Chapter 6
The loud pattering of rain is what wakes me up, and I lift my head, peering over at the cave entrance where Ezekiel is staring out at the black rain pummeling way harder than it was the last time I saw it.
I’m not sure how long I’ve been asleep, but Gage is where Kai was, and Kai is now where Ezekiel was, his arms wrapped loosely around me as he sleeps peacefully.
I’m assuming that means I’ve slept six hours, which would be three guard-duty rotations, but I’m not certain if Jude has taken a shift. I’m currently smirking at him as he lies at my feet, his arm draped loosely over my ankles as he sleeps hard.
That small touch on my ankle before I drifted off must have been him, and he subconsciously got even closer in his sleep.
He’s going to be so mad that I saw it.
A huge grin splits my face, and I carefully go phantom, letting all their touches pass through me as I stand without disturbing them and go whole on my way to Ezekiel.
I blame the extreme circumstances for my questionable comfort level with Ezekiel when my hand travels over his shoulder, and I step into his side.
He looks down at me, a heavy expression on his face.
“Sorry,” I say, withdrawing my hand.
His lips twitch, and his arm goes around my shoulders, drawing me against his side. Happily, my arms slide around his waist, all domestic-like. We could be mistaken for a couple instead of just a creepy stalker girl chasing after a crush.
“There’s someone watching us,” he says quietly when his lips touch the top of my head. “Don’t change forms yet.”
“Why?” I whisper.
“Because they’ve seen you already, and they don’t know you can vanish. It could be a very important weapon when they finally make their move. Just act casual and calm.”
Did they see me vanish to get out of the sleep pile?
My breath comes out shakily, because what if it’s the Devil watching us? What if he’s studying us the way I used to study my quad?
“It’s not Lucifer,” he tells me like he’s in my head.
“How do you know?” I ask, confused.
“Because there’s no light shrouding you.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s the blind tribe. They’re rumored to stalk these woods for food. And we might just be on the menu,” he says instead of explaining the light.
“Lovely,” I state dryly. “At least they’re blind. I’m assuming they can hear every word we’re saying, though.”
“They actually see things in signatures. Hell’s belly, as you’ve noticed, is very fucking hot. They see cooler signatures instead of heat signatures,” he goes on. “And they don’t exactly speak English. They speak the language of the damned.”
“Is comoara trădătoare a damned language phrase?” I ask idly, looking out on the very neon blue forest, and wondering where this blind tribe is hiding.
“No, that’s Romanian,” Ezekiel states as though it should be obvious.
“Why do you think it’s them?” I ask quietly. “The blind tribe, I mean.”
“Because I’ve seen glimpse of a couple of humanoid figures since the lights came on, and the only humanoid figures down here would be competitors or tribesmen. We’ve managed to avoid the other tribes. They prefer to feed on the monsters and stray from any interlopers. But the blind tribe—”
“Are savage, hungry, fearless, cannibalistic barbarians in the mood for some flesh. Got it. I take it they’re immune to black ice?” I interject.
He nods, his eyes still on the land in front of him. “Another reason I’m certain it’s not the other competitors. They’ve been in the storm for the past hour at least.”
“Just fucking great,” Kai says around a yawn, drawing my attention back to him.
Gage and Jude are already awake, and Gage is stretching, looking well-rested.
Jude avoids my eyes.
“How’d you sleep, Death Punch?” I drawl, grinning like the cat who ate the canary.
He doesn’t even look at me before speaking directly to Ezekiel. “If the blind tribe is waiting on us to leave this cave, we’re going to have to fight our way out of this.”
I start to move to the doorway, but Ezekiel tugs me back.
“Save your strength. You have to be able to hold your invisible form. I think shielding yourself from Lucifer in the open is draining you faster. There’s no telling how much power that requires.”
I look at him like he’s crazy.
“I’m not shielding myself. I don’t even know how to do that.”
“Most of your power runs on survival instincts. You’re only starting to gain some control,” Gage says, moving closer as he props up and peers out as well.
“In other words, if Lucifer seeing you makes you feel threatened,” Jude says, moving just to the rim where the black rain misses his foot by mere centimeters. “The light surrounds you every time you feel his eyes on you when you turn whole. The light never shines under coverage from his watch.”
Good to know. I guess.
“So if you’re naked, the rain won’t hurt you, right?” I ask, suddenly very intrigued by how distracting this fight will be with a lot of swinging equipment.
A small grins curves at my lips, and Kai arches an unimpressed eyebrow at me as he moves around to be diagonal from me.
Clearing my throat and wiping away the juvenile grin, I pretend to have some class.
“That’s the theory,” Ezekiel says absently.
“The theory? You spouted facts about it.”
“We knew it would freeze us to the core if it penetrated the skin,” he goes on conversationally. “It’s liquid when it connects, and if the surface is not hot enough to keep it liquid, it immediately freezes everything, spreading outward. It evaporates immediately into the ground, and turns into glowing blue residue on the plant life. Your temperature has to continuously rise to battle it, but it cools you if it’s able to attach. Double-edged sword.”
“The clothing provided a cooler layer that it attached to and grew strength, chilling the surface of our skin enough for the ice to find a weak spot to attach to,” Gage adds.
“We assumed our skin would run too hot for the temperatures, and Kai was shirtless. His pants got wet, but didn’t touch skin before he stripped out of them. However, the black ice ran off his body, never freezing on contact. Unlike it did when Jude was drenched and it attached to his middle in numerous spots. Or when my arm was infected under my drenched sleeve,” Ezekiel goes on.
“My boxers fucked me,” Gage says. “The theory is that none of our skin can get infected if there’s no barrier to help chill it before it penetrates the skin.”
“Not an agony I’m in any sort of hurry to revisit,” Jude inserts dryly, taking a wary step back. “Someone else can play guinea pig.”
They keep talking about how hot hell’s belly is, but the heat isn’t quite so intrusive to me. I suppose that would just sound like obnoxious bragging right now, so I keep it to myself.
“I’m going to go out there and see if I can determine how many we’re dealing with,” I tell them, stepping behind Jude.
He covers as much of me as possible, understanding what I’m doing without me having to explain.
“What am I looking for?” I ask as I change forms, hoping the phantom version of me is hidden from their cooler-temp seeking eyes.
“I have no idea. I only saw humanoid shadows just as the forest started illuminating. Since then, I haven’t been able to spot them. The books we read had no description of them other than what I’ve already told you,” Ezekiel tells me.
“We might have learned more about hell’s belly if we had ever foreseen a visit here,” Kai drawls.
“Save your energy. We can fight this time,” Jude says quietly to me.
“Well, don’t any of you go trying to die, and I’ll let you be men. But the second I see you not pulling your own, I’ll totally emasculate you. Again,” I state as I pass through him and start stalking into the woods.
“Her fearlessly wicked tongue is what surprises me the most,” I hear Jude huff under his breath.
“You have no idea how wicked my tongue can be,” I assure him, putting my sassy Devil costume back on as I strut a little in my red heels.
A few snorts follow that.
“Guess her hearing is better than we realized,” Ezekiel muses.
“Finding out new things about me is what gives me all those bonus mystery points,” I call out as I move farther and farther into the neon woods, even as the rain continues to pour through me.
I’m not worried about being too loud, considering these blind guys can’t actually hear me so long as I’m in this form.
I’m expecting to find ten or so tribesmen as I continue to move on.
Yet I’m starting to wonder if Ezekiel is just being paranoid, because I can’t even see the cave anymore, despite the heavily illuminated forest.
Sighing, I turn around, and halt.
I finally spot one guy slinking through, and an eerie sensation slithers over me.
He’s blending in with the streaks of neon blue and the black background of the tree. As he moves, the shades and colors on his skin adjust, changing as well, making him the perfect chameleon.
The dread that’s gathering over me scatters into a thousand fragments and creates a sickly insect-crawling sensation across my nerves when I see what I couldn’t see before.
Back before my mind knew to look harder, because these guys can blend in with their surroundings. And they’re much better at it than those assassins who camouflaged themselves in the last trial, because these very naked guys have skin that actually changes with the landscape.
With the newly educated eye, I can see them almost too clearly.
I can see too many.
Hundreds.
They’re on every tree. They’re crawling over the ground, moving slowly but deliberately, the shades effortlessly shifting over them to confuse the eye with yet another illusion.
Every surface of the forest that I can see has men stuck to it, and I’ve been walking right through them.
“They look like the forest!” I shout as I zap myself back in front of the cave entrance, wishing those books had warned us about this. “They blend!”
My eyes widen, seeing all the camouflaged bodies stuck all over the side of the cave’s entrance that I remain just outside of, looking in.
“Watch out!” I shout as Jude’s eyes finally spot the first one who has crept just inside of the cave.
The man lunges, his skin flaring several bright colors before Jude narrowly dodges him. Ezekiel’s hand slams on his shoulder as those bright colors suddenly light up the entire forest, and a wild, throaty set of animal calls ring loudly through the air.
“I really hope that’s not a war cry!” I shout, just as the one Ezekiel releases takes off charging toward his own people, a spear appearing in his hand as he launches it through several men.
Well then. That was unexpected.
Another spear slices through me, thrown by a different tribesman from my side, and I watch as it catches the traitor in the gut, sending him to the ground.
“Now would be a good time to prove you can handle this. Momma’s not holding back much longer,” I caution as Ezekiel grabs two more guys and slings them.
Those two guys charge their men, but the sheer volume of them is not going to be deterred by a couple of new traitors.
The forest is thundering with all of them racing this way.
The guys are fighting, doing whatever they can to hold their place and not retreat.
Power launches out of me, taking down at least twenty of them, but they heal quickly and bounce back to their feet.
Shit! That’s not supposed to happen!
“The spears are all that will kill them!” Gage shouts.
I zap between Jude and Ezekiel, grabbing their shoulders as I turn whole. There’s no way we can kill them all with some spears.
“If you’re all going, then so am I, I guess. I knew you’d all be the death of me,” I say, a grim smile on my face.
I turn just as another brightly lit man flies through the cave entrance, his spear raised and poised in our general direction. I shove Ezekiel back, moving in front of the spear and closing my eyes. I’d rather go first than last, because I’m not capable of simply watching them die.
“No!” Jude shouts as he collides with my hand that I’m holding out to keep him away.
I feel a spray of dust against me, and my eyes flicker open as Jude’s eyes glow gold. His hand is out in front of him, and I realize that spray of dust is actually ashes as they funnel through the entryway, infecting anyone daring to pass.
My hand clutches his arm that is already touching me, and I hear a few sharp intakes of air as the others startle.
Ezekiel’s hand is suddenly gripping my side, and he throws his own hand out.
I feel something dark and daunting slip over me, almost matching the decay and menace I feel pouring through me from Jude.
I hear the sounds of fighting going on at large just outside of the cave, and Jude staggers away from me like he’s a little exhausted or on a high—not sure which.
Ezekiel staggers just as quickly, and we look out over the battlefield that is insane. Those racing colors of war rush over their skin as they kill each other, fighting to the death, as though a civil war has just erupted for no apparent reason.
“What’s going on?”
“Chaos,” Ezekiel says, swallowing thickly. “I’ve never created it on this scale before, and not without physical contact.”
That’s not chaos at all. This is two sides at war with the intent to kill each other.
“And Jude just killed beings who can’t be killed without a certain damning weapon, and he never touched them. The decay hit harder and more fiercely than ever,” Kai states as though to himself.
He touches me, beginning to lift his hand like he’s about to use me as a conduit as well, just as the rain ceases to fall.
“Don’t. We don’t know what it does to take from her just to amplify our powers,” Gage says, causing Kai to blink and release me as we remain forgotten to the fierce battle just outside.
“We can study all that later. With their attention fractured, we should be able to fight our way out now,” Jude says without looking at me as he grabs two spears from the ground.
The others spring into action, collecting more abandoned spears. We race out of the cave, rushing out right into the thick of the madness.
Ezekiel slams the spear into one man’s throat, as Kai breaks off a hunk of the wood from the spear, and just uses the onyx point as a blade. He slices through ten men without even slowing down.
I’m in phantom form again for obvious reasons. I have no idea how to work a spear, and I decide the learning curve is just too large to deal with right at this particularly fatal moment.
I’m racing behind Jude as he uses his two spears like dual bo staffs, spinning them before slamming them into the hordes of men fighting a battle they don’t even understand.
Most of them are still warring with each other, leaving only the stragglers we run into as an issue.
Just as a spear very nearly slams into Jude’s back, I launch myself in front of it, turning whole.
My hands slam together on each side of the angular blade, stopping it inches from my stomach.
“I’m totally a badass,” I say on a shaky breath, questioning the bladder issue in whole form at this very terrifying second.
Looking up, I see the tribesmen up close as one bumps into me, acting like he doesn’t see me at all. Ha! I’ll tell them my new pun when we’re not in peril—should that day ever come.
I quickly spin and jab the spear into his back in one fluid motion like I’m a battle overlord or some shit.
“I really am a badass!” I shout louder.
He drops like a pile of rubble, and I smirk while dusting my hands off. Then end up squealing like a lunatic girl when I’m knocked to the ground.
Another one of the eyeless men trips over me.
I know I just made the tacky blind tribesmen pun about them not being able to see me, but it’s like they don’t realize I’m here at all, yet have no problem targeting the guys.
“It’s wearing off, I think,” Jude gripes, slamming his hand into one’s chest.
It decays rapidly, proving they certainly can die by means other than the spear.
I grab a spear and stab the one that is wallowing around beside me, still tangled up on my legs.
“How do you beat an army who need cool signatures to single you out amongst the heat of hell?” I shout.
No answer comes until I’m about to unleash the biggest spark of that mysterious acid I’ve ever felt.
“You set the forest on fire to block out your cold signatures,” Kai says on a breath, then turns and adds. “Run!”
Just as the tribesmen all seem to snap out of their disorientation and turn to face the retreating backs of the guys, I smirk.
My fingers snap together, and a spark of that burning acid slams to the very base of the tree beside me.
That’s all it takes.
A whoosh of fire ignites, spreading like a wall of flame, and the blind tribesmen scream when they try to leap through it. I’ve already seen them heal before, so I know it doesn’t kill them. But it becomes obvious they can’t see beyond the quickly growing wall of heat the guys are racing in front of.
“Burn!” I shout, fist-pumping the air.
I’m not sure why my guys insist on groaning at my jokes so much. It’s sad they have no appreciation for obvious humor.
I snap back to phantom and zap myself to the guys, gauging the distance between them and my fire.
They’re a lot faster than I remember, and I actually have to strain a little to keep up, even in my weightless form.
The fire starts getting swallowed up by the forest, and the tribesmen are nowhere to be seen. We don’t slow down enough to be certain.
After a few hours of solid running, they start losing a little steam, and I decide to voice a question that’s been bothering me, now that the immediate threat of death is over—at the moment.
“Why do these trials have so many physical elements? Climbing is unnecessary when you can siphon,” I tell them.
“Physical and mental endurance is one of the overall studies in the trials,” Jude answers, panting for air as he bends over and rests for a second.
“They need to know how strong you are—body and mind—before they decide what to do with you,” Gage goes on, straightening from his doubled over position as he seems to catch his breath.
“And you can’t siphon all the time. You have to be discreet when you’re topside. You can’t disrupt the balance by giving too many humans a visual to their unsolved mysteries of the universe,” Kai goes on.
“Plus, it’s not as much fun to watch people siphon around a course, and these trials are also for entertainment value,” Ezekiel adds as we start walking briskly, no longer running as they conserve precious energy.
“Our senses are stronger down here the longer we stay,” Gage says. “Hers too.”
“My senses only work with you guys,” I point out. “The blind dudes almost got one over on me.”
“You sense when the Devil can see you. You’re also quick to learn and figure out the next step, even though you have no prior knowledge of the trials or the location,” Jude states like a mild accusation.
I open my mouth to start our usual banter, but Gage sucks in a breath.
“There! We’re at the end!” Ezekiel shouts, and everyone starts running again.
We burst out of the forest, illuminated by the bright red sky that actually has them shielding their eyes. It makes me grateful to be phantom, since my eyes aren’t so sensitive in this form. It seemed like such a dull sky before the blacked-out forest.
My heart sinks when I hear the ground vibrating.
Then I’m back to dealing with cardiac arrest when I see why.
That gulley we started in is now on either side of us. No longer is the forest nor the mountain we faced earlier, in view. All we can see for miles and miles is one huge canyon full of monsters who are all charging toward us like a stampede.
There are so many—no three-headed hellhounds, though. At least none in my immediate viewpoint.
Some make my stomach roil, skin peeling off them as they shed one form for a much more grotesque one. Apparently they need a different form to devour four very tasty looking men.
“Death trap,” Jude growls. “We weren’t meant to survive all this time just to face this. There’s no fucking way to survive it. Even if we all touched her and used her as a conduit, we’d barely make a dent before we were forced to disconnect like I had to earlier…before it consumed me.”
I step closer, staring in disbelief. It’s like one giant mass of encroaching death creatures, and I whirl around, seeing the same fate coming at us from the other end of the gulley as well.
“Everyone gather around me,” I shout, then glance down at my ruby red slippers as they appear.
Everyone does as I say, putting their hands on/through me as just only my feet turn whole and start clicking together.
“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like—”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jude barks in interruption, causing my eyes to peel open as I grimace.
“Worth a shot,” I tell them, furious with all the false hope movies have given me over these past few years.
Beasts still rapidly approaching, and the tops of the canyon being layered with hellfire lava that is starting to drip down, I take a long, resolved breath.
“How do you defeat a never-ending army of hell’s most vicious predators, cast to the belly straight from the throat, when there’s not enough power to kill them all?” Ezekiel asks quietly from beside me.
Anger simmers inside me as everything dark and tainted swirls within my soul. The Devil doesn’t play fair. Every time we turn around, there’s one more impossible task.
A storm crackles overhead as dark clouds form ominously just barely above us.
“Now what?” Gage groans, looking up.
“Not like it matters. There’s no answer to this fucking riddle,” Jude says through a snarl.
“Yeah. There is,” I say as the skies dim, now completely covered by the dark storm clouds as lightning flickers inside them. “You make the never-ending army of predators believe you’re a much worse predator. Think of the mouse chasing the cat.”
“That makes zero sense, and it’s not really an answer,” Jude argues.
“I know,” I say as that very seductive power rolls around through me with such vigor like I’ve never felt before. “It was a hint.”
“Running low on time,” Ezekiel growls as the first line of vicious, spitting, snapping-jawed monsters get within thirty feet of us on either side. “We don’t have time for hints and guesses. If you know the fucking answer just spit it out.”
A smirk emerges on my lips as I turn whole, and the lightning crackles louder.
“You be fearless,” I say under my breath as I start charging toward the beasts, ignoring the quad’s loud shouts of protests and swearing.
Gritting my teeth, I pump my arms and legs, racing headlong into the fray.
The monsters split, scattering and scrambling to get out of my way when fear and apprehension hits them. They practically trample each other to get as far away from me as possible.
A lot more unsavory words are flung at me from the guys, but I look back to see them following my lead. Though they don’t look happy about it. In fact, I’d say they’re looking a little murderous. Maybe they’re role-playing to add some drama to our game of mouse-chasing-cat.
I put my mega-bitch face on just in case it makes it work better.
The throngs of beasts continue to split, as the guys follow me in a single-file line.
It’s parting the monster sea with one crazy girl leading the charge. The monsters don’t even bump into me, because they’re so desperate to flee the fearless predator I’m pretending to be.
Just as the last set of monsters rush by us, I turn phantom, exhausted and needing a break from my very unfit, gravity-suffering body.
The storm dissipates as though it’s finished with us now that the monsters are gone. Honestly, I’m sort of wondering if that storm was mine. It gave me coverage from the Devil’s prying eyes just as I decided to turn whole.
The monsters keep running down the gulley, colliding with the others. I look away when they’re barely a distant echo.
Gage holds out a finger, shaking it at me, but he’s panting too heavily to use his words, which appears rather frustrating if his expression is any indication.
He settles for miming the motions of wringing my neck right in front of my neck, then turns and stalks off.
That’s two of them who have used the same charade-version of that threat against me now.
Ezekiel just glares at me, also not using his words. He takes a step toward me, then back again, then stops and squeezes his fists together. He finally turns and stalks off as though he’s forcing himself to do it.
Jude runs a frustrated hand through his hair, collapsing to a rock as the gulley fades from view, the latest obstacle passed and riddle answered. He looks like he wants to five-finger-death-punch me.
Kai slams his fist into a rock wall, looking back at me over his shoulder as he takes a few hesitant breaths, before deciding to advance on me like a naked Gladiator.
He opens his mouth like he’s about to yell at me, then instead releases a series of very loud and random sounds to relay his apparent frustration, shaking his head a little worrisomely, before he turns and starts stalking toward the black rocks now in our path.
“You’re welcome,” I say to their backs as they all walk away from me.
Another chorus of frustrated sounds is my answer to that as they start walking faster in their angry gait, forcing me to zap myself to them instead of all that walking.
“It worked, didn’t it?” I point out from directly behind them.
As if they planned it, all four flip me off without ever glancing back.
“Rude,” I sigh, stopping for a second to give them an unimpressed stare they don’t even see.
I jog and catch back up. “I bet that was easier than dealing with your swinging dicks during the blind dude battle, am I right?”
I pass through them and hold my hand up for a ghost girl high-five…that gets left hanging as they pass back through me.
“You guys totally don’t appreciate my amazing personality.”
Just as my hand falls on Ezekiel’s shoulder to try and get him to loosen up first, a blinding light blasts in front of us.