“Wake up, you bloody Under!” Stefan continued to shake Echo’s body as though that might help. I wanted to tell him to stop, but we needed the little man to snap out of it so we could get the hell out of here.
Off to my right, Ivan licked his brother. Tore had been severely injured, and the hound had yet to show any signs of life. As demon spawn themselves, they were strong and could survive almost anything. But there was a lot of blood surrounding the younger hound and I tried not to think about worse case scenarios.
“Finally,” Stefan huffed as he yanked Echo off the ground. “You okay?”
Echo shook his head and stumbled on his feet. “Did you see that? It worked! I killed that wraith.”
“Yes, yes, I saw it,” Stefan said as he dragged Echo toward me cell. “But we can talk about it later. Do you still have the keys?”
“The keys?” Echo asked.
Stefan shared a worried look with me before turning his attention back to Echo. “You said Mammon gave you the keys to—”
“Oh right! The keys!” Echo definitely didn’t sound like himself, but he dug into the inside of his coat and pulled out a ring of skeleton keys. “It should be one of these…” He started to sift through them, a painful thing to watch as his hands shook and he almost dropped the ring several times. Finally, Stefan ripped them out of Echo’s hands and started inserting each one in the lock.
“Try the next one,” I said, finding it hard to stay calm when I was so close to freedom.
“I already tried that one,” Stefan grumbled.
“No, you didn’t.” I reached through the bars and pointed. “This one. Use this one—”
A loud explosion blasted from somewhere outside of the room, shaking the stone walls hard enough that several large chunks fell from the ceiling. It knocked all three of us to the ground, and even Ivan fell on top of his brother.
“What was that?” Echo asked.
“I’m assuming that was Mammon confronting Leviathan,” Stefan mumbled as he climbed back up to his feet and started working on the locks again.
“Did you try the one on the end?” I asked, and then immediately bit my lips when Stefan gave me an annoyed glare. “Sorry,” I grumbled.
The room shook again. Echo stumbled over to the hounds and sat next to them. Ivan growled at the demon, but allowed him to examine Tore. Trying not to bother Stefan, I asked, “Is tore alive?”
“Barely,” Echo whispered. He rubbed Ivan’s head and gently nudged the hound out of the way.
“Can you save him?” The sudden pang of sadness hit me in the chest like a boulder. Tore shouldn’t die because of me.
“I’m going to try.”
Stefan swore under his breath when the ring of keys fell to the floor with a clatter. I started to bend forward to reach for them, but when I saw his angry glare, I backed off. Another large explosion shook the room. Ivan growled when Tore started to whimper. My arm burned with the pain of healing broken bones. And Stefan still hadn’t managed to find the right key.
I wondered how much time we had left.
Echo shouted something as the hound struggling beneath his hands howled in pain. Ivan crouched low, baring his teeth at Echo and threatening the man trying to save his brother. But Echo ignored him as he continued to chant over the screams of a hound in agony. I covered my ears, unable to listen to the sound any longer. Closing my eyes, I pressed them shut and wished that I could turn back time and avoid these last few days, or weeks, altogether.
Something touched my knee and I screamed.
“Arabella,” Stefan said. Now inside my cell, he crouched to the ground and spoke softly to me. “Arabella, come on. We have to get out of here.”
“Is it over?” I asked.
“Is what over?”
“Everything.”
Stefan shook his head and grabbed my hands. I shouted when he lifted my left arm because the bones had not totally healed yet. “Sorry,” he muttered. “But you have to suck it up. We have to get out of here.”
“Okay,” I whispered. With my good arm wrapped around Stefan’s shoulders, I limped beside him as he pulled me out of the cell. Something wet pressed against my left hand and I looked down with a smile. “Tore,” I whispered, tears flooding my eyes.
The hound licked my hand again and then joined his brother in leading us out of the cavern. We headed off to the right of my cell where I’d seen Leviathan enter before. The stone walls formed into a tunnel that quickly wrapped around to the left. And as we stumbled through the darkened hall, the room with my cell quickly disappeared behind us. A part of me had thought I might die in there, so with each step we took, I started to feel more energized. My ankle still throbbed. My arm might take a few days to heal. But I was free and there was nothing in the world that felt better than that.
Echo grabbed a torch off the stone wall which helped us follow the hounds that had started to pick up speed. “We must be close,” Stefan said. “I can feel their power.”
I searched the air, not sensing what he was. Perhaps my instincts had also been blocked by Leviathan’s magic. Even as we heard the shouting, I still couldn’t feel the two archdemons. But as we rounded the corner and the tunnel opened up into another large cavern, I understood what Stefan had been talking about.
On one side of the room, stood Mammon. She looked fierce with her slicked-back hair and floor-length leather duster flapping around behind her as she surrounded herself with a translucent bubble of magic tinted red with her power. Her eyes were narrowed at Leviathan and she looked furious.
Leviathan stood on the far side opposite my sire. With his towering height, he appeared calm and unamused at Mammon’s presence. On the wall behind him was a shadow of a serpent—a snake crossed with a dragon—weaving back and forth across the stone like it had a mind of its own.
Tore and Ivan ran toward Mammon, attracting Leviathan’s attention for just a second. “No! Stop!” I yelled at the hounds, worried he would take them out. Both archdemons spun around and glared at the three of us. Leviathan especially. He ground his jaw together and then focused on Mammon again.
“She is mine. A deal is a deal.” Holding out his hand toward me, I started to slide along the floor like he had an invisible rope wrapped around my waist.
“Grab her!” Stefan shouted at Echo, a moment before both of them yanked on my arms to hold me back.
The hounds growled at Leviathan, slowly stalking toward him. But Mammon stopped their attack with just one word. The two faithful beings would never survive Leviathan. “She does not belong to you, Leviathan.” Mammon’s cold demeanor frightened me, but I also had to smile at the way she was here for me. “You took her without my approval. You tortured her and you harmed her. That was never part of the deal.”
Leviathan shrugged, his shadow slinking closer to Mammon. “I’m a demon. It’s what we do.”
“Not to my kin, you don’t.” Mammon shot her hand out in front of her and a giant ball of fire flew through the air and smashed into the wall behind Leviathan. He started to smile and say something to my sire, when he suddenly turned around and fell to his knees.
Mammon’s fire had hit the shadow serpent along the wall, slicing its body in two. The dark creature slowly started to slide down the stone toward the ground as Leviathan watched in horror. He reached out to the shadow and made a pained noise when it disappeared into a cloud of black smoke. “You killed her!” he shouted.
Snakes started falling from the walls, just like they had in my cell. Echo screeched and jumped closer to me. Stefan let out a sigh and readied himself for battle. The hounds started stomping and snapping at the creatures slithering across the ground. But Mammon didn’t even blink. Instead, she clenched her hands together and mumbled something under her breath. The glow of magic around her intensified to a brighter red and several snakes stated to writhe in pain.
Leviathan looked around in horror as Mammon’s magic held his at bay. And by the time half of the snakes were piles of ash, he stood and stomped across the room toward Mammon. “You don’t get to win,” he growled, throwing out his arm and knocking her backward into a wall. Her head cracked with the force of the hit, and although she wasn’t knocked out completely, I could see it had impacted her ability to defend herself.
“Mammon!” I shouted, closing my eyes and hoping I could use my magic again. When I blinked in behind Leviathan, I said a secret thank you as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“Enough!” he shouted, twisting and turning and trying to knock me off.
I’d successfully distracted him enough to let go of Mammon, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the hounds and Echo rushing to her side. Stefan, however, was running directly toward me. “No! Stay back,” I yelled.
But it was too late.
Somehow, Leviathan had communicated with the snakes left in the cavern and at once, they all attacked Stefan. His screams tormented me as he was pulled down to the ground and covered with the black beasts.
I squeezed harder, trying to get Leviathan to lose consciousness, even for just one second. I knew I couldn’t kill him, but I hoped I could distract him long enough so Mammon could get back on her feet and help us.
My left arm throbbed with the pain of trying to strangle someone. Leviathan was tall, which meant my legs now dangled off the ground as I tried to stop his breathing. He whipped me back and forth, trying to knock me free. “You’re a damn fool,” he growled at me.
“I’ve been called worse,” I gritted out, trying to ignore the pain in my muscles.
Leviathan chuckled. “I’m sure you have. And now, I’m done with this.”
An invisible force yanked me away from the demon, just like what happened in my apartment. It pulled me to the far side of the room and held me up against the stone wall like a ragdoll. I couldn’t move my arms or legs, and although it didn’t really hurt, I hated the feeling of being trapped. “Ahh!” I screamed in frustration.
Leviathan turned and faced me, laughing at the way I was behaving. “I had such great plans for you.”
“Had? What do you mean had?”
The archdemon simply laughed and focused his attention on Stefan. The incubus was still covered with snakes, yet the pile of serpents twitched up and down and I heard him shouting obscenities at the demon spawn each time one of them was tossed to the side.
From my vantage point, I could see the whole room—a luxury Leviathan didn’t have. I watched as Echo helped Mammon to her feet and saw the hounds slinking off to the sides to flank the other archdemon. I witnessed Echo pressing a dagger into Mammon’s hands. And I smiled when Leviathan noticed me watching the action behind him.
His eyes widened and then narrowed as he spun on his heels to see what was happening. But it was too late. The moment his chest faced my sire, she plunged the dagger into his heart. He immediately dropped to his knees and chuckled when he looked down at the handle protruding from his chest.
“You can’t kill me,” he huffed.
“I know,” Mammon said with a wicked smile. “But I can still chop you up into little pieces.”
“So crass,” he tsked at her. But when he reached up and attempted to pull the dagger from his body, Mammon kicked her foot out and pushed it even deeper. Leviathan flew backward, landing on his spine and coughing several times when he did.
His demon magic pinning me to the wall disappeared. I fell to the ground, landing hard on my injured ankle, but I quickly got up and rushed to help Stefan. The snakes hissed and spat at me while I yanked them away from my friend. He was still under there, fighting and swearing and I kept throwing one serpent after another off him. Echo helped me while Mammon and the hounds circled Leviathan. In just a few minutes, we had Stefan pulled free of the pile and standing on his own two feet again.
“Thanks,” he mumbled to both of us, brushing the dirt and ash from his pants. He shuddered and gave me a timid smile. “I really hate snakes.”
I gave him a quick hug. “Me too.”
A loud boom echoed through the chamber, making all of us look at Leviathan for an explanation. He lay on his back, laughing and holding the small tip of the handle which was the only part of the blade left on the outside of his body.
“What was that?” I shouted at him.
He smiled and closed his eyes. “It’s happening.”
“What’s happening?” I asked as Stefan, Echo, and Mammon exchange some type of knowing look. “What’s happen—”
My shouts were cut off by another explosion coming from somewhere overhead. Small pieces of rock fell on top of us and Mammon swore.
“You fucking traitor,” she shouted at Leviathan. “You know this is a mistake!”
The demon sprawled on the ground laughed and laughed like he’d done nothing wrong. “We wouldn’t have stopped Lucifer. And if you really thought that was a possibility, then you’re the biggest fool of them all,” he spat at Mammon.
“What’s he talking about, Mammon?” I asked.
Stefan gently touched my shoulder. “The reveal.”
“What? No! How long have I been here? I thought we could stop this—” The ceiling shuddered again.
“It’s too late,” Leviathan said. “You’re all too late.”
“Mammon?” I asked, voice shaking with the pressure of what this all meant.
She stared down at Leviathan a few moments before turning her gaze to me. “We need to get outside and manage this.” Mammon started jogging out of the room through another tunnel I hadn’t noticed yet. Echo followed at her heels along with the hounds.
“Stefan, is this true?” I asked.
“I’m afraid so. You were here for almost two weeks. A lot happened in that time and although we all tried to stop this, Lucifer and some of the angels decided a reveal was best.”
“It’s not!”
“I know,” he agreed with a sigh. “But we should go up there and see how bad it is.”
With a nod, I let him take my hand and lead us out of Leviathan’s lair at a jog. When we passed the archdemon, he gave me a wink.
“See you soon, Arabella.”
Stefan yanked me forward before I could respond. And as we ran through the tunnel that angled upward toward the street while explosions blasted over our heads, I wondered what we might face and how we would survive this new life that Lucifer had just given us.