Down in Flames

by Jennifer Siddoway

  Down in Flames

  The Earthwalker Trilogy

  Jennifer Siddoway

  Book Three

  (The Earthwalker Trilogy #3)

  First Edition

  Copyright © 2017 Jennifer Siddoway

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-942623-73-1

  Cover Design by Wit and Whimsy Designs

  All rights reserved.

  All rights reserved as permitted under the US. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without express written permission of the author, as the sole copyright holder. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. This novel is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to peoples either living or deceased is purely coincidental. Names, places, and characters are figments of the authors imagination. The author holds all rights to this work.

  Proudly published in the United States of America.

  For Bridgette

  Who took me under her wing as a budding author and taught me the ropes of getting published, then became one of my closest friends.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Happily, Never After

  Lost Without You

  Cold Day in Hell

  Demon Dialysis

  Miserable at Best

  What You’re Made of

  Into Eden

  Storming the Keep

  Family Ties

  Hell or High Water

  My Other Half

  Scream to the Sky

  Something Blue

  To Save You

  Holy Ground

  Meant to Be

  Our Unholy War

  Lifting the Curse

  All In

  Epilogue

  “We may stumble and fall but shall rise again;

  it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.”

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Prologue

  ML

  Rain pelted against the glass as I stared out the window of my apartment. The beads of water melted into each other as they dripped down its surface. The cold, grey horizon loomed over Mobile’s skyline, with angry black clouds in the distance. It had been raining for days now and there was no sign of it ever letting up. It seemed like the entire world was crying and I was beginning to miss the sun.

  Wynn loved the rain – she would have been dancing in the parking lot with her arms outstretched and welcoming it with a smile. That was the girl I knew, the one I fell in love with, who had left me here alone.

  Even now I yearned for her. Over the raging storm outside, I could hear her calling me. “Caleb ... Caleb, I love you.”

  I frowned, glancing down at the ring I’d been twiddling between my fingers. More accurately, it was three rings – the interlocking bands were made of different metals, set in the traditional Russian style, representing the love, friendship and unity that bonds two souls together. There was no gaudy stone or elaborate filigree, just plain ... simple. It seemed appropriate at the time. It had suited her.

  I should have gotten rid of it long ago but couldn’t bring myself to part with it. My chest felt tight as I swallowed the lump that was rising in my throat. She was gone, and all I had left were those bittersweet memories. The sound of her laugh, the freckled smile, the red hair that burned my soul like fire. They had all left fingerprints on my heart that would never go away. She was the one – no one else would compare to her. Yet all the forces of heaven and hell seemed determined to keep us apart. She’d left, and from my small corner of the world, it felt like the sun had not come out since.

  I couldn’t save her from herself.

  “Why do you do this to yourself?” Eric asked me suddenly, his voice breaking through my melancholy. “There’s nothing to be gained.”

  I turned to him and sighed, quickly returning the delicate piece of jewelry to its velvet case. “Of course there is.”

  His jaw tensed slightly as he eyed me critically, a heavy silence falling in the room between us. I knew his heart was in the right place, but the delivery and bluntness of his statement left something to be desired. We sat there quietly for a moment before either of us spoke again. “I told you this would happen,” the Guardian reminded me. “I tried to warn you before the damage was irreversible, but you were so lost in the throes of passion you didn’t listen.”

  I snorted dryly and said, “I know, but she was worth it – she was everything. I would do it all over again if I had to.”

  “Even though the she-devil rejected you?” he asked in disbelief. “You’re mad.”

  I breathed out deeply through my nose and rested my hands against the glass, trying to hold myself together. “She had to protect her family, Eric. It was a split-second decision. Lucifer would have killed them if she hadn’t agreed to his terms. I just thought, maybe, she would find some way to escape.”

  “You know the angels are still hunting her,” he mentioned slowly. “Even if she did manage to resurface, the Council would send someone to destroy her for forfeiting the contract.”

  I hung my head in sorrow. “What are you suggesting?”

  Eric sighed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “I’m saying that I want you to be happy and … maybe it’s time you move on.”

  Before I could answer, there was a knock at the door. Eric waved me off and I turned toward the sound of it instinctively. Lacey swooped in from outside and shook out her umbrella on the mat. Her long black hair was damp and hanging down across her shoulders in a ponytail.

  “Hey, Lace. What’s up?” I asked her conversationally.

  She smiled, looking up at me with clear blue eyes from her mud-caked boots as she dried off on the front steps. The hems of her jeans were wet, soaking up water halfway to her knee. “I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d check up on you. Has there been any news?”

  “Nope.”

  Lacey sighed and looked over apologetically, “I'm sorry, Caleb.”

  As she came towards me her eyes flicked slightly side to side and she paused in the center of the room. For a moment, Lacey looked around as if she was trying to find something. “Wait a minute … is somebody here? What is that I’m sensing?”

  Eric raised an eyebrow suspiciously, and glanced at me for confirmation.

  “Yeah, Lace, I have a buddy here visiting me from the other side.”

  “Oh. Hello, I guess?”

  “Lacey, is an empath,” I informed him by means of explanation. “She can sense the supernatural and anyone present from beyond the veil.”

  He chuckled slightly and responded, “Fascinating. Tell her I said hi.”

  “I’m not going to be your translator,” I shot back angrily.

  “Just do it.”

  “Eric say’s ‘hi’, and that he’s leaving,” I told her meaningfully.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Ugh,” I groaned at him in annoyance. I forced a smile in her direction and gave her a one-armed hug. Despite my original cool reception, I’d actually become quite fond of my adoptive sister over the last few months, she never gave up on me and welcomed me graciously into their family. It was a different world than the one I’d known before and I was grateful for her patience. “Sorry, Lace. Was there something you needed?”

  Lacey pursed her full, pouting lips together in a frown. “Is he…?”

  “Yeah, he’s safe.”

  She relaxed slightly and said, “Well, Charley had an idea the other day. I can’t believe we hadn’t considered it before, but it might actually work to bring Wynn back.”

  I snorted. “It won’t work. I’ve already tried everything. What do you t
hink I’ve been doing the last eight months? The Demon Realm is impenetrable. There is no way for us to get her out unless there is help on the other side. There’s no point in getting my hopes up, when I already know it’s impossible.”

  My sister frowned, marring her dusky latina complexion, and said, “I’m not trying to upset you, but isn’t it worth exploring every option?”

  “No,” I responded curtly, in a way that surprised even me. “I’m done. I can’t keep grasping at straws like this, it … hurts too much.”

  She walked over and put her hand on my shoulder. “I don’t want you to give up hope when you obviously love her.”

  “I did,” I choked out sadly. “I wanted that so badly, and every time I tried it failed. Over and over again. I can’t go through that anymore.”

  Lacey pulled back from me in surprised. “Do you really mean that?”

  Both she and Eric were waiting for my answer as I swallowed hard and nodded. For a moment, none of us spoke and the finality of it settled across the living room. Lacey rested her head against my shoulder and said, “Why don’t you get some air? It would be good for you. We could go and see a movie, or get some dinner at Mom and Dad’s, something.”

  Eric nodded in encouragement and I let out a tired sigh, glancing down at the candle on the nightstand Wynn had given me. It still had the gold, Moroccan pattern etched around the glass. The red wax inside smelled like cranberries, just like I remembered. I don’t know what inspired me to light it, but the soft glow of its flame had given me comfort over the last few months as I prayed for her return. Prayers that had thus far, remained unanswered.

  “Sure, I guess that could be fun.”

  She smiled and clasped her hands together in excitement. In one swift movement, I bent down and blew out the candle and let the cinders dwindle into ashes.

  Chapter One

  Happily, Never After

  ML

  The soles of my combat boots clomped noisily along the marble floor of Aidan’s palace as I headed towards the elevator. The lavish building was styled with modern décor and all the conveniences that came along with it. A few smaller devils jumped out of the way as I approached the pristine set of black double-doors, afraid to make eye contact and reap the consequences. What followed was a series on inane babbling as I stepped over the slimy trail left by their tentacles.

  I sighed, pressing the illuminated button on the wall and waited for the doors to open. It took less than a second before they slid apart quietly and I stepped inside to the adjoining chamber, made entirely out of glass. The enclosed room sat on the exterior of the building and sealed itself up behind me. There was a moment of pause before it moved while I leaned forward to look into the retinal scanner, and pressed the button to reach the executive offices. Aidan’s suite was on the two hundred and seventy fourth floor, secured with layers of protection. Only a chosen few were given access to that level – I happened to be one of them.

  An electronic voice identified my authorization and I felt the elevator move. There was a whir of the electric motor as I leaned back against the handrail and felt my stomach drop into my ribcage. It eventually settled down, as my body acclimated to the velocity and I grumbled to myself softly. My fiery red hair was plaited back into a bohemian braid bound together with bits of fabric. It was longer now, uncut for the last eighteen months, and fell well past my shoulders. The straps from my leather pauldron cut down into my collarbone, and I rolled my neck to relieve some tension. The armor strapped across my ribcage over a tight black shirt, adding extra weight and girth to my normal frame. I’d gotten used to the mandated changes to my wardrobe, but resented their existence to begin with. I missed the softer fabric of my t-shirts and jeans, I missed a lot of things. It was just another part of what separated life down here from mortality.

  The shoulder that remained uncovered by the suit of armor bore Lucifer’s sigil, which he completed carving into my flesh on the day I arrived. My submission was immediate and compulsory, otherwise met with cruel and unusual punishments that were thought up on the fly. Aidan had a short temper and a knack for coming up with new ways to torment me. I did my best not to aggravate him. My nostrils flared as I huffed out angrily, remembering the initiation ceremony.

  Ceremony, I thought to myself humorlessly. Is that supposed to be a joke?

  I didn’t like being summoned, nothing good ever came from those exchanges. Huffing angrily, I pushed away from the railing and began to pace.

  Eventually, the ascension slowed and the doors opened silently to a black tiled hallway. There were no doors, no windows or any paintings on the walls. It was completely blank, except for the desk fastened to the ceiling and the blond demon who sat manning it. Mephistopheles.

  He looked up from his paperwork over his half-moon spectacles down to the floor below. A smile flickered across his face when he saw me standing on the ground beneath him, but his eyes were cold and black, reminding me of a shark. “Well, if it isn’t the Dark Princess, returning home at last,” the demon greeted me coolly.

  “Hello, Mephistopheles,” I addressed him with a subtle nod. “I need to get inside, He’s expecting me.”

  The demon set his pen on the desk and lazily floated down to the tile flooring. His long, flaxen hair was pulled back into a low, elegant ponytail that hung almost to his waist, and his hands were placed gracefully behind his back as he eyed me with disdain. Purple smoke from his demon aura surrounded him like a fog and billowed out across the floor. “Expecting you, is he? I don’t seem to have that on my schedule.”

  The formal air in his tone and composure was one of the reasons Lucifer selected him as a personal assistant. He was very by-the-book, and that came in handy because it meant there were no surprises. I smiled thinly, looking back at him with his buttoned up shirt and tie. “Well, you better check again, because I was summoned.”

  Mephistopheles pursed his lips together and activated the blu-tooth feature on his headset to address Aidan in his office. “Master, Miss Hendricks is here to see you.”

  A moment later, Aidan’s voice responded, “Thank you, Mephistopheles. You can send her in.”

  We smiled tensely at one another as he led me to the blank wall around the corner. Using the marble finish as a canvas, Mephistopheles drew a doorway with his fingers and the portal opened to the other side. My senses were attuned to the subtle ripple of energy that burst from it – unfortunately Aidan’s secretary was the only creature that had access.“Right this way,” he muttered dryly. “I don’t know what you did to make him obsessed with you, but bravo. I’ve never seen anyone granted this level of attention before. It makes me sick.”

  “We’ve been through this,” I informed him acidly. “I didn’t ask to be here.”

  His eyes narrowed infinitesimally as he quipped back at me, “Of course you didn’t.”

  I found his blind jealousy delicious, only because I enjoyed tormenting him about his man crush and seeing him upset. The glare he gave me was almost cutting as I scoffed, storming past him haughtily. Aidan’s idea of an office was not exactly aligned with how the rest of the world would interpret it. He sat at a large mahogany desk set back into an alcove with a pen and paper in hand. There was an open space in the center of the room with an enormous war map built into the marble floor. It depicted, with painstaking detail, an intricate representation of the Mortal Plane with each of the major cities. The landscape rose and fell in the third dimension to show hills and mountains, with actual water being used for the model’s ocean. A fine mist swirled above it in a convection pattern to form the clouds and give the sense of atmosphere. Every time I saw it, the detail made me wonder if I was looking at a map at all, or some magical duplicate.

  When Aidan heard my footsteps on the marble floor, he glanced up from the document he was signing and set his pen down on the desk. As soon as the writing implement finished marking his signature, I heard a man wailing on the floor below us. Aidan’s tussled blond hair was the picture of elega
nce as he smiled at me, standing up from his chair and smoothing the front of his vest. “Ah, Wynn,” his clear baritone voice called out the moment I was in view.

  On the desk beside him was an emerald garden snake that slithered across the surface and flicked out his tongue to taste the air around him. It was an odd, yet appropriate, choice in pet that was often found coiled around various surfaces in his office. Many times, I’d been caught off guard by the sound of it hissing at me from the lampshade, or nipping playfully at my heel after I almost stepped on it because I hadn’t noticed its arrival. All in all, I found the beast to be incredibly annoying.

  My pulse quickened as the Demon Lord came around the desk towards me, but I swallowed hard and asked, “You summoned me, m’lord?”

  “Yes, I need you to take this package to my sister in Stygia,” he gestured to a bloody sack that was sitting on a table by the wall. My nose crinkled in disgust at the sight as I walked over to pick it up. “Then I want you to visit Abaddon and see what you can do about changing her mind about my plan,” he continued. “She’s been reluctant to side with me thus far, but perhaps a new voice like yours could help sway her in the right direction.”

  “Side with you on what?”

  I knew he was planning something, but thus far I’d failed to pry out what it was.

  “Just deliver the package and the message.”

  I nodded stiffly, looking down at the messy present in my hands. “What is it exactly?”

  A smear of blood still lingered on the table where it had been sitting and I sniffed cautiously to find a mild stink permeating the air around it.

  His brown eyes twinkled when he responded, “I harvested an assortment of different organs from the prisoners down below. She’s acquired a bit of a taste for them, I’m afraid. I think she’ll appreciate the snack, don’t you?”

  The way he said it was filled with such childlike glee that it made the horrific act seem almost normal. I supposed that type of behavior was considered normal, given that he was a high functioning sociopath, but I would never get used to it – no matter how many times I tried.