Corson

Raphael’s wings extended as he rested a hand on Mara’s forehead. A few minutes ago, she’d started convulsing. When her feet kicked against the ground, Raphael knelt at her side and tried to soothe her.

Then Mara stopped convulsing, she collapsed onto the ground and blood trickled from her mouth. My gaze bored into her chest as I waited to see if she would take another breath; she did, but two other humans had already died. One of them simply stopped breathing, and the other screamed like the hellhounds were on her ass before silencing abruptly.

Raphael hadn’t approached either of them, but he’d gone to Mara.

“Can you heal her?” I demanded.

If sudden death could happen to the humans, then it could happen to Wren. Panic constricted my chest; my talons extended and retracted before doing it again. I was unraveling, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. Wren’s life was on the line, and I was helpless to save her.

“I am not the Being. It is not my place to alter the course of someone’s fate,” Raphael replied.

There were times when I’d like to kill both the angels, and this was one of them. “I understand, but this is not the natural course of Mara’s fate.”

“Who am I to judge that?”

I stepped toward Raphael.

“Easy,” Caim said.

When he rested his hand on my arm, I yanked it away from him.

“I think, what our demon friend means, Raphael, is if you wanted to heal her, would it be possible?” Caim inquired.

Caim gave me a conspiring grin that set my teeth on edge. I’d become more accustomed to working with these angels since the gateway closed, but I didn’t overly like either of them.

“No,” Raphael said and rose. “I couldn’t. Just like I cannot rouse them from whatever state they’re in, I cannot fix the damage done to their bodies while they’re trapped in the Abyss.”

My gaze fell to where I’d left Wren bundled in blankets against the wall of the cave. We’d moved into the area over a week ago and discovered the cave shortly afterward. We’d been using it as a place to store the game we killed, and some slept in it.

It had taken some time, but we’d finally located everyone and carried them deep underground to hide them. Some people and demons were a mile or more from camp when the jinn struck. How the insidious demons managed to trap them all, I didn’t know, but we were the only four who escaped them.

We’d encountered no enemies and saw no signs of them as we worked, but I didn’t doubt the jinn had some way of watching over their victims. They wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun.

Wren’s vulnerability almost knocked me to my knees as I watched her chest rise and fall. I couldn’t fight this enemy as I had countless others. I couldn’t charge in to save her; I could only stand here as she fought a battle I couldn’t see.

The smoke from the fire we’d lit deep within these rocky recesses, drifted down one of the side tunnels on currents of air. Mara inhaled a shuddery breath, then a thin trail of blood trickled from her lips and she went still.

“See if you can heal her now,” I commanded Raphael.

He gazed from me to her and back again before kneeling to rest his hand on her forehead. I sensed his power swelling until it beat against the walls with a dull whomping sound. Though no breeze stirred the air, the dancing fire leapt into the air and cast sparks throughout the cave.

Raphael’s wings rose as the beat of his power increased until the large cave quaked with it. Pebbles and dirt skittered down the walls and broke free of the ceiling, but I didn’t feel them when they pelted my skin and coated my hair.

Then, Raphael’s wings lowered. “There is nothing I can do.”

“Fuck!” I spat, and before I could restrain myself, I drove my talons into the wall until I was wrist deep in the rocks.

I yanked my hand free and stormed over to kneel at Wren’s side. Brushing her pale hair away from her face, I rested my fingers against her cheek.

“You have to come back to me,” I whispered to her, but she gave no sign she heard me. Resting my hand over her heart, I took comfort in its reassuring beat.

“Magnus might be able to do something from inside the Abyss,” Caim said.

“If the jinni doesn’t turn on him and kill him while he’s in there,” I grated from between my clenched teeth.

“She is different than the others,” Caim stated.

“Caim—”

“I will remove Mara’s body and place it with the others,” Caim said before I could question him about his statement.

He hefted Mara’s body over his shoulder and carried it deeper into the cave, which wound miles beneath the earth. When this was over, and we could come and go from this cave without worrying someone might see us, we’d better dispose of the bodies; but for now, we could only hide them.

Gazing at all the bodies gathered in the cave and wrapped up in blankets to ward off the damp chill of this below ground dwelling, I realized the humans couldn’t withstand the jinn’s effects as well as the demons did. The jinn slaughtered demons too, but demons were stronger and would hold out against them for longer.

As I thought it, Erin’s fingers started twitching on the ground, much like Mara’s had about an hour before she died.

• • •

Magnus

“What created the Fault in some jinn?” I asked as we traversed the Abyss.

“Thousands of years ago, a jinni found their Chosen outside of our line. Not only did that bond change some of the jinn, but it also infused our line with something other than jinn blood.”

“And what blood was that?” I asked.

From fifty feet ahead of me, Erin careened around a corner of rock and raced down the path toward me. Unprepared for her sudden appearance, my foot froze in midair before falling to the ground. Amalia staggered a few steps back, and her hand flew to her mouth when Erin skidded to a halt in front of me.

Erin’s almond-shaped, dark blue eyes widened on me. Her normally sleek, short black hair was a disheveled mess around her beautiful face.

“Where am I?” Erin demanded in a tone more strident than I’d ever heard from her before. “I’m not supposed to be here. Where am I?”

“You know you’re not supposed to be here?” I asked, unable to keep the surprise from my voice.

“Does this look like a place I should be in?” she demanded and gestured at the rocks surrounding us.

“No, it doesn’t.” But after Mara, I hadn’t expected anyone to see through this place.

“What am I doing here?” she demanded.

“Erin—”

“How do you know my name?”

Words failed me when I realized that though she knew she didn’t belong here, she hadn’t completely broken free of the control the jinn held over her mind.

“Who are you?” she demanded of me.

“My name is Magnus, and I’m a friend of yours.”

“A friend? I have no friends. Not since the war. All I have is my family.”

Her voice trailed off as she frowned at the rock walls. “Am I at the wall?” she asked.

After the gateway opened, humans and demons built a wall dividing the central areas of the country devastated by the opening of the gateway from the outer regions of the country that weren’t as severely affected. Erin volunteered to work the wall when she was sixteen and had stood guard there. Months ago, she left the wall behind to join us in eradicating what remained of our enemies in the Wilds.

“No. This is not the wall,” I said.

When Amalia moved closer, she drew Erin’s attention to her.

“We can help you,” Amalia whispered.

“How? I’m not… something is wrong.” Erin dropped her head into her hands and slapped at the sides of it as if she were trying to batter the answer into it.

“Don’t.” Grasping her hands, I stepped closer and held her palms against her temples as her shoulders heaved with her breaths.

Erin was strong, capable, loyal, and one of the most intelligent humans I’d ever come across, but her brain wasn’t processing any of this right. Unlike Mara, who was convinced it would get better or she could change something, Erin knew none of this was right, but she couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and it was screwing with her mind.

“I can only live where there is light, but I die if the light shines on me. What am I?” Erin murmured.

“What does that mean?” Amalia asked.

“It’s a riddle,” I explained. “The skelleins are always trying to stump her with them, but they haven’t succeeded yet.”

Erin’s head lifted, and her eyes bored into mine. “What am I?”

“I don’t know the answer,” I admitted.

“A shadow. I’m a shadow of who I was. A shadow in this place that is nothing but shadows, but there are no shadows here,” Erin babbled. “It’s not real. It’s all real. But it’s not right. Something is wrong here. Not right. No shadows. No shadows in this land.”

I could feel her mind unraveling further as she struggled to grasp what was real and align it with what the jinn had done to her.

“We hurt without moving,” Erin whispered. “We poison without touching. We bear the truth and the lies. We are not to be judged by our size. What are we?”

“I don’t know the answer, but I am your friend,” I said.

“This place is lies and shadows.”

Erin jerked on her hands as she tried to free them to batter herself again, but I wouldn’t let her go. When she lifted her head, her eyes were more dazed than when she first ran into us. I felt her grip on reality loosening as the Abyss worked its way deeper into her mind.

“What are we?” she shouted in my face.

“We are here!” I yelled back at her, uncertain of what else to do. “You are here with us. Listen to me, Erin. Hear what I’m saying to you.”

“Erin,” she murmured and licked her lips as clarity slipped back into her eyes. “I am Erin, and you are…?”

“Magnus. You know me.”

“I know you. I know we are trees.”

“Trees?” Her mind was jumping too fast for me to keep up with her.

“Yes, trees, that is what we are.”

It took me a minute to comprehend trees was the answer to her last riddle. “Yes, trees.”

“Unless it’s a calamut tree, and then they can move.” Her forehead furrowed, and she bowed her head. “Calamut trees, I remember them now.”

“Those trees came from Hell,” I said.

“Yes. They did. You came from Hell too. Death also came to Earth from Hell.”

“Death has always been on Earth.”

“Not on horseback,” she murmured. “Now, Death rides.”

I realized she was talking about Death the horseman and not actually dying.

“Erin?” Lifting her head, she blinked at me.

Recognition lit her eyes. “Magnus.”

I grinned at her. “Yes.”

She smiled back at me before vanishing.

“What? No!” I grasped at the empty air in a failed attempt to grab for her. Rage vibrated my body when I whirled on Amalia. “What happened?”

Amalia gawked at me before looking at the space where Erin had stood. Her gaze traveled over the rock walls before returning to me. “She’s not here.”

“No shit.” I regretted the hostile words as soon as they left my mouth. This was not her doing.

Amalia recoiled before her eyes narrowed and deepened to a livid, red hue. “I mean she’s not in the Abyss.”

“Not in the Abyss?”

“Yes. Is that too difficult for you to comprehend?”

I glared at her, and she glared back.

“Are you saying she’s free of this place?” I inquired.

“Well aren’t you the cleverest of demons!” she retorted and crossed her arms over her chest.

The motion pulled the material taut over her breasts. Some of my annoyance ebbed when my gaze fastened hungrily on them. Despite my frustration with this place and her kind, the sight stirred me. We were supposed to be doing something, but all I could think about was drawing her nipple into my mouth and feasting on it.

If I stepped into her now, pressed her against the wall, and lifted her skirt, would she let me take her? When I recalled her actions when we were crouched behind the rocks earlier, I thought she might. She was irritated with me, but she wanted me too. However, such an action might get us both killed in this place. Although, we hadn’t encountered anything deadly to us yet.

A quick rutting would get her out of my head, and I’d be able to concentrate on what was going on around here more when I found my release. But I couldn’t do quick with her. No, I wanted to savor every inch of her supple body.

What color will her eyes be when I’m inside her?

Never had I craved a woman so much I ignored any form of danger, but for a brief second, I forgot we were in this place as my mind became consumed with wicked fantasies about the things I longed to do to her. Amalia was a temptation that might lead to my ultimate downfall, but what a downfall it would be.

What is it about her?

I was determined to find out the answer, but first I had to learn what became of Erin.

“Erin is free of the Abyss?” My voice was more guttural than normal, but then my growing erection was pushing uncomfortably against my pants.

Amalia lowered her arms and glanced around her. “Yes, I think so. I believe her moment of realization might have been enough to free herself from this place. Unlike Mara, she wasn’t trying to fix something; she was trying to understand and break free. I think she’s back with your friends.”

“We need to return and make sure she’s there. Can you take us back?”

“Yes.”