I pictured him buried alive. Or dead. I shut my eyes and mentally reached for him. I’d know if he was dead. He had to be alive. There was no other option.
“Kexan!”
We spun around, guns aimed, to find a demon clad in all black.
“Travis,” Kexan called, and we lowered our weapons. There were ten more demons behind him. All of them were banged up bad; a few had to be supported by the others to walk. “What happened? Where’s Mech?”
“I don’t know. We were separated during the initial attack. They came out of nowhere. No alarms went off, nothing.” He wiped the blood from his face and tried to take another step but faltered. Kexan and I caught him. There was a bad wound on the side of his head. “The other realms, I think they’ve already fallen. There was no word from them.”
“Shit,” Kexan muttered. “Alright. Travis, you’re going to take these demons here and get them to Dakota. The rest of us are going in to find survivors and get them out.”
“Are you saying what I think you are?” Travis asked grimly.
Kexan’s face became hard as stone. “I am. Hell has fallen. The bastard tricked us into thinking he was coming for Dakota. We’ll get out who we can, but there’s nothing else we can do.” His gaze locked onto mine as he added stiffly, “And we’ll find Mech.”
“Melinda,” I said as I whirled around. “You and Xavier are to stay here and keep this portal open. We’ll send any survivors we find your way. If you get overwhelmed, you run, understood?”
“I can’t leave you down here.”
“You can and you will. That’s an order.”
She bit her lip but nodded. “Understood.”
“Travis, where did you see Mech last?” I asked as Kexan handed him over to another demon to get through the portal and to safety.
“We were inside the fortress. It blew apart and—I’m sorry, Lela. I don’t know.”
“It’s alright. We’ll start there.” Kexan gave me a look, which I pointedly ignored. I waited until Travis and the first round of survivors were through the portal then set off toward the path of chaos Zeraxin’s army had made.
Our small group of fighters stayed close together, moving with our heads on swivels and guns up and ready. The sounds of the fight hit us far before we ever found an enemy to kill.
We checked every demon body we passed. Many we found alive, and those of our group peeled away to get them back to the portal. The ones already dead, we left where they were. Every building was demolished as if a giant had torn them apart with his bare hands. When we reached the main crossroads, we found that a smoldering fireball had left a crater in the cobbled street. It was nothing but glowing embers now. The swath of destruction it caused wasn’t hard to see. The fortress lay beyond it and judging from the screams of the dying, we knew we were close to the battle.
Shuffling steps drew my attention to the right. More demons were there, fleeing for their lives. They froze when they saw us, then breathed in relief. Kexan directed them to the portal and told them to hustle.
“How many?” he asked another demon bearing black armor.
His hand was pressed to a gaping wound at his side. “Too many. They just keep coming.”
“And the other realms? Any word?” I asked.
He hung his head. “I don’t know. There was no time to get the word out.”
I shook my head and pushed onward.
Kexan called my name, but there was no going slow.
If Mech was in the middle of this mess, I had to find him. We came around the corner of what had once been the barracks and ran into a group of zombies tearing several demons apart. They froze at the sight of me and Kexan. Gore hung from their bony hands and gaping maws. The demons on the ground, or what was left of them, were unrecognizable.
Something snapped in me, and the second one of them made a move for us, I pulled the trigger. I hardly felt the kickback from the shotgun as the hellfire-infused shell slammed into the zombie’s chest. The sound drew more from nearby structures and around the next corner. Kexan pressed his back to mine, his body vibrating with his continuous growling.
“You ready for this?” he asked.
“No choice. We’re finding Mech.”
“Damned straight we are,” he agreed then we opened fire.
Mech
Dust filled my lungs. I hacked to clear it but sucked in another lungful of it anyway. Vision blurring, I arched my back, sending stones sliding to the side. Luckily, I wasn’t fully buried.
“Travis?” I tried to yell, but all that came out was a croak.
I had no weapon and couldn’t see the sky. The entire fortress had come down on my head. A quick check of my scalp told me I had one large bump. My palm was covered in blood. I staggered to my feet, unsteadily reaching out for what used to be a wall or a ceiling.
Shit, I couldn’t see any light from outside. A few fires were scattered here and there, but not enough to give me more detail.
Each step was slow going. Booms reached my ears. As did the faint shouts of a battle. Zeraxin. It had to be him. How did they sneak into Hell? When my path was blocked by rubble, I heaved at it, trying to clear a path. The ground around me quaked and shifted. Dust rained on my head. I threw myself out of the way as a large section gave way and crashed to the ground where I’d been standing. This time when I stood back up, I noticed the streaks of blood on my arms and down my right leg. I was pretty sure I had no broken bones, but my hearing was still foggy, and the world was spinning.
I made it a few more yards, clutched a hand to my gut and heaved. I might be a demon, but a head wound was a head wound. I had to get out of here before I passed out. The ground shuddered. Each time, I braced myself, waiting for more of the fortress to cave in around me. I stumbled over something and hit my knees with a curse. I glanced back. An arm jutted out from beneath timber. I checked for a pulse, but there was none.
Telling myself I had to keep going, fighting against dizziness and nausea, I trudged through the remnants of my home. More dead bodies appeared, but that was all they were. Dead bodies. I called out every now and then, wondering if anyone would be able to hear me over the cries of the battle. The walls shook again, and when I glanced up, my path was blocked.
“No, damn it.”
I rammed my shoulder into the stones, dislodging one. I kicked at it, sending a jarring pain up my leg to my hip. I did it again and again, letting my anger build at being caught off-guard like this. The stones gave on the fifth try, and I fell forward into the throne room. Surprisingly, the ceiling was mostly intact. The columns were, too. The table where the demon lords usually sat was littered with dust and grime. Two fires burned in braziers that had fallen to their sides during the attack. The rest had gone out, plunging half the room into shadow.
“Can anyone hear me?” I shouted, then waited a few seconds for a response. None came. There was a second exit out of the throne room, a hidden door behind the fifth column on the right. I was sure it would have caved in, but it was my best chance at getting out of here.
As I limped across the room, stepping around large chunks of blackened stone, a skittering
sound bounced off the walls. I stopped and waited. The sound stopped when I did. I’d been hit in the head hard; assuming I was hearing things, I walked further until the noise grew louder. This time, when I stopped, the sound didn’t. A shadow flickered out of the corner of my eye.
I froze. I wasn’t as alone as I thought.
Glancing around for anything I could use as a weapon, a hunk of wood roughly shaped like a bat was all I could find. I hefted it then slowly eased closer to the columns. A scuffle had me whirling around, but this time there was a high-pitched laugh with it. Another shadow appeared on the far side of the room. When I turned to look, it was sprinting away from the light and out of sight. More laughter echoed off the stone walls. There were at least two of them, no three… Damn, make that four. I assumed they were zombies, but I’d never seen the undead move that fast.
With Zeraxin in Hell, he could’ve stirred up even worse horrors from the deeper places of our realm. Stories Koreth told me as a kid came back to me in a rush. Stories about demonoid beings that looked like us, but weren’t. They’d lure demons in by looking like…
“Children,” I whispered when one of them appeared in front of the fires.
The boy appeared no older than ten. He was covered in dirt and his clothes were torn, as if he’d been in the fortress when it collapsed. I knew for a fact there were no demon children running around Olem. We’d sent them all to a hidden pocket realm to be looked after by our most trusted guards. Shit, had Zeraxin gotten into that place, too?
“Help me,” the boy cried and held out his hand.
“Stay back.” I aimed the hunk of wood at him. “You stay right there.”
The boy sniffed like he was going to start crying. “Please, Mech. Help me. You have to help me.” He took a step closer, and I took one back. “I’m hurt.”
“Yeah, so am I. Deal with it.”
Clicking came from all around me. When I heard it right over my head, I paused. I mentally told myself not to look up, but it was too late. My curiosity had overridden the probable horror of what I was about to see. As my head fell back, I cursed when I realized my count was off. Way off. A multitude of small shadows covered the ceiling, all of them appearing as demon children. Their eyes turned bright white as they clung to the beams and stones.
