“Please let us out,” I said, no longer above begging for our lives.
“So it is,” he said.
A low growl ripped from Sam’s chest.
“Careful, kitty,” Beelzebub taunted. “Make me angry and I will reconsider letting you out.”
The iron door swung open and I lunged forward, but Sam pulled me back and once again put himself in front of me as he and Cole walked out of the door first. When it was my turn to go through, Sam put a hand on my arm as if to anchor me to his side—like he was afraid I would be snatched away at any moment.
Maybe I would be.
We were at the very end of the long hallway, the only light coming from flame-lit torches that lined the walls. Our cell was to the right and just in front of us where the hallway ended was a wide door, arched at the top and made of black steel. It was to this door that Beelzebub strode, throwing the lock and yanking the heavy door open wide.
Intense heat rushed at us through the opening. It was so hot that it took my breath. There seemed to be no floor and no walls inside the new room and the back of the door was blackened—scorched.
It was a fire pit. An endless hole of fire that I knew never went out.
As I watched the flames lick through the door, Beelzebub lashed out, grabbing Cole and dragging him toward the flames.
“Cole!” I cried, rushing forward only to be yanked backward by Sam.
“You have a choice,” Beelzebub yelled as Cole fought and struggled to no avail. “You can open up this scroll case and give me the Map or watch as I send him to a fiery grave.”
“Don’t do it, Heven!” Cole yelled as sweat dripped from his forehead.
I wasn’t about to let my brother die. I looked at Sam, his face set in a grim expression. He knew I wouldn’t allow my brother to die, and after what just happened to his brother, he wouldn’t ask me to.
“Okay,” I said, my voice barely audible. But he heard me and smiled triumphantly. He took a few steps away from the flaming pit and I let out a breath. Cole was shaking his head, but I ignored him. I had to do this.
Acting nervous (not that it really was an act), I put my hands into my pockets and lowered my head, allowing my hair to fall and curtain my face, letting my shoulders shake—like I was trying to get it together.
“Now!” Beelzebub screamed.
My body was shaking now, and it wasn’t from fear.
Hell was trying to claim my soul.
I yanked my hands out of my pockets, gripping the single remaining Lucent Marble and reached back toward Sam, pretending to want his comfort. He reached out and I dropped the Marble into his hand and turned back to Beelzebub.
When I get my hands on that scroll, bust that Marble and let’s go.
Sounds like a plan, Sam answered and I didn’t dare look at him for fear that Beelzebub would get suspicious.
“Let him go,” I said, motioning to Cole.
Beelzebub narrowed his eyes.
I took the chain that held the key from around my neck, pulling it out from beneath my shirt. I swung it between my fingers, taunting my tormentor. “Let. Him. Go.”
He shoved Cole away roughly and he smacked against the wall with a sick thud. I didn’t look at him or Sam as I stepped toward Beelzebub and held out my hand. He ignored my outstretched arm and grabbed me roughly, yanking me against him. He wound his arm around my waist and I felt the hard metal of the scroll case through my T-shirt. With his free hand, he reached up and caressed my face.
I recoiled.
Behind us a menacing growl ripped through the air.
“You are a beauty,” Beelzebub murmured as he ran a single finger down the left side of my face exactly where my scars used to be. “But I liked you better when you wore my mark.”
I gasped.
We always thought maybe China hadn’t been acting alone and now we knew for sure. My mother had been right all along. I had been marked.
Marked by evil.
Behind me I heard a scuffling sound and I knew Sam was about to shift—to attack. Beelzebub lifted his hand up as if to stop him. “You change right now, I will toss her into the fire. I prefer you in your weak human state.”
Sam wasn’t weak in any form. But he was more vulnerable to injury in his human form so I said, “I’m fine, Sam. Stay back.”
Beelzebub looked at Hecate. “Keep him in line. Keep him back.”
“My pleasure,” she said from within her hood. My stomach knotted.
“Open it,” Beelzebub snarled, grabbing me by the neck and holding me toward the fire. I looked down into the flames that seemed to go on forever. I might be holding the scroll in my hands, but Sam couldn’t throw that Marble down because the minute he did, Beelzebub would toss me in the pit. I had to open it, make him think I was doing what he wanted so I could get away, get closer to Sam.
I held up the key and brought it toward the lock, but my hands were shaking too badly to insert. “Please,” I said. “Can we move back? I’m scared.”
Beelzebub sighed dramatically, but he did move back and I sighed in relief. I took a chance and roughly pulled away from him, but he kept hold of my arm. I inserted the key into the lock and listened as the inner mechanism clicked and the lid popped off.
Beelzebub laughed.
It was now or never.
I swung the tube upward, hitting Beelzebub in the face and jerked free, yelling. “Now, Sam!”
Beelzebub roared and Hecate flung out her hand, sending Sam flying backward and crashing into the hard stone wall. The Lucent Marble rolled across the stone floor.
“Cole! Get the Marble!”
Cole was already moving, already diving at it, but he was too late and the Marble rolled into a darkened cell, behind iron bars. Out of reach.
“No!” Cole screamed, reaching out his hand. A hand that no longer had a true shape.
We had no way out of Hell.
We were trapped.
And we were out of time.
My vision was beginning to blur and my teeth were chattering as Sam lifted me to my feet. The bleakness of the situation pinched his face and eyes.
“You shouldn’t have betrayed me!” Beelzebub screamed and ripped a length of chain hanging from the wall.
This wasn’t the first time I had seen his anger. I knew how violent he could be so I anticipated his next move. He would go for Sam, the one thing that could hurt me most. Somewhere inside me, I found the strength and agility to move quickly and throw myself in front of Sam and take the hit intended for him.
“No!” Sam shouted and tried to shove me out of the way, which saved me from taking the full lash of the chain.
But the end of the chain still connected with my flesh and pain exploded through me.
I hit the ground. I was bleeding. I could feel the warm liquid ooze from my split face. I tucked the scroll beneath my body as Sam leapt into the air, shifting and landed on four sturdy midnight-colored paws. He planted himself in front of me, snarling.
Hecate held up both her hands and whispered a few words beneath her breath and flung Sam backward into a cell, the iron bars closing behind him.
I ran after him to let him out, but Beelzebub grabbed me, lifting me off my feet and carried me toward the angry flames. He was going to throw me. I was going to die.
Sam was throwing himself against the iron bars with all his weight and the metal was groaning under his intense weight and strength. A splitting sound went through the air as one of the bars cracked. In moments he would be free.
“Heven!” Cole ran forward, but he too was flung back with whatever magic Hecate was using.
It was up to me to save myself.
Using my teeth I pulled the loosened cap off the scroll and tossed it aside. Then I shook the case, flinging the Map out onto the floor. Beelzebub released me and went for the scroll, but I beat him to it, scooping up the delicate paper and holding it out. He froze and licked his lips. He wanted this so badly I could practically see the desperation dripping from him.
“Give it to me,” he said, his eye fixated on my hand and what it held.
“You know, I’m pretty tired of this thing,” I said, taking a step closer to the fire pit. “Who would have thought that a little piece of paper could cause me so much trouble?”
“What are you doing?” Beelzebub said and lifted his hand like he was going to do that little voodoo trick and fling me.
“Ah, ah ahhh,” I sang. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You take me down and I’m taking this precious piece of paper with me.”
Anger flared in his eyes, but he dropped his hands to his sides. I held the scroll out away from me like I was going to release it and I looked back at him. “Sure does suck to be the one who isn’t calling the shots, doesn’t it?”
My taunting set him off just like I knew it would, and he let out a roar and charged me. I took a step back from the door opening, flung the Treasure Map away and kicked the empty bronze case that once held the scroll into Beelzebub’s path. He tripped and reached out for me and being the good girl I was I helped him.
Right into the pit of flames.
Just before he plummeted, our eyes met and I made sure to smile. His own eyes widened in disbelief as he realized that he had been outsmarted. Even though I hated him, even though he was vile, his tortured screams were hard to hear. It was a long way down and we all heard every single one of his cries.
But I got over it. He deserved what he got.
Hecate grabbed the unprotected, fragile scroll off the floor and smirked at me. “I cannot wait to see how he makes you pay for that.”
You mean that wasn’t going to kill him? I shuddered. What exactly was this guy capable of?
I reached out to try to snatch the scroll from the witch, but was distracted by my arm. The outline of it (of my whole form really) was no longer there, and I knew that if we didn’t leave now, my soul would be ripped away from my body and I would be trapped forever.
“Here, take this,” a voice from a nearby darkened cell called. Something rolled across the floor as I turned.
The Marble.
“Kimber,” Cole said, picking it up.
“Get out of here while you still can.”
Hecate said something low and the door to Kimber’s cell swung open. We all watched as Kimber’s emancipated form floated out of the opening, suspended in mid-air. Even with Hecate’s spell holding her up, her body still sagged in defeat. She looked like an empty shell. As we watched something else floated out behind her… what could only be her soul.
Kimber’s soul had separated from her body.
But how was it still here? I just assumed that once a soul was released it would wander away and be corrupted by Hell.
“I did you a favor,” Hecate said. “You should be dead. Your soul should be gone. If it wasn’t for the magic I gave you and the spell that I cast on your cell you would be nothing but dust, your soul would have left, and turned into a lowly demon.”
Kimber gave no reaction. In fact, her skin was beginning to crack. Thin, black cracks that started at the tips of her lifeless fingers and began working their way up her wrists and arms. I watched in horror, my own body shaking, as I wondered if her skin would begin to flake off her body until she was nothing but a pile of bones.
“Stop!” Cole screamed, standing below Kimber, his arms raised as if he would pluck her from the air.
Whatever spell that was keeping Kimber semi-alive within her cell was clearly not working now that she was outside its confines.
I looked around for something I could use as a weapon, something to stop Hecate from whatever she was doing.
But it didn’t matter.
Hecate flung her fingers toward Kimber, who was tossed back into the dark cell, the door slamming with finality behind her. I couldn’t see her anymore, but I heard a smack against the granite walls and a whimpering of pain. I took that as a positive sign that she wasn’t dead. I was getting really tired of Hecate flicking her fingers and flinging people around.
Cole didn’t waste any time and threw the Marble against the floor. It shattered and a swirling portal burst open.
“Let’s go!” he yelled.
With a loud cry Sam charged the iron bars that confined him and sent them snapping outward as he broke free.
Hecate screamed in outrage at his strength. I took advantage of her distraction and ripped the scroll from her hands. She reacted quickly, jerking backward, and the fine paper of the Map ripped, leaving her holding the bottom section of the scroll. I threw what part I had to Cole and he tossed it through the portal and held out his hand for me to join him.
Sam charged the witch, slamming into her, and the torn piece of the Map fell from her hand. I grabbed it and looked down, not trying to read it, but feeling my mind click into place, retaining everything that on the page. Thank goodness for my new “ability” because a strong gust of wind pulled it right from my hands and into the burning flames.
“If I can’t have it, no one will!”
The Map no longer mattered as Sam and I ran for the portal. We were mere inches from jumping to safety when I heard him yell. I turned, but he was no longer behind me. He was back in the cell that he had just broken out of.
I looked at Cole and the safety of the portal. I felt my soul literally ripping from my body. Safety called to me.
I turned my back.
“Sam!” I ran toward him, but when I reached the cell door, my body hit something and bounced off some kind of invisible shield.
Hecate laughed. “You can’t get in and he can’t get out. He’s a prisoner now.”
“I won’t leave him!” I screamed, my voice coming out far weaker than I thought possible.
“Then, in seconds, your body will be ripped free of its soul and you will become a demon!”
You have to go, Heven.
Even through my blurry vision, I could make out every single beautiful line of Sam’s face. His sun-kissed hair was sticking up and gray from soot. He was still the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen and he was still everything to me. I won’t leave you here.
You don’t have a choice.
“Heven!” Cole said, grabbing my shoulder. “The portal is closing.”
“No!” I screamed and flung myself at the invisible wall that separated me from my beloved.
Please go. I can’t lose you, he begged and flattened his palm against the wall.
Yet if I left, wouldn’t we lose each other?
Tears rained down my cheeks and blurred what was left of my vision.
I’ll get out of here, Heven. I’ll come home to you.
I pressed my shapeless hand up against his. We couldn’t touch, but I swear I felt his warmth through the barrier. A sob ripped from my throat.
Sam nodded, but he wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was looking at Cole. Suddenly, I was being lifted off my feet and carried away from everything that mattered.
Please forgive me, Sam said.
“No!” I screamed. “No!” I hit Cole. I scratched and kicked, but nothing I did would make him let go of me. Through my screams Hecate’s laughter echoed around us.
I hated her.
I’ve never seen anyone look so miserable as he stood there and watched Cole tow me away. I hated myself in that moment for not being strong enough to get away.
“Sam,” I sobbed my voice hoarse.
I watched as the full lips that kissed me so many times formed the precious words, I love you, Heven. I heard them as a whispered rasp through my mind.
And then Cole stepped through the portal.
Today, Hell was denied the souls it had been trying to claim, but in the end, it stole something much more valuable, something I wasn’t sure I could exist without. My heart.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Heven
I wiped the tears from my face and blinked against the harsh light, realizing that it wasn’t quite light outside yet, but it was still far brighter than where we came from. I didn’t have the streng
th to pull away from Cole, but I didn’t really want to. I wasn’t mad at him for towing me away like that. He was only doing what he thought best. I glanced down at my hand and noted that the edges of my body were no longer blurred. My skin was pulled taut across flesh and bone and my soul was safely contained within my body. Sam traded his safety for mine.
I ducked my head into Cole’s shoulder and tried to stop my insides from trembling, but it was no use. While my soul and body may have recovered from the horrible events that just occurred, my brain was still trying to catch up.
“Heven, look at me,” Cole demanded, his voice sounding like he hadn’t spoken in weeks. It made me wonder how long we were down in the pits of Hell.
Cole grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me away from his body, holding me out so he could study me. “How badly are you hurt?” he whispered.
Tears filled my eyes. Did he really even have to ask? We left Sam in Hell. The place that is most famously known for destroying a person’s soul and turning them into evil zombies. While I knew that as a hellhound his soul would stay within his body, I was still beyond grief. The boy I loved most in this world was torn from me and I don’t know when and if I would see him again.
“I’ll get you to the hospital,” Cole said, standing up and taking me with him. He swayed a little on his feet and I knew that he was trying to hold it together for me.
“I don’t need to go to the hospital.”
He looked at me strangely before slowly asking me if my face hurt.
I shook my head. The only thing that hurt was my chest, where my heart used to reside.
“Heven, focus,” Cole said firmly and planted me on my feet. He kept his hands clasped around my biceps as if he thought I might crumble to the ground if he released me. “Your face.”
I made a frustrated sound. What about my face? I flung my hands up and pressed them to my cheeks and stopped, my eyes flashing up to Cole’s. Slowly, I lowered my hands noting that one set of fingers came away bloody. Visions of a swinging chain burst behind my eyes. Sam’s anger and cry of protest rang through my ears and I remembered.
Charade (Heven and Hell #2) Page 35
