River

“There are so many of them,” I murmured as I gazed at the sea of demons gathered below us. The chamber Kobal’s followers stood in was the size of an auditorium, but there were so many that they spilled out the archways branching off from this central room.

There had to be at least a thousand of them within the chamber. I had no idea how many stood beyond it, but laughter, cheers, and moans of ecstasy drifted throughout and continued down those side tunnels. A girlish giggle trailed behind a tree nymph as she weaved her way through the crowd. An easily eight-foot demon with yellow skin and hair the color of a clear, summer sky followed her.

Beside me, Lix puffed out his chest before taking a swig of mjéod from his flask. “Ah, tree nymphs,” he sighed as he recapped it.

The remaining skelleins chattered as they raised their flasks and clicked them together in the center of the group.

“There will be time for nymphs later,” Kobal said. “We have business to attend to first.”

Lix’s skeletal face fell before he took another drink. “Of course.”

I returned my attention to the demons below. They all looked so different from one another, yet there were similarities between some of them. Those similarities marked them as either the same kind of demon, or they were at least part of the same type of demon. Some of them could be siblings.

All the demons bore some resemblance to humans, even the red and green ones with horns and tails, or the blue one in the corner, and the woman who had four arms. Some were short, others were so tall they had to stoop to avoid hitting the ten-foot-high arches of the side tunnels.

I’d seen my fair share of demons at the wall and while camped by the gateway, but nothing had prepared me for the variety of the ones here, or the number of them. On the far side of the room, I spotted Morax and Verin speaking with a group of demons. Verin stood with her hand on Morax’s chest and her ear resting over his heart. Morax leaned casually against the wall while he ran a strand of her hair through his fingers.

“These are your followers,” I murmured.

“They are yours too,” Kobal said and took my hand in his.

On the walk here, I hadn’t stopped to think about what would happen when we met up with Kobal’s followers. I hadn’t allowed myself to consider what they would think of me.

The demons I’d encountered so far had been accepting of me. Bale and Corson were my friends; Lix was my drunken philosopher who made me think about who and what I was. I liked Magnus far more than when I’d first met him. Morax and Verin had never been unkind to me. Hawk had resolutely remained my friend throughout all the crazy twists and turns thrown at us these past months.

I had no idea what to expect from the demons below, no idea what they would think of me and my relation to Lucifer. These demons had remained in Hell to fight the battle here. They hadn’t dealt with people, and they more than likely hated humans for opening a gateway into their world. Mankind had thrown their world into a tailspin as much as Lucifer, and I was a reminder of humans and Lucifer.

Kobal’s Chosen or not, their queen or not, they may hate me for it.

“It will be fine, Mah Kush-la,” Kobal said.

My eyes darted to him, and I realized I’d been squeezing his hand. I forced myself to relax my grip on him. “Are some of the ones below still a part of your illusion, Magnus?” I asked. Before we’d left Magnus’s corner of Hell to journey to the seals, he’d created the illusion of numerous demon fighters to face Lucifer.

Magnus’s silver eyes were unwavering on mine. “No, they are all your followers, mah rejant.”

It was the first time he’d ever called me that, and it only served to reinforce what I already knew; this was a monumental thing. I would never again get a chance to make a good first impression. I took a deep breath and blew it out as I struggled not to fidget with my dress.

“It will be fine,” Kobal said again, and over his shoulder Corson and Bale nodded briskly.

“Yes, fine, just fine,” I murmured. Facing a cavern full of demons who might hate me made me want to vomit, but I would do it.

Kobal had told me that going through his chamber was the only way to reach this place by using the convoluted route we’d traveled to get here. Unless someone knew where Kobal’s residence was, could somehow get inside it, maneuver the twists and turns, no one else could come the way we had, so no one was keeping an eye on where we entered the cavern. Because of that, the demons didn’t know we were here yet.

As if reading my thoughts, Morax tipped his head back. The glow of the small fire pits within the cave played over him. The different hues of green in his skin gave it a scaly, almost reptilian appearance, but from prior experience of touching him during my training, I knew his skin was as smooth as silk.

Two, six-inch-long black horns curved out from the top of his bald head. They bent toward each other until they nearly touched in the middle. At six foot two, his tail was the same length as his height and a foot thick in diameter. It thumped against the ground when his orange snake eyes latched onto me and Kobal. Both sets of his eyelids blinked at the same time.

His smile revealed all his razor-sharp teeth as he rested his hand on Verin’s shoulder and pointed to us. Verin lifted her head from his chest and broke into a grin that lit her face. Her eyes were the same sun color as her hair, and she had a body that could make men and women fall at her feet. As Morax’s Chosen though, any would-be pursuers steered clear of her. Both Morax and Verin could stop someone in their tracks; Morax for his intimidating appearance, and Verin for her striking beauty.

Noticing that Morax and Verin had been distracted by something, the demons gathered closest to them turned to look at us too. In the space between one heartbeat and the next, those demons went down on one knee. They draped an arm over their knees as they bowed their heads.

My breath caught in my throat when Morax and Verin joined them. I resisted the urge to hide behind Kobal as more demons noticed the ones kneeling, and the direction they were facing, before they looked toward me and Kobal. Once they saw us, they also knelt.

I’d spent my entire life trying to blend in, to go unnoticed in order to keep my strange abilities hidden. Now, I was on full display, the center of attention, and many of those below probably knew at least some of what I could do. I still wore the ruined dress, yet I felt exposed in a way I’d never been before.

I hated it, but awe filled me as the demons went down like dominoes around the cavern. This deference was for Kobal. He was their king, the one who had guided them this far. I couldn’t deny my apprehension, but I also couldn’t contain my immense pride in the man standing beside me.

The din of conversation and laughter within the cavern died away as more and more demons turned and knelt. It spread outward to the tunnels until the hedonistic moans stopped. I was certain the staccato beat of my heart could be heard over the hush that fell over the cavern.

“Come,” Kobal said.

He kept my hand in his, choosing to ignore my increasingly sweaty palm as he led me down the rocky path to the chamber below. I didn’t look back at the others, or the hounds, I knew they followed us as the clicking of the hounds’ claws sounded against the rocks.

I’d been so concerned with Lucifer throughout all of this that I hadn’t stopped to think much about this “queen of Hell” thing. The vast depth of the responsibility slapped me in the face.

Deep breaths.

I inhaled raggedly and threw back my shoulders when we arrived at the bottom of the pathway. I could be a heart-attack-waiting-to-happen mess on the inside, but on the outside I had to act as if I belonged here.

The demons edged back to create a pathway for us as Kobal strode through the crowd with his shoulders back and his eyes focused on Verin and Morax. No one could deny he was the rightful king of Hell. I found his confidence contagious and didn’t have to fake it quite as much when I tore my attention from him and back to those gathered around us.

Kobal stopped before Morax and Verin. “Rise,” he commanded.

They both rose in one fluid motion. Kobal released my hand to clasp Morax’s before taking hold of Verin’s and squeezing it within both of his. He let her go and reclaimed my hand. “We have a lot to discuss,” Kobal said.

“We do,” Morax agreed. “The seals?”

“We have stopped them from falling.”

I knew Morax possessed the ability to telecommunicate and had been keeping in touch with Kobal, but apparently it had been brief conversations as Morax breathed a sigh of relief at this news. “Good.”

Kobal guided me around to face the rest of the demons. Bale, Corson, and the others had knelt behind us. The hounds sat near the foot of the path with the skelleins kneeling before them.

“You may all rise,” Kobal commanded and the demons rose in one united movement.

“Mah rhála,” the word whispered through the crowd as they lifted their heads to look at Kobal. Then, their eyes shifted to me. They examined my face, my eyes, and finally Kobal’s bites, clearly marking me as his Chosen.

“Mah rejant,” they murmured and the greeting spread through the cavern.

I gave a brief bow of my head in greeting while wishing I’d learned some more demon words before coming here.

“It is good to see so many of you again,” Kobal pitched his voice to carry throughout the cavern. “And it is time you met your queen, my Chosen, River Dawson.”

An excited murmur raced through the crowd. I resisted pulling at the collar of my dress as I met their curious gazes.

“You will protect her life above my own,” Kobal continued. I glanced at him, not exactly thrilled by that statement, but Kobal remained focused on the crowd. “We are the closest we have ever been to defeating Lucifer. Our time has come,” Kobal continued. “He will be stopped, and we will reclaim Hell.”

The crowd shifted, many of them stomped their feet, and a strange, almost guttural cheer went through them. It took me a minute to realize they weren’t cheering but saying, Helka, over and over again. Simultaneously, each of them lifted a fist into the air and released a shout before their hands fell back to their sides and they became silent once more.

I glanced at Hawk. He looked like someone had tossed him into the ocean and he didn’t know how to swim. I felt the same exact way.

“Is there somewhere we can speak privately?” Kobal asked Morax.

“Yes. Follow me,” Morax replied.