The city came into view, and it was even more beautiful up close than it had been from far away. The dark steel or rock-like material shone against the bright yellow-orange of the lava. The entire town seemed to be made out of the substance. Every surface had been polished to better reflect the light off of the sea of lava moving below. It was an amazing concept, one that you would never see in our world.
I slowed down as I entered the city, and reapplied my shield. I wasn’t going to be taking any chances. There still weren’t any signs of life. As crazy as it sounded, the place almost looked deserted. That didn’t sound like any of the demons I knew. They all liked to have their playthings and their slaves.
Maybe it was the heat from the lava that kept them all inside. The stone walkways were empty, and most of the buildings I had seen didn’t have doors. Maybe they moved everyone somewhere else during the day to work. If anyone lived here, they had to get food and water from somewhere. Moving through the city quickly, I took turns at random, hoping to finally see someone.
Three steps around a corner, and I actually ran into someone. Both of us jumped away from each other. The person I bumped into looked terrified, as if they had been caught doing something wrong. She turned and started to run. It didn’t take me to long to catch up with her but it took long enough for me to realize that her running away might have been a setup. I followed her into a building and almost ran smack dab into three more people.
She smiled as she looked at me from behind the three burly men. She paced back and forth between them. Every now and again, I caught a glimpse of her and the cold, calculating look on her face. The men moved forward a step but stopped when I pulled out my swords. I twirled the blades around and dropped into a fighter's crouch.
One of the men growled out, “Matty, what do you want us to do?”
The men moved apart slightly so she could have a better view. Her eyes roved over my body. She seemed to be trying to figure out who I was and why I was here. She looked at my torn clothes that were entirely different than what they had on, and frowned. Her eyes flicked toward my swords and then back up to my face. I tried to give her a smile. Apparently, that was the wrong thing to do.
“Knock him out, and we will let the elders decide.”
I backed up a step before the men closed ranks around her again. “Matty, is it?” No response. “The men you have with you won’t be enough to take me out, not without at least two of them dying. I’d prefer not to have to kill anyone.”
“You really think you could kill two of my men?” They split again so she could peer out.
“Actually, that was me trying to minimize the casualties. I could kill all four of you, but where would that leave me?”
“Take him.”
I guess bravado didn’t work well in this circle of hell. The first man swung a large metal rod at me. I moved to the side, letting it pass me. His swing made it so the two men to his right couldn’t move forward. Continuing to circle to the left, I jumped onto the wall and back at the man, reversing my blade. I slammed the hilt into his temple, dropping him to the ground. One down, two to go.
One of the others rushed forward. He swung another grayish metal rod at my head. I blocked it with my sword and was slightly surprised when my blade cut cleanly through it. Must not have been made out of the same metal holding us up, at least I hoped not. The man must have been just as shocked, because he stopped to look at what was left of his weapon. I kicked out and caught him in the gut, and then another hilt to the head, and I watched as his eyes rolled up in his head. One more to go, and maybe I’d finally get some answers.
The third man looked back at the woman, and she nodded. He rushed forward, one of the metal weapons in each hand. When I deflected the blows, I almost laughed. It had to be disheartening to see their weapons cut in half. Instead of being worried, though, he just tried to stab me with what was left. I wouldn’t be able to block them without cutting him now, and I really didn’t want to do that. Calling on my gift, I sent a gust of air at him. He slammed into the wall and fell to the ground. I ran forward and kicked him in the head. His head snapped back against the wall with a thud, and he stopped moving.
All three of the men were down; one of them was groaning softly. A clink sounded from behind me, and I turned just in time to see the woman lunging at me with two daggers. She must have stepped on one of the broken rods as she jumped for me. It was highly possible that noise was the only thing that saved my life. She was in the air, and I used a gust of wind to lift her over my head. She came down hard, and one of her blades bounced away. She rose quickly and faced me, flipping the blade from her left hand to her right.
I could tell she wasn’t going to give up, so instead of attacking directly, I used another bit of magic to heat the blade in her hand until she dropped it with a curse. Finally, something other than aggression crossed her features. She looked at me again from head to toe and then slowly moved toward the side of the structure as she continued to size me up.
“Are you the redeemer?”
“People have started to call me that.”
“Thought you’d be bigger.”
“I hadn’t heard that one yet.”
She made a disgusted sigh and bent to pick up her daggers. She sheathed them and looked back toward me. “I guess you’re all we got.”
I didn’t know if I should be shocked or worried. I mean, what were people saying about me now, that I was eight feet tall and shot fireballs out of my asshole? Matty continued to watch me and just shrugged her shoulders and went to check on the one man who was semi-conscious.
“Does it make you feel good to beat up normal humans?” She said it with a slight sneer as she checked his skull for damage.
“Well, to be fair, I don’t receive very many warm welcomes. Maybe if people were more inclined to polite conversation, then incidents like this could be avoided.” She huffed. Maybe snark wasn’t the best way to get through to her. “If I remember how this started, you ignored my warnings and sent your men after me anyway.”
If anything, her look grew more furious. “Well, I didn’t fucking know you were the redeemer then, did I?”
“I’d hate to think this is the greeting anyone who comes to your village gets.”
“Well, most of the people coming here are demons or work for them, so they damn well get what they deserve. You mind”—she waved her hand at the two men who were still passed out—“fixing that?”
I turned to help one of the men. I made sure to keep my eye on her. Despite what we had just said, I still had the feeling she would shove one of those daggers into me the first chance she got. Placing a hand on the man, I sent a small burst of healing magic into him. He stirred and then stood up and moved toward the others. I did the same thing to the next man. All four of them were standing now and watching me as if I was about to jump forward and cut all of them down. “So what happens now?”
“Now we take you to the elders.” She pointed toward the men. “You three keep watch, and make sure if anyone else shows up here, they are dealt with.”
The men nodded, and Matty walked out of the building with a little swagger to her step. I wondered if that was just for me to get my eyes to follow her hips or if it was for the men behind me. Either way, it didn’t really matter. Matty was a means to an end. The end being me getting home to April. Once I was home, I could watch my woman’s hips until I was blue in the face.
Matty looked over her shoulder and waved me forward. “Let’s hurry this up, lover boy. I’ve got other things to do today.”
“You’re not the only one.”
She gave me one last look as if I was crazy and then entered another one of the buildings. This building was over the rocks instead of the lava. She walked to the end of the building. I was about to ask her what gives when she placed her palm on the wall, and it opened. I hadn’t seen a scanner or anything, so maybe it was just a simple pressure plate. The door swung open, revealing stairs heading down.
Lights had been strung overhead and led down into the darkness. Matty descended without hesitation. I paused at the top of the stairs as the door swung back into place. There was nothing to do but go forward now, but if these people chose to attack, I’d be forced to kill them. She continued down the stairs quickly, sometimes taking three or four at a time, probably trying to prove something. I rushed after her, but I wasn’t in that big of a hurry. That, and I didn’t trust her enough to blindly follow her lead.
She was waiting for me at the bottom when I got there. She had a smug look on her face as if running down some stairs faster than me actually meant something. I didn’t say anything. I just stood and waited. Her smirk turned into a look of frustration, and she opened the next door. The air blowing out of the room was different. The heat inside of the staircase was almost stifling, but the cool humid air coming out of the room was refreshing.
Matty stuck her head back in the room. “Hurry up, you’re letting out all the air.”
Moving through the door, I let out a low whistle. The entire area was covered in dark green plants. The lights must have simulated sunlight somehow, and I could hear the sound of running water in the distance. Walking toward one of the plants, I reached out a hand and held one of the red tomatoes up. The damn thing was huge. I settled it back against the plant and looked down. All the roots were in a water system, probably being fed nutrients from a tank somewhere.
They couldn’t grow food topside, so they had created some kind of massive hydroponic farm down here. It was pretty damn impressive. I looked into the water again and saw a fish swim by. Wow, they had fish too. I started to wonder just how self-sustaining the system actually was. It felt good to be back in the cool air after all that heat. I was going to have to ask how they kept the temperature down.
Matty stepped forward and handed me a glass of water. “Thought you might need a drink after being out there.”
I thought about not accepting it, but that would be rude, and really, if they wanted to try and poison me, I could just flush it out of my system anyway. “Thank you.” The water tasted pure. Kind of like back when my friend lived on a property with a well. The water was so good. I wouldn’t be surprised if they filtered it somehow and it was the same water used on the plants. Out of all the hells I had been to, these humans seemed the most put together. Matty took the glass from me and set it down. She started moving again, indicating that I should follow her.
We moved through the room on walkways above the water until we reached a woman in a lab coat. Matty waited for her to look up before speaking.
“Erika, this is the Redeemer.”
She didn’t wait around to see what was going to happen. She just smirked at the look on my face and walked past me, back in the direction we had come from. The woman in front of me was staring at me, a hungry expression on her features. I tried to put a quizzical look on my face, but her meaning was pretty obvious.
What really threw me off was that this person was considered an elder. She couldn’t have been much over thirty, maybe not even that. That meant one of two things was true. Most people in this place didn’t live to be very old, or she was smart and badass. Something in the way she was standing made me think maybe it was a little of both.
“So you’re the famous redeemer?”
“Guilty as charged, but you can call me Jackson.” I held out my hand to shake, and she didn’t reach for it. I pulled the offending limb away from her and waited. The silence stretched out until I threw my hands up in the air in frustration. “Don’t worry. Apparently in hell, no one can use my name.”
“It’s just, you aren’t exactly what I expected, Jackson.”
“Not tall enough, and with less fire?”
“No, prettier and a little younger.”
“Ah, well, I guess that’s better than what I said.”
She smiled. “So what can I help you with?”
“I need to figure out where the prince of this realm is and how to get there.”
“It’s a princess, actually.”
She gave me a look as if I would challenge her on it. A challenge wouldn’t be coming from me. I knew women were just as strong as men.
“What do you plan on doing to her?” she asked, a frown ticking at the right-hand corner of her mouth.
“Killing her would be my first choice, but not until I try and get her to create a portal to send me home.”
“You might have noticed, but things are actually ok here.” She looked around the room at all of the plants. “We can’t help you with your quest.”
To say I was shocked was an understatement. No one had ever told me that they were ok with what was happening to them in hell. I looked around and knew they had it better than most, but that didn’t mean things were actually ok. The lack of demons was surprising, but again, that didn’t mean much. “So tell me, what gives? This is my fourth stop in hell, and no one has ever been this content before.”
“Our princess takes care of us. All we have to do is pay tribute. She won’t let any of the demons touch us.”
“And how do you pay tribute?”
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand it.”
I made a go-on gesture. “Tell me anyway.”
She frowned and then looked around. “On our fortieth birthday, we are required to present ourselves to the matron. What happens then is a mystery to us. No one has ever returned from the mountain. We also deliver twenty percent of our crops to her. In return, she leaves us alone.”
“So she kills everyone who is over forty, and you’re ok with that?”
“It’s the way it has always been.”
“I understand that you can’t offer me any direct help. Is there a chance I can take some of your food and water with me when I leave?”
“Of course.” She motioned to someone behind me.
Matty was there. She had snuck up on me. For the second time today, I wondered how lucky I was to still be alive with this woman around. Matty handed me a bag and then turned and walked away. She stopped after a few steps and turned back toward me.
“Come on, hot stuff. Let’s get you out of here.”
“Thank you,” I said to the elder. She just nodded her head and went back to working on whatever she had been doing. I turned away from her and started to follow Matty.
As soon as we were out of earshot, she asked me, “Are you really going to kill the princess?”
“If I have to. Why?”
“My dad had to go up there last year. I always wondered what happened to him. If you run into him, will you say hi for me?”
“You know that she probably kills them all, right?”
“I know, but I like to think he is just working up there.”
She said it with such a sad smile, I couldn’t say no. “If I run into him, I’ll say hi.”
“How are you going to know it’s him?”
“I’m just going to look for the meanest motherfucker in the place.”
She laughed. “Are you sure you haven’t met him already?”
We walked the rest of the way in silence. When we made it outside, she led me toward the edge of the village and another path that wove its way up to the mountain.
“This is the path the tributes follow toward the mountain.”
“Thanks for your help today, Matty.”
“Whatever, just try not to die.”
She turned and headed back toward the village. I had to say this was one of the weirdest interactions that I had ever had. In hell or otherwise. I shook my head, wondering about what life would be like here. How much you would try and live every day to the fullest if you knew you only had forty years to live. That was less than half of a normal human, and just barely a whisper in the lifetime of one of the Gifted. I shoved those thoughts away and started up the trail to the mountain.
Chapter Eighteen
April
A knock sounded at the door. I rubbed my eyes, trying to force myself to wake up. Was it really that time already
? Sleep hadn’t come as fast as I had liked. When it did come, it had been broken and choppy. Was it vain to wish that I had slept better? I wanted to look my best for Jackson. The last thing I wanted was for him to see me broken and stressed. It felt like it had been years since I had seen him, but in reality, it had only been months.
It was hard to be apart for that long, especially when that person carried the other half of your soul inside of them. I missed him and couldn’t wait to see him. It didn’t matter to me what had happened before he left. I just wanted him back.
“Come in.” I started to look around, wondering if there was anything slightly nicer for me to wear. I had been expecting it to be Marcus who came in, but it was Sarah. She handed me a little bag and gave me a weak smile.
“Just thought you might like something else to wear.”
“Holy shit, these are my clothes. Did you go back and get them for me?”
“I had John take me. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Mind? You’re lucky I’m not kissing you right now.”
“I’d settle for a hug.”
I launched myself into her arms. The tears came quicker than I thought they would, but I was just so damn happy. She wasn’t even my mother, but she took care of me as if I was one of her own. It was an amazing feeling when you knew someone truly loved you. We broke apart.
“I’ll give you some time to change, but be quick.”
“Thank you again, Sarah.”
This time, her smile was a little brighter as she stepped out of the RV. I dove into the bag and quickly dressed in a pair of my favorite leather pants and a crop top T-shirt that Jackson said reminded him of Harley Quinn. I topped it all off with my leather jacket, and I was ready to roll. I just realized that I didn’t have any weapons with me, but we should have a store of them somewhere.
Redemption (Ascendancy Legacy 6) Page 15
