Amalia

Over what seemed like hours, but it was impossible to tell how much time passed in here, lightning struck the monolith a dozen more times. My skin increasingly felt like a slimy substance coated it as too many lives flowed through me. I would give anything to find another pool of water, jump in, and scrub the death from me.

The only good thing was we managed to find, and help free, more of those who weren’t entirely trapped here. We’d found the demon Shax wandering the trails like Erin a while ago.

When he saw Magnus, he threw up his hands. “Did you create this place?” he’d demanded.

Magnus smiled. “Not even I am this demented.”

“Then who?”

“The jinn.”

“Of course.”

And with those two words, Shax vanished. Magnus and I stared at each other before continuing into what was increasingly beginning to feel like a labyrinth.

“The jinn will know Wren is Corson’s Chosen, she’s clearly marked,” Magnus said after a while.

“They will,” I agreed.

“I think she’ll be at the center of all this if she’s not already dead.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because she’s the best leverage they have over us.”

When I tilted my head back, I could only see the pointed tip of Absenthees from where we stood amid the rocky pathways. Another bolt hit the top, and a wash of life ran through me.

I bowed my head against it and rubbed at my arms to try and clean my flesh, but it cleaved to me. Capturing my hands, Magnus halted them on my arms. It was the first time he’d touched me since we left Nalki behind, and despite my annoyance with him, electricity jolted me where we connected. I didn’t feel so gross or dirty when he touched me.

Unthinkingly, I stepped closer to feel more of him. When he hugged me, the urge to cry hit me, and not just small tears, but great, heaping sobs for everything happening here.

Instead, I wrapped my arms around his back and clung to him. My fingers dug into his flesh until the urge to weep subsided. Unlike all the other times we touched, desire didn’t surge to the forefront. Instead, just standing in his arms and holding him contented me.

Resting my cheek against the smooth flesh of his chest, I inhaled his scent as his powerful arms cradled me closer and his head dropped to mine. His lips nuzzled my hair as his hands ran over my back.

I didn’t know how much time passed, but when he reluctantly stepped away from me, I felt as cleansed by him as I had by the water.

“Are you okay to keep going?” he asked with his hands resting on my arms.

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

Lifting my head, I met his gaze. Some fading yellow bruises remained, but his face had mostly healed. “I will get through this,” I stated.

He released me and started to turn away before spinning back and claiming my hand. “We’ll get through this.”

I blinked at his use of the word we, but I smiled at him before following him through the Abyss once more. Carefully, I stepped over the broken remains of a small skeleton. There were numerous skeletons on top of the walls, but we hadn’t encountered many on the path. I didn’t know if whatever creatures they belonged to hadn’t died down here, or if the years and many feet on the path had ground the other bones down here into dust.

“Wait,” I said and tugged on Magnus’s hand to halt him.

Releasing him, I knelt beside the skeleton and gently grasped the edge of it. I lifted one of the bones, but it was attached to the rest of skeleton and brought forth more bones until it was unfurling before me.

“It’s a wing,” Magnus said as he knelt beside me.

Keeping the wing in hand, I examined the body and the small skull with a hooked beak. “It was a bird, I think.”

Lowering the wing, I was careful not to disturb the remains further.

“What was this place once like?” I pondered.

“We’ll never know,” Magnus said.

Unfortunately, he was right. Wiping my hands on the skirt of my now nearly brown dress, I stood and gazed at the walls surrounding us. Afraid to attract the attention of the jinn, neither of us climbed to the top, but I was itching to scale the walls and see what lay beyond.

“Come on,” Magnus said.

He was turning away from me when a woman with hair the color of fire and red-hued skin rounded the corner fifty feet away from us. She froze as her vivid green eyes burned with hatred.

“Bale,” Magnus breathed.

When she bared her teeth at us, she exposed a set of razor-sharp fangs before she charged at Magnus. “You did this!” she accused as she closed the distance between us far faster than I’d anticipated.

“Whoa!” Magnus cried and dodged the punch she launched at him. “What the fuck, Bale?”

He threw up an arm and knocked aside Bale’s wrist, deflecting the next downward arc of her punch. She spun away, and her foot lashed out in a motion so fast it was nothing but a blur. Magnus leapt back in time to avoid the kick to his chest, but then she twirled to the side and bashed her elbow into his bruised cheek. His head snapped to the side as he grunted.

When she launched a punch at him again, Magnus jumped back and grasped her wrist. Pulling her arm back, Bale rammed her other fist straight into his face. His nose broke with an audible crack.

“Bitch!” I cried, and before I could stop myself, or consider my actions, I jumped forward and struck Bale in the gut.

Pain lanced from my wrist to my elbow as I’d never punched someone before and had no idea how to hit anything correctly, but the blow pushed her back a step, which was enough time for Magnus to grip her shoulders.

“What are you doing?” he yelled at her.

“You did this!” she screeched.

Hooking her fingers into claws, Bale launched herself at him, and they staggered into the wall. She kneed him in the gut before kicking him in the shin. Magnus’s breath exploded out of him. He wasn’t fighting her as he’d fought Nalki, but I suspected it was only a matter of time before he stopped seeing her as a friend and saw her as an enemy.

“This isn’t his doing!” I cried.

Grabbing Bale’s hair, I yanked it back. Twisting her head, Bale’s fangs snapped at my wrist, and Magnus emitted a sound between a snarl and a roar. Releasing her wrists, he seized her throat and spun her so fast her hair was pulled from my hand.

“This is the world of the jinn!” Magnus shouted as he slammed her into the wall. “The jinn did this!”

Bale struggled in his grasp for a few seconds before his words sank in.

“The jinn!” she spat, and suddenly Magnus held only air.

• • •

Corson

Bale came awake with a vengeance as she leapt to her feet and unsheathed the sword strapped to her back. She surveyed everyone in the cave as if we were the enemies she would slaughter.

“Welcome back,” I greeted dryly.

Content there was no enemy, Bale lowered her sword, but she maintained a two-hand grip on it as the blade settled on the rock. Shoulders heaving, she surveyed the cave again. Most of those still alive were awake and leaning against the wall. Vargas, Wren’s friend Jolie, and a handful of other humans had come back to us over the past eight hours.

There were now eighteen humans awake and, including Magnus and Hawk, there were nineteen living demons free of the Abyss.

Only five demons remained asleep, including Wren, as well as six humans. The rest were dead. Almost three days ago, we numbered one hundred twenty-five. Now, with the angels, we were down to thirty-nine fighters.

“What is going on?” Bale demanded.

“It seems Sloth and the jinn teamed up,” I said. “And they’re wreaking havoc.”

“Where is Sloth?”

“Caim has been searching for him without luck,” Vargas said.

Sitting beside Erin, Vargas had his legs drawn up and his arms draped across his knees. Even with his olive complexion, he was abnormally pale, and his nearly black eyes with their flecks of golden brown were haunted.

No one came out of the Abyss eager to share what they experienced, but Vargas wouldn’t speak about it at all.

Rising, Lix’s skeletal feet clicked against the stone as he made his way around the much emptier cave.

Bale sheathed her sword. “Why don’t I see Magnus’s body?”

I explained what had happened as I stroked Wren’s silken hair and let it slide between my fingers. The earring she wore for me lay against her cheek, and her hands twisted into my shirt.

A flutter of wings drew my attention before Caim sauntered in.

“I’m back!” he declared. “And so are you!” He ignored Bale’s scowl when he clapped her on the shoulder. “How was the Abyss, Red? Did you see anything exciting?”

“I saw rock walls and misery. It was like being in Hell again,” Bale replied. “Then I came across Magnus. I assumed he caused it, so I tried to kill him.”

“Not the first time,” I said.

Bale gave me a wan smile. “At least the other times, he deserved it.”

“I’m sure he’ll deserve it the next time.”

She chuckled. “Most likely.”

“Did you have any wish fulfillment in there?” I inquired.

“No. I roamed for hours or maybe days while trying to find a way out.”

“Days,” Raphael said.

“What?” she asked.

“You were gone for nearly three days,” I said.

“I see,” Bale murmured.

“Who cares about any of that?” Caim asked. “I found Sloth.”

Ever so slowly, I lifted Wren, disentangled her hands, and set her carefully on the blankets I’d arranged for her. Then, I turned to face the angel. “Where?”

“Well, you see, the where is the tricky part,” Caim said as he seemed to savor being the center of attention.

“Tricky how?” I demanded.

“Because Sloth is in the Abyss.”

My mind spun as the implications of his words sank in. A horseman in the Abyss? Sloth in the Abyss with Wren. Taking a deep breath, I tried to clear my head of the anger and fear rattling it. I wouldn’t do anyone any good if I couldn’t think straight.

“It’s the perfect place for him to hide, and the jinn will help him do so,” I murmured.

“I believe there may be other horsemen in there with him,” Caim said.

“Why?” I demanded.

“Because, as you said, it’s a perfect place for them to hide. They may all be in there.”

“Shit,” Lix said.

“How do you know any of them are in there?” Hawk asked.

“Because Sloth would want to see the repercussions of his handiwork unfold, but I’ve searched everywhere, and he’s not in the woods. Also, we wouldn’t have the bodies here if he’d remained in the woods after the jinn sprang their trap. There was only four of us who remained free; they could have easily taken us down when we returned.”

“They probably didn’t know we weren’t in camp when they set their trap,” Raphael said.

“Maybe, but I think it’s more likely they did know we weren’t here. I think the craetons would be on the lookout for two angels; we’re not hard to miss, especially not moi. But I’m just a simple fallen, and that’s merely my guess,” Caim replied and fluttered his lashes at Raphael.

The scowl Raphael gave him was anything but angelic as his hand fell to his sword.

“Enough,” I warned, unable to deal with their sibling antagonism.

“I believe it is more likely, they didn’t know when we would return to camp, and the jinn were unwilling to wait before starting to play with their new victims. Or they planned to return for us when they succeeded in slaughtering most of our friends,” Caim continued. “Either way, what could be better than watching death and misery unfold from a secure location? The Abyss offers Sloth, the jinn, and the other horsemen all the security in the world while they unleash their havoc. Sloth is in the Abyss; I’d stake my life on it.”

My gaze fell on Wren as the chill encompassing me spread into my veins and turned my blood to ice. “We have to warn Magnus.”

“How?” Erin asked. “Maybe Halstar could have telecommunicated with him in the Abyss, but he’s dead.”

How do we contact him then? As hard as I tried, I could not think of an answer to that.