Chapter 8
A gauntlet, as it turns out, is an inhumane, monstrous death trap designed to cull the weak from the herd.
Yay me.
This sucks big donkey balls.
It’s like a protective spirit’s nightmare, since my four ungrateful charges are about to run this thing.
I’ve decided that’s what I must be—a protective spirit who has been cursed to watch over the most self-centered brats in history, who are willingly about to run through this deadly thing.
It’s a long, seemingly endless crater. And in it are monsters I don’t even have a name for, and they’re crawling around everywhere below. It’s also filled with blades that swing, fire that shoots out of unseen crevices, and something I assume must be acid, since when the mist sprays, it destroys anything in its path.
We’re in a half arena type thing, standing on a platform far above it, as the crowd fills into the stadium seats behind us like they’re readying for a show.
“What’s the point of this?” I ask, not expecting an answer.
“To see who ascends and gains access to the underworld,” Gage answers automatically.
A little surprised, I turn to face him. “Why would you want to go to the underworld?”
“To gain a boost in power and find out what we really are,” Jude says from beside me.
“You don’t know who you are?” I ask, confused.
They continue to talk quietly so as to escape the ears of others, surprisingly answering some of my questions.
“A while back, we found each other by accident, all of us ending up in the same place at the same time on the same day like we were compelled to go there. When we did, our souls bonded, and we gained access to our powers just before someone tried to kill us,” Kai tells me as he moves in from behind.
Ezekiel picks up where he left off. “Whatever we are, no one ever wanted us to find each other, because they’ve been trying to keep us out of the underworld ever since. And we’re different from all of them.”
“How so?” I ask, confused.
“To become one of them, you have to die first and endure the underworld from the less privileged side,” Kai explains.
“Demons? They’re demons?” I whisper-yell, acting like someone other than them can hear me.
Jude’s lips twitch. “Demons have no mind or capacity for reason, emotion, or even individual thought,” he goes on. “These are upper level dark angels. There are hundreds of varieties, but they fall into two categories: Righteous and Damned. We’re of the damned, yet we never died,” Gage whispers softly, his eyes shifting as though he’s seeing if anyone can hear us.
His lighter brown hair is so smooth and sexy with the way it spikes up. The piercing in his tongue is always a fascinating focal point for me. Maybe Ezekiel should get one of those, since he’s the nipple lover.
“Purgatory is where ascension is decided. We’ve had access to purgatory for almost a decade, but we haven’t been able to get chosen for the trials until this year. They’ve tried to keep us away from here, because they’re terrified we’ll win. If we get below and get our power boost, we’ll also have access to people who might can tell us what’s going on,” Ezekiel states quietly.
“We’ll discuss this more later,” Jude says quickly. “Manella just arrived.”
My eyes swing up to find a set of fully black eyes glaring down at my boys. Thank goodness he’s unable to see me. I’m thankful for my spirit-body right now.
“Stop staring at him,” Kai tells me.
“It’s not like he can see me staring. His eyes have passed over me a number of times so he can glare at you assholes. I’m wondering if I can channel some of that protective mojo to kill him.”
Before they can say a word, I’m suddenly behind Manella, dizzy with how fast that just happened.
I’m up in the stands, my legs passing through the body of a man who has no idea I’m standing through him.
Manella turns like he feels me, his eyes searching briefly behind him, trailing past me without an ounce of recognition.
I can see the guys below staring at me with wide eyes before they school their features and look away. When Manella turns back around, I hold my hand out, straining, feeling…nothing.
No great power surges from my hand to make toxins appear inside him and burn him inside-out the way it did the others.
“Several groups of quads survived the night, I see,” a woman with bright red hair states in an almost muted tone as she joins him at his side, smiling graciously at the people around.
I smell a snake.
I hate snakes.
“It appears so,” Manella says with a cold smile. “I heard there was a hit for some of them.”
“Lamar has been taken into custody. Rumor has it he attacked an Elder last night.”
Manella stiffens, his hands closing into fists.
“One said he might be recycled,” she goes on.
I’m assuming their version of recycling is a little less green and a lot gorier than the human definition.
My eyes keep moving to the guys, worried they’ll leave and I’ll lose sight of them.
Before I can hear Manella’s response, I’m suddenly surrounded by the quad once again.
“What the hell?” Kai hisses.
“Seems like I can move places if I think a little too hard about it,” I tell them on a shaky breath. “And it makes me dizzy, just for the record, so I’m going to try really hard not to do it again until I can work my powers and kill him. But he’s definitely the one who wants you dead. I think.”
“That much we already know. Manella has been the one holding us back from the trials for some time,” Gage states in a whispered tone.
“What happens if you win the gauntlet today?” I ask.
“We go back home, continue to reap souls, and wait for the last of the trials,” Jude answers with no emotion.
“And the soul reaping is your job?”
“We’re surface guardians,” Kai tells me as more and more people crowd in, the stadium getting louder as the obstacle course goes eerily silent, a slight fog creeping over it to hide things.
“What just happened? And what are surface guardians?” I ask, staring uneasily at this unnatural fog.
“They’re moving the obstacles around and don’t want us seeing where they’re going,” Kai explains.
“And surface guardians stop the breaches so the damaged souls can’t possess a human and run around freely. When demons expose us, then we run into a lot of issues between us and the other side.”
“I’m going to pretend you don’t mean heaven,” I say with a nervous laugh, looking up at Gage.
He just stares blankly at me.
“There has to be a balance. Yin and yang. Good and bad. But there are rules constantly being broken by both sides to keep things tilted instead of balanced. It’s something that happens from time to time, but never this often. Lately, more and more souls are breaching the surface. The escapes are becoming so frequent that we’re possibly on the verge of being purged.”
“Purged?” I ask, looking at Jude since he’s the one who said that.
“It means someone is setting these breaches to force our hand. If it looks like Lucifer can no longer control the underworld, he’ll lose his crown and his six heirs will battle to see who takes control.”
I swallow thickly as my gaze shifts to Ezekiel. “Lucifer? As in the devil?”
He smirks. “They’re breaching from hell’s mouth. We’re the main thing holding the purge at bay, because we’re sending the souls back before they can possess a human or before they can expose us if they do manage to possess one. But if we can get underground, we can get closer to proving Manella is the one doing all this. He knows we’re trying to out him to his father, so he’s trying to eliminate us before we can get below and meet the devil.”
“Life goals, I guess,” I state uneasily.
“Better the devil you know than the one you don’t,” Jude says with a shrug.
“In this case, quite literally. If Manella takes the crown, he’ll release the souls into the world himself, and life as we know it will cease to exist. Hell on earth will become very literal, and from what I’ve heard, the non-royal areas of hell are quite distasteful,” Gage goes on conversationally.
A hand passes through my hip, like Ezekiel is trying to get closer but can’t.
“Now you know why we’re questioning your timing,” Ezekiel says so close to my ear. “Are you part of the problem or the solution?”
Rolling my eyes and not letting him know how much his proximity affects me, I answer, “Considering I’ve kept you jerks alive, I’d say I’m helping you save the devil. Though I admit, now even I have reservations. I didn’t sign on to save hell. Maybe we should discuss you lot finding healthier life goals.”