by Erin Cain
Dylan was starting to wake up again, dozy and confused.
“What…?”
“It’s okay. Almost done.” Grace finished up the bandage and pulled his shirt down.
Dylan winced as he pushed himself up.
“What happened?” he asked.
“You passed out. Blood loss and shock can do that. You were out five minutes, tops,” Grace replied. “I bandaged the wound, but we’ll need to get you to the infirmary sooner rather than later.”
Dylan grimaced. “I passed out? Damn it,” he muttered, shaking his head. “But we got the demon, right? That wasn’t a damn fever dream?”
“We got it.” Grace nodded over to the pile on the ground and Dylan nodded in satisfaction.
“Good.” His face was stony, but Grace could still hear the relief in his voice.
It made sense. With all the pressure on him, was it any wonder that he was relieved to have completed the trial? Grace was too, but the relief was buried beneath worry and the terror of coming face-to-face with a demon.
Pushing herself to her feet, she said, “We need to find a way out of here.”
She offered Dylan her hand, but he ignored it, pushing himself up with a wince. “Yeah.” He sighed. “Guess the portal’s gone?”
Grace nodded. “Yeah. It was already closing when I jumped through.”
“Damn it. No way, then.” He looked around, staring at the high ceilings and the seemingly endless landscape around them.
“Did your father say anything about the second level of hell that… I don’t know… could be useful?” Grace asked, hopefully. “We don’t touch on it in class and our textbook is limited.”
“Yeah, obviously, because we’re not supposed to be here.” He sounded frustrated and Grace struggled to bite her tongue.
“Well, did he say anything or not?” Grace asked.
Dylan shrugged. “A few things. Mentioned it was cold, but I didn’t think it would be like this.” He shivered. “Said the doorway back was located… at the northernmost point.” He sighed. “Like I know what the hell that means.”
“Okay, well… let’s start by getting out of the open. There are definitely demons on this level and I’ve heard they are nasty.”
Dylan grunted in agreement and they started the silent trek across the ice. The floor was still slippery beneath their feet, a mixture of ice-patches and frozen ground. There were no bones beneath her feet, but when she glanced down, she could see the occasional persevered limb through the ice and dirt.
Nausea rose up inside her all over again. She felt sick.
Hell was dark and twisted and she never wanted to set foot down here again. She would slay demons that came to the surface. She didn’t want to be down here, in the dank and musty smell of death.
Dylan looked sick too, but it was hard to tell if he was sick from losing blood, or from being down here. Grace wasn’t sure.
They walked in silence for what seemed like ages. Grace had no idea how long they had been walking, and no idea how long they had been in hell. Her watch had stopped working, probably sometime during the fight, and Dylan didn’t seem to be able to check his either.
Maybe the second level of hell messed with watches and other technology or something. Staring up at the high ceiling above them, she wasn’t at all surprised by that idea.
Finally, they started to see sheltering features up ahead: rocks, boulders, and caves.
Grace felt a surge of relief. She hated being out in the open like this. It was strategically stupid to be so exposed, without any cover. Demons could see them and attack them in an instant and she was surprised that they had not been attacked already.
Grace didn’t want to see the demons on the second level. The first-level demons had been bad enough, twisted and angry. These ones were supposedly a lot worse and a lot more dangerous and Grace was in absolutely no mood to go toe-to-toe with one of them.
Dylan was injured already and Grace was exhausted, her hands and body aching from the cold.
Dylan stepped into a cave first, finding shelter in the darkened walls. He looked around before calling back, “All clear.”
Grace nodded and stepped into the cave with him. It was dark, but still light enough to see. They rounded a corner, making sure that they were not exposed to the front of the cave.
Dylan sank down, sliding down the wall to sit. “Well, this is fantastic,” he muttered, anger rising in his voice. “We slew the demon, but we’re stuck here. What does it matter if we pass, if we can’t get back!?”
He was staring at Grace like this was all her fault, a sudden and unwarranted attack.
“Are you serious?” she said, feeling her patience snap and splinter in an instant. “I didn’t want to go here! I wanted to leave as soon as we arrived. The second level, are you serious, Dylan?!” Her voice raised and she bit back hard. She didn’t want to yell and attract attention.
“If you had just helped me slay the demon in the first place–” he started, but she cut him off.
“No. We could have found another demon. We could have stayed in the first level and been back home already! You wanted to slay that one because of your damn ego! That is not my fault. I haven’t been the one holding us back!”
“My ego?” Dylan spat. “It’s not ego. I value getting the job done, instead of just giving up!”
“Yeah, well, if you’d given up on that one demon, we would have been in a much better position. We were not supposed to go to the second level. And for good reason.” Her voice was low, and she tried not to yell. He just didn’t understand and it was absolutely infuriating.
“How was I supposed to know where the portal went?” he answered angrily.
“Well, if you didn’t know where it was going to, then maybe you shouldn’t have followed the demon in the first place!”
Dylan was silent, glaring at her through the darkness. “You don’t understand.”
“Yes, I do. You have something to prove… You have a lot of things to prove.” She swallowed, feeling the anger simmer down in her chest. “Your father’s an all-powerful demon slayer. Of course, you have a complex.”
Grace sighed, sinking down onto the ground.
Dylan scoffed. “What would you understand about that? You don’t have that kind of pressure.” He shook his head. “It’s not a complex. It’s life.”
Grace sighed and shook her head. “I don’t have that kind of pressure, no. But I understand what it’s like to feel pressured. To feel like you have to succeed, no matter what. To have so much riding on… just you.”
“Yeah, right,” he muttered.
“I do, Dylan. Do you think it’s easy having everyone at this academy look down on me? Do you think it’s easy that everyone is just waiting for me to fail? I have to succeed. There’s no backup plan if I don’t.”
Dylan looked at her, his eyes guarded and unsure. Grace shrugged.
“It’s true. It’s a lot of pressure. I had Vance help me this time, but the first trial… no one thought I could do it. No one wanted me to do it either.” Grace leaned back, the cold of the wall seeping through her skin. “I had to do it all on my own.”
She looked at Dylan. “But you don’t have to do it all on your own. We were paired up for a reason.”
Dylan sighed, some of the tension easing from his chest. “Why the hell did Dina pair us up anyway?” he muttered. “We’re not exactly… working well together. She must have known that.”
“Oh, that’s…” Grace trailed off.
He didn’t know. She had assumed that was why he was so angry, but apparently, he didn’t know that his own father had requested it. Grace bit her lip.
“What? Do you know why we were paired together?” he asked, a sense of urgency to his tone.
“Yeah… Dina told me…” she trailed off.
“Well, why?” he insisted.
“Your… your father requested it,” she said, her words echoing in the silence.
Dylan stared at her for a lo
ng moment, before he laughed, leaning forward and burying his head against his knees. “Of course he did,” he muttered, still shaking with laughter. “Because this test isn’t hard enough already, right? He’s got to make it even harder?”
For a second, Grace thought that the laughter had turned into sobs, but Dylan got himself together quickly, lifting his head.
“Guess that explains it.” Dylan shook his head. “Guess I failed that test.” He let out a deep breath, a small smile on his face. “Oh, well. One now.”
“Failed the… test?” she said, confused. He was going through a range of emotions so quickly that Grace was finding it difficult to keep up.
“Yeah. I worked together with you, didn’t I?” He smiled and it was a tired one. “My father… would have expected me to leave you for dead. You’re a Nephilim. I should have defeated this demon on my own, not worked together with you.”
He shut his eyes. “I tried. I really did. But…” he trailed off, shaking his head. “I hoped maybe he wouldn’t… hear about my failure. But if he set this up…” He laughed again. “Well, I’m screwed, either way, right?”
“Wait…” Grace struggled with the information. “You… you’ve been… this has all been because of your father?” she managed to say.
Dylan shrugged, eyes still closed. “He has high expectations. Guess I can’t live up to them.”
All of his cruelty and anger, his insistence that she let him take the lead, the open hostility… he had been doing that to try and please his father. It wasn’t hatred for her, not directly at least. He was trying to please his father, someone who had obviously instilled a toxic worldview, and had expectations that Dylan didn’t want to fail at meeting.
It made so much sense: his argument with Vance, how stressed he looked, his insistence on getting this right.
“You shouldn’t have to, Dylan,” Grace said. She leaned forward in a bold move, taking his hand in her own. “You’re not doing anything wrong. We’re supposed to work together. We have to work together if we want to get out of here. It’s not a failure.”
To her surprise, Dylan didn’t pull away. Instead, he smiled wearily. “I don’t hate you, you know?” he said, the words quiet. In the darkness, there was room for intimacy that the harsh light of above didn’t provide.
“I know,” Grace said in return. And she did. She understood. He didn’t hate her. He didn’t even want to hate her. He couldn’t follow his father’s rules, even when he tried to.
She squeezed Dylan’s hand and he squeezed hers right back. She felt a flutter in her chest and she smiled, despite the fact that they were in a terribly hopeless situation, despite the challenges that had come before. She smiled. Because she had finally gotten through to Dylan.
And she’d found out that he wasn’t so bad after all.
“We should start moving again,” she said, and Dylan nodded.
Grace pushed herself up and offered Dylan her hand, to help him up.
And this time, he took it.
Chapter 10
“Okay, so the north most point,” Grace said, turning around. “Not sure how to find that… but maybe if we find the tallest point, it would make for a good lookout? Maybe we can spot something that way?” she said.
It was a weak plan, but it was the best one that she had.
Dylan nodded slowly. “We can try it. Not sure what else we can do, honestly, so we might as well.”
He shot her a smile and Grace felt a flood of warmth move through her. It was nice to have him look at her without hostility. It was nice to be able to work together instead of against him.
It was a good way to end this trial, and Grace hoped that they could carry this truce up to the surface. She hoped that they would make it to the surface, for that matter. It was feeling more and more impossible by the minute.
“Yeah.” Grace sighed, making sure that she had all of her things.
She hadn’t brought much at all in here and she was starting to feel the very real pangs of hunger. She hadn’t exactly had a big breakfast, for fear of throwing it up as soon as she got down here, but now she was wishing that she did. The horrible stench and adrenaline had held the hunger off for longer than usual, but it was back now with a vengeance.
Grace had a few things tucked away, but she didn’t want to give in too early in case they needed them later. She hadn’t brought much at all.
Dylan was walking slower now, and his step betrayed his pain, even though he wasn’t complaining about it. He was clearly hurting and it sent flashes of panic through Grace.
She hadn’t done much by way of first aid. She had wrapped up the wound in his side, but that was about it. He was almost certainly still losing some blood and there was no doubt that it had to be hurting him a low, weakening him and slowing him down.
The quicker they found there way out of here, the better.
Grace took a deep breath to calm the panic. “Okay, that rock in the distance seems to be the highest point,” Grace said, turning it over in her mind.
Dylan just nodded as they continued onward. Moving up seemed to be a good idea right now. After all, wasn’t the first level above them? In that case, it seemed logical that it was the best place to be.
Either there was a portal or something back up, or a different way not too far off. That was all Grace could think of, and she clung to the idea that they were only an hour or two away from salvation.
She didn’t want to die here. She refused to die here. And she refused to let Dylan die here. She was starting to care about him, about his well-being. She didn’t want him to get hurt. Even though he’d been cruel to her, she understood why, and she could sympathize with him. She didn’t want either of them to get hurt.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost didn’t hear the scuffling sounds behind her. The scuffling sound on the ground, like wild dogs scratching at a gate, scratching at the door, ready to pounce, ready to attack any minute now.
She stopped dead, placing a hand on Dylan’s shoulder. He stopped, looking at her in silent confusion. She held a figure to her lips and his eyes narrowed, focusing on whatever sounds she was hearing. Then his eyes widened as he heard it too.
“Demons,” he whispered, confirming her worst fears.
They sounded close, like they were just behind the last bend, and Grace felt the cold panic flood her body.
She couldn’t take another fight right now, and neither could Dylan. He wasn’t strong enough for it, especially against the second level demons. And there were several of them. She could hear it now, the scratching and snarling on the ground, the sounds of being tracked.
“Come on,” Grace whispered, and Dylan nodded, steeling himself against the pain as they hurried along the path, picking up the pace, ducking around odd corners, trying to lose them without giving the game up.
If the demons knew they were running, they’d take chase immediately.
Grace could feel the panic thundering in her chest, her heartbeat in her ears as they hurried around the stones, keeping just out of sight. She prayed that they’d lose them, that they’d find the way out before the demons caught up to them. Before they got bored of the chase and gave in and attacked.
If they attacked, Grace didn’t think she could win.
A furious shriek from behind them confirmed it.
“Run!” Dylan yelled, and Grace took off, Dylan keeping pace, a testament to his determination and athleticism.
The scratching and sniffing from behind turned into full-on shrieking and scrabbling. They were hot on their heels, and all they could do was run. Dodging through the rocks and stones, trying not to slip in the ice, Grace and Dylan skid to the huge rocky cliff that stretched upwards.
They looked at each other and nodded. Up. At least up there, they had a chance of kicking demons off one by one.
Providing they could climb up in time.
Dylan gritted his teeth as he hauled himself up the first step, sweat beading on his skin despite the freezin
g cold. He was clearly struggling. Grace flung herself upwards, getting a few paces ahead of him, there to offer a hand if needed.
There was no way she could pull him up – he was way too heavy for her – but she could steady him and lend her strength wherever possible.
Dylan needed no encouragement. Pain or no pain, this was about survival and Grace knew that Dylan was all about surviving. She had seen it.
Pulling herself up, Grace’s body ached and screamed in protest, but she didn’t stop. She had no choice and they were gaining on them. She could hear their snarling just around the corner, only moments away from bursting through and finishing them both off, without mercy or remorse.
She glanced down to see Dylan pushing through despite the blood that was now soaking through his shirt, the exertion doing nothing for his health.
Pale and losing blood, he didn't turn around when the demons reached the bottom of the cliff.
And Grace? She wished that she hadn’t looked.
~
The demons were shrieking at the bottom, and Grace wished that she’d never seen their distorted bodies and twisted forms, the gaping maws where their mouths should be, the animal-like sounds that came from them. There were too many of them.
Panicked, Grace hauled herself up. She was so close to the top, Dylan close behind. Stumbling up, with burning fingers and shaking hands, Grace managed to pull herself up over the top, onto the rough surface above. There was some purchase, although the cold still made it slippery and slick.
She leaned over and reached for Dylan’s hand. Fear flashed on his face as the whole tower trembled with demons throwing themselves at the rocks. He grabbed her hand and they managed together to pull him up. He was panting, sweat flattening his blond hair, blood soaking through his shirt.
The demons below were climbing with frightening speeds, and Grace staggered to her feet. She reached for her blade.
“No use,” Dylan gasped out, watching them climb up. “There’s no way.”
Grace swallowed. He was right. Hopes of this being a good spot were immediately dashed, but there had been nowhere else to go.
