by J. C. Diem
“Yep,” I said and took a sip of tea. It was nice not to have a roiling stomach for once. “I think I’ve convinced them to help me rather than trying to tear me apart from the inside.”
“What possible assistance could demons offer you?” Brie asked with her upper lip curled. I tried not to take her crappy attitude personally now that I’d known her for nearly a month. Leo and Sophia were the only ones she really trusted. Nathan might be a fellow angel, but she treated him warily as well.
“They gave me a clue about how to find the master gate,” I said and bit into the cookie again.
“Do tell,” Nathan urged me.
I chewed and swallowed before answering. “They said it could be accessed through a cliché.”
“What is a cliché?” Sam asked. He’d become comfortable enough not to hover so close to me now. Our arms didn’t quite brush when I reached for another cookie.
“It is a phrase or a saying that is overused to the point where it becomes unoriginal,” Nathan explained.
Sam had been stuck in hell for so long that he’d probably never heard the phrases that we considered to be trite nowadays.
“There would have to be hundreds of clichés,” Brie said. “How are we going to know which is the correct one?”
Everyone looked at me and I shrugged. “Don’t look at me, I’m not the cliché master.”
“Can anyone think of any clichés that have anything to do with hellgates?” Leo asked.
We all wracked our brains, but came up empty. “I cannot think of any that specifically refer to gates,” Nathan said.
“Perhaps the cliché isn’t about the gate itself,” Sophia hazarded. “Perhaps it is about something else.”
“Such as?” Brie asked.
“Something to do with hell maybe?” I said. “There has to be at least a few clichés about that.”
“I am sure there are many,” she said almost petulantly. “The path to hell is turning out to be tricky beyond my expectations.”
“Wait,” I said and held my hand up before anyone could offer their examples. “That just rang a bell. There’s a similar cliché about the road to hell isn’t there? Does anyone remember what it is?”
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Nathan said and smiled. It was a rare expression for him and his sheer perfection almost took my breath away. “Violet and I have seen the pathway that we are seeking.”
“Where? When?” Leo demanded.
“It’s on the Upper West Side,” I told him. “I was teleported there after Brie almost stabbed me to death.”
“It would seem that your inner demons did more than merely save your life that day,” Sophia said. “They also transported you to the very place that you needed to find.”
“I don’t think they did it on purpose. It was just luck.”
“Luck or Fate?” Leo said. “This sounds like her influence at play.”
“We should investigate this pathway,” Brie suggested. “Something tells me it will not be easy to traverse through it to reach the master gate. Not with the wards that have been set in place.”
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-Four
Since we hopefully weren’t going to be facing combat this time, Sophia decided to come with us. Nathan zapped us to the ugly dark green door that was sandwiched between the deli and a shoe repair store. A young couple stepped around us without even being aware that we’d just appeared out of thin air. Brie’s spell had come in useful too many times for me to count by now.
We all stared down at the sidewalk just in front of the door. The words, ‘Good Intentions’, stared up at us innocently. It was impossible to tell exactly when they’d been engraved into the concrete, but it didn’t look it had been done recently.
“It would seem this is indeed the correct path,” Leo said. He hesitated for a moment before grasping the tarnished brass doorknob. He relaxed slightly when touching it had no ill effects. He tried to turn it in both directions, but it refused to budge. “It is locked,” he said, to no one’s surprise.
“I guess I should give it a try,” I said, trying to calm my nerves. Leo moved aside and I took hold of the handle. Again, it didn’t move when I tried to turn it.
“It is as I thought,” Brie said with annoying self-satisfaction. “The demon wards are preventing it from opening.”
I turned to Sam. “You’re practically a demon after spending so many centuries locked up in hell.” He flinched a little, but he didn’t deny it. “Why don’t you give it a try?”
Visibly bracing himself, he tried to turn the knob and had the same lack of success. “It refuses to open,” he said in relief.
Sophia studied the door with a slight frown. “Perhaps there is a spell that will counter the wards that will allow us access to the portal.”
“You mean a spell like the runes that trapped Leo and me in the alley?” I asked.
“I would imagine so. Perhaps the demons you have absorbed will be able to shed some light?”
Shrugging, I closed my eyes and concentrated. After a couple of minutes of hearing only silence within, I gave up. “I don’t think I can speak to them when I’m awake.”
“A hellscribe would know the rune that we need to traverse through this door,” Sam said and we all turned to him in surprise.
“What’s a hellscribe?” I asked.
“They are the closest thing that hell has to scholars,” he explained. “I heard that they invented the runes tens of thousands of years ago.”
“What are the chances that we will be able to find a hellscribe in Manhattan?” Brie said dryly. “I am sure they must be highly prized for their knowledge. It is doubtful their master would allow them to roam around free on Earth.”
“There must be a few of them somewhere in the city,” I argued. “Someone had to draw the runes that created the wards that have imprisoned us here.” I’d only stumbled across one small trap so far, but there were probably others sprinkled around the island, waiting for me to trigger them.
Coming to the same conclusion, she conceded my point reluctantly. “If this is the case, then how are we going to find one?”
“They’re probably fairly geeky,” I mused. “Maybe we should search near libraries or bookstores or something. They’d probably be comfortable in that kind of environment.”
Leo grinned in excitement. “I know exactly where we should search.” Gesturing for us to gather into a circle, he took the lead and teleported us to another location.
We arrived at the base of a flight of stairs that led to a long, wide building. The stairs were flanked by two gigantic stone lions that were impressively detailed. Three archways in the center of the building had the words ‘New York Public Library’ inscribed on them. Statues of people looked down at us from above the arches. Dressed in robes, they looked almost stern. I could almost imagine them coming to life and shushing us if we made too much noise.
Looking around to orientate myself, I saw a sign saying we were on Fifth Ave. Then I began searching the crowd. People from all walks of life and nationalities could be seen. To the left of the entrance, I saw six demons clustered together. They sat at a tiny table with an umbrella to shade them from the sun. They cradled cups of coffee, but weren’t drinking the beverages. Their vessels were a mixture of races this time.
Their gazes darted around, lingering on the faces in the crowd. Having twelve of their lords disappear without a trace had obviously frightened them. Their leader was a captain rather than a lord this time. She kept glancing towards the stairs where a man sat on his own.
“That must be the scribe,” Brie said, nodding towards the man. He was hunched over and wore a hoodie that almost covered his face. A sketchpad lay across his knees and he was scribbling something on it. His face flickered and momentarily became that of a lesser demon. Instead of leather armor or sackcloth, my vision showed him to be wearing a hooded black robe. “I will take a closer look to make sure he is the one we seek,” she said an
d was gone before anyone could disagree.
She appeared right behind him, but he didn’t sense her peering over his shoulder. Looking over at us, she gave us the thumbs up and leaned down to put her hand on his shoulder. They both disappeared before the captain and her minions could react. They looked around wildly when they realized he was gone, but he was already beyond their reach.
Shrill screams deafened me when Nathan shifted us back to the store. Brie stood over the shrieking hellscribe with her arms crossed. “You can lift the spell any time now!” I said, slapping my hands over my ears to muffle the noise.
Drawing his agony out for a few more seconds, she chanted a few words and broke the spell. Sobbing and gasping for breath, the demon was far more pitiful than any I’d seen before. He was almost as pathetic as Sam had been when I’d first found him.
Cowering away from us, he huddled on his knees. “What do you want with me?” he moaned. “I am just a lesser demon. I do not know anything that could be useful to you.”
“Is that so?” Brie said and bent to pick up the sketchpad that he’d dropped. “I suppose these are just meaningless doodles then?” He gaped at her and his face drained of color.
“You are a hellscribe, are you not?” Nathan asked.
With his runes on display for everyone to see, there was no point denying it. “Yes,” he said miserably.
“We need to know if there is a rune that will allow us to pass through the wards. We need to enter a gate to hell that is not guarded by tens of thousands of demons,” Sophia told him.
He lost even more color at her explanation. Nathan made his sword appear and the scribe shrank away from the unspoken threat. “There is a rune that will allow you to pierce the wards,” he said and held out his hand for the sketchpad. Brie handed it over and he rifled through the pages. “It is this one,” he said and pointed at a rune. It was a simple symbol with a half-circle on the left and a short squiggle leading from the center to the right.
“So, we just need to draw this on the door that leads to the portal and it will open?” I asked.
“No,” he replied with a touch of scorn. “It has to be drawn in blood and it can only be activated by a demon.”
“What sort of blood do we need to use?”
“Demon blood, of course,” he replied as if it was a stupid question. To him it might be, but this was still all new to me.
“Once I make it through the door, how do I get back?” It couldn’t be as easy as simply opening the door from the other side.
“To exit from the shadowlands through the same door, you will need to draw this rune on the other side of it,” he said and pointed to another drawing. The symbol was the exact opposite to the first one, with a half-circle on the right and the squiggle reaching out to the left.
“How do demons activate these runes?” I asked.
“With their blood and flesh.”
“You mean slicing their palms open and pressing it against the rune?”
He looked surprised that I’d figured it out and nodded. “Yes. Exactly.”
“Is there anything else I need to know about opening and closing the portals?”
The scribe looked at me doubtfully. “You cannot open or close them. You are a human.” He looked at the rest of the group and his gaze lingered the longest on Sam. “None of you will be able to gain access to the shadowlands.”
“Are you sure about that?” I asked and pulled my dagger. Realizing my intent, Brie sauntered over to a shelf to retrieve a wooden bowl.
His face paled again when the blade glowed crimson. “How is this possible?” he asked then his expression turned bleak. “You must be Hellscourge.”
“You guessed it,” I said as Brie grabbed his arm. I sliced into his wrist and she caught the flow of blood with the bowl as the demon howled in pain. Nathan’s hands clamped down on his shoulders, holding him in place.
Brie nodded when she thought we had enough blood and I rammed my dagger into his heart. I felt almost bad about absorbing him. He was so much weaker and less threatening than the other monsters that I’d devoured. But we were at war and he was my enemy. I couldn’t risk letting him go. He’d run straight to the nearest Demon Lord and spill his guts about us.
Instead of suffering from exhaustion, I barely felt it when his essence invaded me. He was nothing compared to the powerful spirits that already resided in me.
“We will need to test to see if this works,” Nathan said when the empty vessel slumped to the floor.
“It would be best to wait until nightfall,” Sophia suggested.
“Good, I could use some lunch,” I said.
Nathan spirited the body away while I made sandwiches and tea. The angels had become adept at hiding the corpses by now. A lot of the cops I’d spied had been demons, but not all of them were. If human police officers discovered that over a dozen people had been killed in the same way, they would assume a serial killer was responsible. Once that hit the news, the citizens would soon be in a panic. Our war was private, and we preferred not to alarm the populace until our battles became impossible to hide. If that happened, we were probably doomed anyway.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-Five
It was the first week of December now, which meant it tended to get dark early. A chill was in the air when Nathan took us back to the ugly green door. I shivered and pulled my hood up for warmth. Even with my hoodie and black jacket, I could feel the cold seeping into me.
Leo carried the wooden bowl that was full of blood. The liquid had congealed, and I hoped it hadn’t become too solid to work with. Sophia handed me a paintbrush and Sam held up the sketchpad. There was just enough illumination from a nearby streetlight for me to be able to see the rune.
Taking a deep breath to steady my hands, I dipped the brush into the bowl. Thick and almost black in the dim light, the scent of the blood made me want to gag. Breathing through my mouth, I painted a half-circle on the door at my head height. It took several strokes to get it right. I then painted the squiggle, checking the sketchpad carefully to make sure it was correct. Handing the brush to Leo, I pulled my dagger from its confinement.
“Just make a small cut,” Sophia said. “You do not have the ability to heal like we do.”
I knew that better than anyone, but nodded anyway. She was just nervous for me and I appreciated her concern. I nicked my palm with the blade and winced as it stung. Before I could lose my nerve, I placed my palm on the symbol. Scarlet light flared as the rune became active. The blood dried in a flash and no longer glistened in the dim light.
“Well,” Brie said in some surprise, “it would appear to have worked.”
Sophia had a theory about why. “You may not have demon blood in your system, but the evil spirits that inhabit you have given you some of their power.”
“We can only hope they do not pass their malicious intent on to her as well,” the teen said darkly.
I rolled my eyes at her pessimism and put my dagger away. I put my hand on the doorknob and almost jerked it away when I felt warmth emanating from it now. It turned easily and I pushed the door open. An alleyway identical to the one Leo and I had found ourselves trapped in beckoned. I couldn’t see any runes lying in wait to trap me this time. As far as I could tell, the passageway was empty.
“I guess this is it,” I said nervously. “Time for me to go forth and find the master gate.” What would happen after that was a mystery, but I had grave doubts that I’d be able to conquer it.
“Do not fear,” Nathan said. His face was shadowed, yet I heard his concern. “Fate would not have chosen you for this task if she thought that you would fail.”
I almost snorted out a laugh, but held it in. How could I not fear stepping through the portal? If this truly was the correct pathway, I would soon be facing a gate that no one had ever managed to defeat before.
“I wish I could go with you,” Leo said forlornly as he handed me the wooden bowl and brush. The sketchpad was too large to take w
ith me, but I was pretty sure I’d memorized the runes that I needed.
“Me, too,” I said, “but you can’t. This is a solo gig, kiddo.” He smirked at the nickname that I’d given him, but his smile wasn’t as bright as usual. Worry was eating at him.
“Trust your instincts,” Sophia said and put her hand on my shoulder in support. “They will not lead you astray.”
I raised my eyebrows at Brie, waiting for some words of wisdom. “Try not to die,” she said after a struggle to find something appropriate to say.
I sniggered and her lips twitched slightly. For a second there, she’d almost smiled. My nervous amusement died when I turned to Sam. His face was screwed up in misery and he was wringing his hands together. “Don’t worry, Sam. I’ll be fine,” I said with as much confidence as I could muster.
He shook his head in denial. Instead of the usual pitch black, his skin was an unhealthy shade of dark gray. It was his body’s version of turning pale. “I cannot allow you to enter the shadowlands alone,” he said. It came out as a bare whisper. He was clearly terrified at the prospect of going with me, but he was offering to come anyway.
“I appreciate your concern, but I have to do this on my own.”
“No,” he said a trifle more firmly. “You do not have to enter the portal alone. You do not know what lies beyond, but I do.” He stiffened his spine until he reached his full height, yet his body still quivered in fear. “I will accompany you and be your guide.”
I flicked a look at Sophia and she wore a thoughtful frown. “If Samuel is willing to risk his life, I see no reason why he cannot go with you. He could prove to be an invaluable asset.”
Secretly relieved that I didn’t have to go in alone, I grinned at the imp. “In that case, I accept your offer.”
Nathan caught Sam by the arm and leaned down until they were face to face. “Guard Violet with your life,” he said in a tone that was one small step away from menacing. “If even one hair on her head is harmed, I will hunt you down and tear you limb from limb, even if I have to enter hell itself to find you.”
