“Asmodeus doesn’t want you, hunter. He wants his granddaughter, Kendall.”
Linc snapped his head up, but his words froze for a second, too struck by the terrible beauty of Wing Slayer. The god easily topped seven feet, and his wings glowed gold with red streaks. His enormous arms were wrapped in bands branded with wings, and he wore a bronzed cloth draped around his hips and over one of his shoulders. Linc raised his eyes higher.
The god’s harsh face had something fierce and fucking scary bulging in his forehead. Horns?
“You don’t want to see my horns, hunter.” The voice boomed out as if projected from a thousand surround-sound speakers.
Right. Focus. “I just want to save Risa.”
“He’s willing to trade. He’ll give you back Risa, an earth witch, for the baby with demon blood.”
That easy? Just trade and get—
What was he thinking? God, he wasn’t that much of a monster. If he handed Kendall over to Asmodeus, he’d be his mother. He stared at his knife lying there between him and Wing Slayer. What the hell should he do? He couldn’t leave Risa in the Underworld either.
An impossible choice. He loved Risa, God he loved her. But Kendall was a baby. “I can’t. I’ll fight or do anything, but I won’t sacrifice a baby.” And if the god wouldn’t help him, Linc would find another way to get to the Underworld.
“Pick up your knife, hunter.”
His broken fingers hurt like a bitch, the smallest one swelling around Risa’s ring. He reached for his knife, ready to beg.
The silver lit up, and the golden light raced around his hand.
Frowning, Linc watched both his hands heal in seconds from god magic. Warmth bloomed against his palm. Lifting the knife, he turned his hand over and opened his healed fingers. Impressed on the hilt of his blade were wings. Wing Slayer had marked his knife.
He looked up. “I don’t understand.”
“If you’d been willing to hand over that baby without a fight, you’d have seen my horns.”
Elemental fear slid down his back. That would have been bad in a way Linc couldn’t comprehend and didn’t want to. “So what now? How do I get Risa?”
“You’re going to have to fight. There’s no other way to get her out from Asmodeus’s clutches alive. Once Risa dies, her soul will still go to Summerland, but Asmodeus plans to keep her alive and torture her until we give him his granddaughter.”
Memories of his own torture burned in Linc. His muscles twitched, the need to get to Risa zapping his nerve endings. “I’ll do it. Tell me what it is. We have to hurry.” He couldn’t kneel there doing nothing while she suffered.
“Be sure, hunter. Right now you have Kendall, but if you do this, you could lose her and you’ll die.”
He narrowed his gaze, impatience fueling his anger. “You said we aren’t handing over Kendall.”
“Without a fight. I had to make sure you wouldn’t sacrifice her. You tore yourself away from Risa when you found out she was rescuing a baby with demon blood, leaving your witch unprotected.”
Shame pressed in. “I fucked up.” He had done it, so damned scared of being betrayed as he had been by his mother, he’d pulled back. “I have no excuse. But I’ll never do that again.” Swallowing down the internal rage and desperation to save Risa, he fought for the patience to find out what to do. “Please, what’s the plan?”
“A cage-fight deathmatch between you and Archer. The winner gets both Risa and Kendall.”
Shock blanked his mind for a second. A cage fight? In the Underworld? Was that a thing there? Regaining his wits, Linc said, “Why would Asmodeus agree to a cage fight and risk it all when he can just keep sending his demon witches, rogues and any other spawns he has out there after Kendall?”
“He didn’t have a choice. I issued a Provocatio challenging his son to fight my hunter to the death. If he refused, I could claim my boon, which would be Risa.”
What? “How did that work? And when did you have time? It’s only been minutes since Risa vanished.”
“Time moves differently in the Underworld. Now are you interested in demon rules and politics or getting your mate back?”
Easy answer. “Risa. I’ll do anything.” Rage pulsed beneath Linc’s skin. He wanted to kill Archer. That slimy prick had taken his… “Wait.” A new concern struck him. “The witches said we can’t kill Archer.”
He glanced at the knife in Linc’s hand. “I gave you the power to kill him in the Underworld with that blade. The knife is your weapon against Archer’s hellfire arrows.”
“In a cage?” That was suicide if Linc couldn’t maneuver. Unless… “I’ll have Risa’s shield in my wings, right?”
“That’s another reason Asmodeus accepted the Provocatio. Risa can’t reach her magic right now.”
“Because she’s in the Underworld?” How the fuck was he going to win?
Wing Slayer waved his hand. “See for yourself.”
Screams pierced his brain, and he was dragged through one murder after another, experiencing the terror and pain as soul screams ripped apart his skull.
Then it vanished, leaving him sweat-drenched and nauseated. “Do something!” Frantic worry clawed at him. “She can’t endure it, she needs the bird.” Linc fisted the knife, desperate to save her. “I can’t reach her, she shoved me away.” Out of love for him and Kendall. Did she know he loved her enough to come for her? Or did Risa think she was alone in torment?
Wing Slayer said, “You’ll have only a few minutes with her while I secure the baby. Are you willing?” The god held out his hand.
He’d hesitated once when Risa needed him. Never again. “Yes.” He set his hand in Wing Slayer’s, and the world split apart as he was cast to another realm.
The Underworld.
* * *
Risa cringed as a scream dug into her mind, dragging her through another murder. Sweat soaked her skin, and she shivered with icy dread and constant bolts of pain. Exhaustion made her want to give in.
Let her mind shatter.
No! Eyes squeezed shut, she tried to push out of the pit of agony. Bloody, rotting hands reached for her with hatred boiling in eyeless sockets. She couldn’t get free. The hands tore at her legs as the screams battered her mind.
Soft singing caught her attention. Risa fought, trying to surface out of the screams holding her trapped. There, she heard the melodious sound again, so beautiful it redoubled her hope and will to survive. Falcon. He came for her, which meant Linc was there too.
What if it wasn’t real? Just more torment in her mind?
The singing increased in magnitude, the power of the trills and calls urging the souls to relax.
Come on, sweetheart. Come back to me.
Linc. Her magic opened, flowing out and spreading tranquility. The souls settled back into the quiet place, surrounded by a shield of serenity.
“I’m here, Risa. Look at me, love.”
The sensation of his arms around her solidified. Slowly she opened her eyes. It all rushed back to her. “Linc, how did you get here? Where’s Kendall?” She tried to move.
He locked his arms around her. “Rest a couple more minutes. Your magic is still working to heal you. And Kendall’s fine, safe. I swear.”
That helped her relax. She looked around the eight-by-eight cell, which was made up of black concrete of some kind and had a door with bars as thick as Linc’s arms. Hooks hung from the ceiling, and black spikes protruded from one wall and part of the floor. She tried not to think about what those spikes were for.
“Where are we?” She’d been shoved in here and left alone to endure the soul screams. At least they hadn’t thrown her on the spikes.
“Some kind of demon coliseum. This is a holding cell.”
Chills raced down her spine. What did that mean? “You didn’t answer my question. How did you get here?” Hope welled in her, but it couldn’t be that easy for them to get out and return to Earth. She eyed the door. It was shut. Locked. He was locked in here with h
er.
“Wing Slayer.” He explained his meeting with the god.
Amazed, she took it all in. “What’s a Provocatio?”
“Not exactly sure, some kind of challenge that Asmodeus couldn’t refuse, or he would’ve had to relinquished you to Wing Slayer as a penalty.”
Emotion welled up, knotting in her throat while her heart ached with the magnitude of Linc’s love. He’d done so much for her, pulling her back from the soul screams, helping her find and save Kendall, and once he discovered Risa had lied about the baby, he protected them anyway. And tonight…he’d come to hell to save her.
Risa cupped the side of his face. “You found a way to get here. I hoped, but I didn’t know if it was possible.”
His eyes burned a dark gold. “You knew I’d try? Even after I nearly severed our bond the night Archer woke and attacked?”
The memory hurt worse than the screams, that wrenching rejection just minutes after telling her he loved her. Taking away the most beautiful part of her…their bond and the bird that linked them. As she’d told him before, once she felt nothing with other men, but with Linc, she felt everything. Every emotion was bigger, sharper, more beautiful or devastating and he was worth all of it. “Yes. We’re not perfect, but you’re not your mother. You regretted that moment and fixed it, helping me come out of the soul screams afterward.”
He brushed her hair back. “You were hemorrhaging blood and nearly died that night. Scared the fuck out of me. I knew in that second I still loved you.”
“But I’d broken your trust by lying to you.”
“I understand why—”
She slid her fingers over his mouth, cutting him off. “I learned the price of not trusting you, of not believing in you, and I’ll never doubt you again. So yes, I knew you’d try to get to me, and save me if you could. All I had to do was hold on to a thread of sanity.”
“God, I love you.” He shook his head. “In all my fights and all my gambles at the poker table, the stakes were never so high, so important. This is the most crucial fight of my life. I’ll win. I won’t let you or Kendall down. You two are my world now.”
She’d never been anyone’s world. And she’d never had real forgiveness and understanding like Linc had given her. They’d fought, made mistakes and worked through it together. Her chest ached with the thick, warm sensation of their love. So powerful. He came to the Underworld for her, willing to fight.
Her breath caught at the full realization of what he was going to do, what he was truly risking, hit her. Shifting to her knees, she said, “Wait, you’re supposed to get in a cage with Archer? He’ll kill you! No, you have to go back!” She gripped his arm, panic pounding through her. “Linc, please. If you lose, you’ll be dead, and Kendall will be at the mercy of demons.”
His eyes darkened, and his shoulders swelled. “You’re at the mercy of demons.”
“They’ll kill you. At least this way, I’ll know you and Kendall are alive. That she has a chance. I can’t watch you die too. I can’t.”
“I’m not going to die. I’m going to win your freedom.” He slid something off his little finger and onto her thumb.
She recognized the feel of the ring that held her witch book, but she kept her stare on Linc.
“Why did you leave it with me? You love this ring. Darcy gave it to you.”
Tears filled her eyes at his understanding that she’d valued that ring because it signified her friendship with other witches. He never tried to isolate her in the controlling way her father had isolated her mother. Instead, he’d supported those friendships because they were important to her. “That’s why, Linc. I love the ring, but I love you more. If you couldn’t save me, and I knew you’d try, but if you couldn’t—I wanted you to have something of me. I hoped you’d feel my love in it.”
He pulled her across his lap, his warm arms wrapping around her as his mouth crashed down onto hers. My brave witch, I love you. I’m going to win and take us home.
Desire surged into her magic, both from his touch, and the intimacy of his voice in her head. This special connection was theirs alone, and strong enough that she’d heard him even while trapped in the soul screams. Part of her wanted to hold onto this moment and stay here safe in Linc’s arms. Except they weren’t safe, and she needed more information. Risa eased back, staring into his eyes. “How will you win against Archer?”
Confidence brimmed in his gaze. “You. You’re my secret weapon. We’re going to fight together. Cage bars can’t separate us.”
She loved hearing him say that. Linc truly valued her. “I’ll be able to use magic?”
“Yep. Look at your ring.”
Risa lowered her gaze and gasped. The smooth silver had been reformed into two intricate wings circling her thumb. Running her finger over it, she caught the scent. “It smells like metal and flowers.”
“Wing Slayer. He marked my knife and your ring, claiming us both. He’ll make sure you can use your magic, and he gave me the ability to kill Archer in my knife.” Cupping her face, he added, “It’ll still be a battle, Risa. The god gave us all he could. Now it’s up to us. And the demons will use any trick they can to torture and break us.” His gaze burned into hers. “You can’t push me away to protect me, no matter what happens. We do this together, or we lose everything.”
Before she could answer, the door clanged open, and two males with red leathery skin, curved horns like a ram, and cloven feet entered. But it wasn’t the grotesque creatures that got her attention.
No, she honed in on the thick metal collar, wristbands and chains they dragged.
Linc tensed, and Risa leapt to her feet. “You aren’t chaining him!”
They shoved her aside and tackled Linc to the floor.
“Risa!” Linc’s bellow bounced off the walls.
Two more demons rushed in to yank her up. “I’m okay!” She shouted it, but Linc was already gone.
The remaining demons dragged Risa out into a hallway. Tortured screams rent the air, and her stomach heaved. The long gray stone walls were covered in claw marks, dried blood and gore. The smell…like rotting garbage and dead animals baking in the sun.
A low, menacing growl raised the hairs on her neck. The skin over her spine prickled. What was that? Where? She twisted her head to look behind her. Long empty hallway, the walls dotted with thick bars indicating cells.
Another snarl.
Adrenaline shot into her bloodstream. It came from up ahead. The walls ended, and the walkway kept going into open air. Terror took hold. She struggled with the two seven-foot giants holding her arms.
Mercilessly the demons dragged her forward toward the sickening sounds of ripping flesh and snapping jaws. Don’t look.
But she did. Straight down into a pit of frenzied creatures—misshapen animals. A lion’s head on a gorilla body. Another that had an alligator tail on a horse’s frame. The things fought over what looked like chunks of flesh.
“We feed the losers to the hellbeasts. Some are dead, some wish they were,” one of the demon’s said in stilted English.
She’d landed in a nightmare. Would Linc be able to get them out?
~ 25 ~
It took all Linc’s self-control not to fight the chains. He stood, stripped down to shorts and his knife holstered on his thigh, facing to colossal iron doors that matched the iron clamped around his neck, wrists and ankles. The demons held the chains attached to his shackles.
He couldn’t lose this fight and his anxiety spiked. He’d been in countless deathmatches with his own life at stake and had felt nothing but adrenaline and fury.
But now he risked Risa and Kendall. The two who gave him a reason to live, and to kill. Protecting them mattered more than all his wealth, his life or even his soul. He had to win.
Raw determination thumped with each heartbeat as he waited, mentally preparing. He expected tricks, but he couldn’t react or let his fear of what would happen to Risa and Kendall if he lost get into his head space. Fear could cause him t
o make a fatal mistake. He had to stay clear and focused.
The doors began to swing open with an ominous creaking of hinges. Linc steeled himself, blanking his expression and icing his emotions. He faced an oval-shaped arena roughly the size of a football field. Demons of every shape and size filled the seats stretched around the field.
The demons pulled on his chains, forcing Linc to follow them through the doors. He ignored the clapping, thumping and bellowing to focus on the massive cage structure that covered a third of the arena. Real bars stretched up with no end in sight, enclosing the fighting ring. Behind that roared a wall of flames.
Hellfire. The smell and screams coming from that were bad enough. The distorted, melting faces flashing on the surfaces of the flames, forever locked into a mask of agony, touched off bone-deep resistance that nearly caused him to stumble. The demons yanked on the chains, knocking him off balance. He dropped to his knees two dozen feet from the cage and the wall of hellfire behind it.
The iron around his neck tightened as they held him on his knees.
“Ready to die, Feral?”
Linc turned his head toward the voice, and swear to Wing Slayer his skin crawled at the sight of Asmodeus to the right of the cage. The demon had three heads—a ram, a bull and a monster. He sat on a throne with his massive cloven hooves twitching on the footrest. Fluttering around him were three strangely lovely creatures, females no more than four feet in height, with delicate wings in jewel colors outlined in black. They had antenna-like protrusions coming from their foreheads.
Forget the women. He returned his attention to Asmodeus. Despite Linc’s submissive position, he said, “I’m not the one who will die. We kicked your son’s ass off of Earth and sent him back here. Where is he?” Linc glanced around, looking for the spawn. “Hiding?”
The roar of the flames amplified, and the wall of hellfire shot up two hundred feet into the bleak sky, then split apart all the way down to the ground, like the water parting for Moses. Archer stood in the unearthly glow of the flames, leathery wings lifted high, arms spread wide.
Caged Magic Page 32
