by E. A. Copen
Loki had fixed the tournament so the power to name Famine would fall to him, though last time I’d seen him, he’d declined to state who he intended to name. I thought it would be one of his Valkyries.
“Beth, tell me you didn’t.”
She lowered her head. “It’s been such a rough few months, Lazarus. The exhibit is losing money. People just aren’t interested in ancient Egyptian history anymore. If we didn’t come up with something soon, the university was going to pull our funding. We needed a discovery, something monumental, but there was nothing. All the old tombs have been picked clean, the writings deciphered. New discoveries would mean combing through the desert in a dig, which we’d need funding for. There was no way forward. Everything was going to fall apart.”
Loki patted her shoulder. “So, when I offered her limitless knowledge and private funding, it wasn’t a hard decision, was it?”
She’d done it. I’d saved her once before from selling twenty-plus years of her life for access to a single artifact, but she didn’t learn from it. Now, she’d sold her soul for knowledge and money.
Beth wiped tears from her face. “I didn’t have a choice. This isn’t just about the exhibit. Think of the history we’ll be saving. At the rate historical sites are being destroyed in the Middle East, we’d never be able to save them all in time if not for this. Now, we can. A life of servitude doesn’t sound so bad if it means Dr. Feneque can preserve all that history.”
I shook my head. She was so stuck living in that ancient past, she couldn’t fathom a future without it. But then, I couldn’t judge. I’d accepted my role as the Pale Horseman on even shakier terms. “I wish it wasn’t you. You deserved to get out. You deserved a happy life.”
Beth’s face hardened. “Then why did you call me?”
The realization stung. If I hadn’t called Beth, would Loki have sought her out? Had I led him to her? Maybe, but I hadn’t made her accept the offer. She’d done that on her own. I couldn’t take responsibility for everyone’s mistakes, not when I had enough of my own to account for.
Josiah’s hand came down on my shoulder. “We’re ready, mate.”
I turned away from Beth without offering an answer. Beth had made a decision, and she would have to live with it.
Josiah had laid out a complicated circle around the statue in chalk. Near the center, he’d placed a cage where two black chickens squawked loudly. He went to the cage and opened it.
“Come on, man.” I sighed as he pressed the chicken to the ground and drew a sharp knife. “What do you have against animals?”
“Not a thing. Magic energy’s got to come from somewhere, and I don’t think this is a case where an orgy is appropriate. But it is a free country, isn’t it? If you’d rather do that, it seems there are plenty of ladies to choose from.”
I cringed as the nearby Valkyries snarled at me. Suddenly, killing small animals didn’t sound like such a bad idea. “No thanks.”
“Suit yourself.” He went back to the chicken at hand and began his chant.
I turned my back, unwilling to watch. I’d seen what he did with the frog, and that was enough for me.
As Josiah’s chant rose, so did the magic. I felt it the moment he completed the sacrifice. Death flooded the circle and bounced off the walls the magic had created, magnifying inside the circle. The sky darkened and rumbled. Clouds spun, forming a black funnel. Wind ripped at my clothes and blew leaves and debris all around as the funnel descended, twisting in the air. Flame sparked deep inside the tornado just before it slammed into the ground on top of us.
I blinked, and when I opened my eyes, the square was gone.
Whoever designed She’ol wasn’t very original. Like most of the other Hells I’d been to, the ground was made of black, igneous rock. Heat hung in the air, almost too heavy to breathe. It danced in waves, obscuring my vision. In the distance, a city burned without flame. The red glow crept through shattered windows and broken arches while black smoke trailed into the sky. Sparks fell from the ashen clouds like rain.
I looked down at my hands and drew them into fists. My bones ached and my skin burned with the heat, but it was no worse than when I’d run into a burning building after Emma. I could do this.
Josiah stepped up next to me, tapping his carton of cigarettes to get one loose. He pulled one out and held it up to catch a few sparks, puffing. “Well, one good thing about this place. Don’t need a lighter.”
The landscape ahead of us moved. Dark forms rose, and hollow red eyes blinked into existence. Demons. There had to be hundreds of them.
I brought up the squirt gun full of holy water strapped to my side. “Ready?”
Josiah cursed and took one last puff on the cigarette before dropping it and stomping it out. He lifted the pink plastic gun. “Let’s go save your girlfriend.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I stepped forward and pumped up the squirt gun.
The first demon emerged from the pack, running on all fours. It was a shapeless horror with wings, shifting and changing its form with every step. It clawed its way over a rock and let out a scream before leaping at us. I pointed and pulled the trigger. The stream hit him mid-air. The demon screeched and dropped like a brick to writhe around on the ground, clawing at its melting face.
Two more split, narrowly avoiding being hit by Josiah’s first shot. I took the one on the right, hitting it with a shot to the side of its face. That didn’t put it down, and it barreled into me, taking my feet from under me. Huge teeth loomed over my face. My stomach lurched as the demon roared and covered my face in drool. A black boot kicked it in the side of its head, dazing it just enough that I could push it off.
Josiah squeezed off a few more shots and missed before offering me a hand up.
“Thanks. Oof!” His squirt gun hit me in the gut, and I scrambled to grab it.
“Keep your water gun,” he said before stepping out of the way of a charging demon.
The demon tried to put on the brakes, but it skittered to a stop directly in front of me. I unloaded with both barrels and kept going until the demon’s face melted off, and it slumped over, steaming.
Sparks of blue flame lit over Josiah’s fists. “I’ll stick to what I know.”
A low bellow made my insides quake only to be followed by dozens more. Hellhounds. I could hear them, but not see them, which made me nervous. I had more immediate concerns to worry about though, like the charging army of demons.
I let go of the water gun and let it rest on the makeshift sling before slamming my fist into the ground along with my will. The ground rumbled and split, opening into a chasm. Demons scrambled to get out of the way, but many weren’t fast enough. They tumbled into the hole by the dozens. Those that didn’t either met the business end of my squirt gun or Josiah’s flaming fists.
Slowly, we advanced toward the city. The further we went, the more of them got smart and circled around to attack from behind. It left us fighting on two fronts with our backs exposed. Eventually, Josiah put his back to mine, and we had to let the circle of demons tighten on us. Red eyes twisted, black faces radiated malice at us from every side while teeth snapped. The hellhounds had joined the army now, providing reinforcements and creating a sea of demons to cut through.
I hit what I could with the water gun, but the earthquake spell was out. The minute I dropped to use it, a demon would jump over me and land on Josiah’s back. He kept them off my back by punching and kicking any stupid enough to get close, but he was running out of gas. I could hear him huffing and wheezing behind me.
I squeezed the trigger on the pink gun and only got a trickle. Shit. I swapped it out for the blue gun and winced when it only went a few feet in front of me. Not enough water for a long-distance shot. “Running low on ammo.”
“Hope you had a backup plan.” Josiah grunted and kicked a hellhound in the snout. It fell away with a loud whine. “Otherwise, this is about to get ugly.”
I wished I had my staff and maybe a couple of grena
des. That would’ve come in handy. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have anything of the sort. Grabbing souls was out of the question since demons didn’t have any.
A demon lunged at me, and I hit it with the last good shot of holy water I had. It screamed and fell back. The front line of demons parted, leaving him a whimpering island of melting demon.
An island. That was it.
“Josiah,” I called as I tossed aside the first empty gun, “I’ve got an idea that’s either going to save us or kill us. I’m not sure which.”
He shrugged. “Go big or go home, mate. We’re out of options.”
“I need some chalk and for you to keep them off my back for about sixty seconds. Can you do it?”
He twisted and slipped me a stick of white chalk. “Do it!”
I dropped.
Three demons leaped over me as soon as I was down and collided with Josiah. He managed to repel one with a fist, but two more dragged him down only to screech and leap away when he shoved the angel fire burning on his hands at them. He’d have a tough fight, but I had to focus on what I needed to do.
With shaky hands, I worked to draw a circle just wide enough for us to stand in. It wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t have to be. It just had to work.
Wizards worked inside circles for a variety of reasons, the most common being that magic worked inside a circle was usually amplified. For less experienced wizards, a circle also created a safe space if put up right. A spell cast inside the circle couldn’t leave it, and one cast outside it couldn’t get in, provided the circle, and the spells were equal in strength. I’d learned all my spells inside circles. Pony had taught me how to use them to deflect attacks. As long as my will was at least as strong as the magic working to get in, the spell would bounce off harmlessly.
With most circles, stepping over them or disturbing them in any way would break them, but not a training circle. A training circle was meant to allow wizards to pass back and forth without disturbing the magic while their trainees learned the basics. It didn’t feel good, passing through the magic barrier, and hovering over the line could cause permanent neuropathy, but it worked.
I’d spent many hours holding my circle against Pony’s assault, honing my skills. But then, he’d been going easy on me. I’d be going all out. Plus, I’d never attacked my own circle before. This was going to be interesting.
The circle completed, I bit my lip until blood welled to the surface and smeared it over the chalk outline. Magic sprang up around us, sealing in the demon Josiah had been wrestling with. He finally got the upper hand and pushed it to the ground where he stomped on its head until it quit moving.
“This is your plan?” Josiah shouted as the demon army shifted closer. “I hate to break it to you, but a basic training circle isn’t going to hold against a demon army, Laz.”
“It doesn’t have to. It just has to hold against me.” I grimaced, pushed my arm through the circle, and slapped my palm on the ground, pushing half my will into the familiar earthquake spell while I used the other half to maintain the circle.
The ground rumbled and shook. Demons paused in their advance to look around, but the initial blast of magic hadn’t opened any holes in the ground to swallow them, so they kept on coming.
Come on. I pressed a little more magic into the spell I was forcing into the ground. It was a delicate balancing act. Too much and the circle would fail. Too little and the spell wouldn’t work. I’d have no way of knowing when it was enough until the effect paid off.
A demon closed and took a swipe at my hand. Josiah threw a shoe at it, drawing a snarl. It reached tentatively for the barrier of the circle only to draw back once it met with the stinging pain. Another tested the barrier and managed to push through. They’d gotten wise to the circle’s weakness and would break through any minute.
I pushed more magic into the ground, diverting power actively away from the circle. What the hell was this ground made of?
A loud crack like a gunshot snapped in the air. Several demons let out surprised screeches and looked up. They should’ve been looking down. The ground swayed beneath their feet before it began to crumble to dust. Demons shrieked and tried to climb over each other to get away in a panic. It was no good. Ground everywhere collapsed underfoot and they tumbled into a black abyss that was likely miles deep.
I pulled my hand back into the circle and redirected all my energy to holding it against the assault from outside. Magic beat against the circle, trying to force its way through. Rock and dust tumbled in. Beneath our feet, the ground swayed and rocked, but I held the circle tight.
When the ground stopped trembling, we were still in one piece, stranded on a tiny circle of land in a sea of black emptiness. The same couldn’t be said for the army of demons that had been waiting outside. They’d tumbled into the abyss with the ground I’d destroyed.
Josiah coughed and waved his hands, trying to clear some of the dust from the air. “You’re a madman, Laz. That is not how circles are meant to be used.”
“Hey, it worked, didn’t it?” I stood and squinted into the distance.
The nearest solid ground was hundreds of yards away in any direction. Crap, I hadn’t meant to make that big of a hole. How were we going to get across it? Even an Olympic jumper couldn’t make that.
I drew a hand over my bloody lip. “Unless you’ve got wings, we’re trapped though. I told you it might get us killed.”
“Looks like we won’t need our own wings.” He pointed across the gulf I’d just created.
A huge red dragon covered in bone armor swooped out of the sky and dove for us. On the dragon’s back were two demons with a strange looking gun. They pointed it at us. The gun made a hollow thunk sound, and a chain net exploded around us, closing tight. The net constricted as if it were a living thing, shrinking to force us back to back again. Josiah tried to start a spell, but the chains pinned his arms to his side. They closed so tight on me that I could barely breathe.
The dragon circled once more while one of the demons lowered another length of chain with a hook on the end and shimmied down it. He laughed at us while we struggled before hooking our chain up to the dragon and climbing back up. We jerked up off the little island I’d made, suspended by the chain.
I closed my eyes tight and tried not to look down. “Well, at least we’re not trapped anymore.”
“When I get my arms loose, I’m going to strangle you, fuckwit.”
I would’ve laughed if I wasn’t trying so hard not to suffocate.
The dragon flew us over the burning city and above a methane field, making sure to dip low enough that we choked on the fumes. I retched, but thankfully my stomach was empty.
On the other side of the methane fields stood a palace carved into the side of a red mountain. Narrow stairs curved up the rock face toward an entrance guarded by black-winged men with flaming swords. They expanded their wings like owls at our approach, revealing extra eyes underneath.
“Fallen,” Josiah wheezed out. “Lucifer’s personal guard.”
The Fallen watched us with their multiple sets of eyes as we rose above the main dome of the palace. A slot opened in the stained glass, and the dragon gingerly descended into a dark throne room.
The floor was made of a polished rock that might have been opal, or something like it. Golden walls stood on either side with intricately carved reliefs depicting various methods of execution. Burning, hanging, flaying…it was all there. Headless statues stood around as white pillars. A red carpet flowed through the room to pool beneath an ornate throne made of more gold. Fire leaped and jumped in large braziers on either side of the throne.
When we were still a few feet in the air, someone released the chain, and we tumbled to the ground on top of each other. The chains squeezing us didn’t release, so we lay there, struggling to find a way to sit up.
“My, how the mighty have fallen.” I couldn’t make out Nikki’s face, but I recognized her hands as they gripped the armrests of the throne. Or
rather, Morningstar in Nikki’s body. Morningstar propelled his borrowed body to its feet. “It was only a few days ago that you thought you were a match for me.”
I struggled to face him. “What’s the matter, Morningstar? Run out of subordinates for me to kill? Finally going to try to do the deed yourself?”
He grinned and smoothed his hands over the tight black number he’d dressed Nikki in. “Normally, I wouldn’t. You see, killing a Horseman would get me in a lot of trouble. However, considering you broke into my kingdom, assaulted my subjects, and insulted me, I believe I’d be justified.”
“Speaking of dying, Mask said to tell you he sends his warmest regards.”
Morningstar’s face jerked, the movement barely noticeable before he recovered. Didn’t matter. I’d seen it. He was terrified.
“I have a gift for you before you die.” He snapped his fingers.
A wall to the side of the room slid away, and two more Fallen walked in, dragging Emma between them. She looked smaller, weaker, and bore scars, bruises, and scrapes all over her exposed skin. The orange prison jumpsuit she’d been in last time I saw her hung in bloody strips. Her eyes remained focused on the ground as she shuffled wherever they led her. The chains on her wrists, waist, and ankles almost seemed unneeded.
“Emma!” I called her name, hoping to get her to look at me, or at least to get a reaction. Nothing in her face changed. “You bastard!”
“Temper, temper, Lazarus!” Morningstar slowly made his way down the red carpet and ran his fingers through Emma’s hair. “I would say that at least you’d have forever together, but then that’s not true, either. See, it’s unfortunate, but I’ve had to outsource some of my work. Good torture is so hard to achieve these days.”
Morningstar made a gesture to someone on the side of the room. A round section of the floor slid away to reveal a pit of lava bubbling a hundred feet down.
“Yeah, real original,” I mumbled. “Why is it always lava? You know, you guys could try something new. Acid baths. Liquid nitrogen freezes. This is like the fifth Hell with lava.”
