River

A few hundred feet across from me was a wall of jagged black and gray stones. Flickering light drew my eyes a hundred feet below me and to a waterfall of fire tumbling straight from the rocks there. My mind spun as I tried to comprehend what I was seeing. If the waterfall had been lava, I could have grasped it better, but the flames rolling over top of one another as they fell made it more difficult to process.

The waterfall tumbled five hundred feet to the cavern below. There, a river of fire streamed through the center of the cavern, dividing the smooth, rocky floor perfectly in two. Where the floor met the stream, sparks floated into the air, but they didn’t make it far before burning out.

A dozen flat rocks started at the floor of the cavern and were spaced throughout the river like stepping stones. Near the bottom of the waterfall, the flames split apart like stage curtains. The stones disappeared beneath those curtains.

“Where do the stones in the river go?” I asked.

“They lead into the throne room,” Kobal replied.

“Have you ever seen the throne room?”

“No.”

I didn’t miss the gruffness in his voice or the slight lengthening of his black fingernails before he retracted his claws. He was so close to claiming the throne taken from his ancestors. For all any of us knew, there might not even be a throne, but something else entirely. Or if there was a throne, it could be something different than what I pictured in my head, which was a chair with skulls and spikes and dead things all over it.

I really hoped it was different than what I pictured in my head.

Craning my head back, I tried to see the top of the cavern, but darkness enshrouded it so thickly that I couldn’t make out anything over a hundred feet above where we stood. I spotted more tunnel openings above us, but didn’t see any more below us.

Movement drew my attention back to the waterfall. I sneered when two bartas stepped out from beneath the flames. I hated the bear-like creatures with their wolverine claws, pig snout, red eyes, jagged fangs, and thick brown coats.

My fire had no effect on the bartas, but my ability to wield life made their hearts explode like overinflated balloons. The hideous creatures had been behind the fifty-fifth seal, but once freed, they became a part of Lucifer’s guard. I’d seen some as small as a teddy bear, but the ones below were the fully grown, Winnie the Pooh on steroids variety as they stood almost ten feet tall.

The six-inch-long claws on their feet ticked across the stones as they made their way to the end of the fiery stream before turning back and vanishing beneath the waterfall once more.

I frowned when I realized the waterfall made no sound. There was no pop of the flames like a normal fire, instead there was only an eerie hush.

“How come the waterfall doesn’t make any noise?” I whispered.

“The guards inside the throne room couldn’t hear anyone approaching if it was loud,” Kobal replied.

“How is a silent fire possible?” Hawk asked.

“This is Hell, anything is possible here,” Magnus drawled. “They are not flames as you know them.”

A dull throb started in my temples. I really had to start thinking outside the box more and move beyond everything I’d ever believed possible. Otherwise, I was going to walk around Hell with a permanent migraine.

“Of course they’re not,” I muttered.

“These flames were established to protect the first varcolac. If they made sound, they would also make the varcolac vulnerable within the throne room,” Kobal said.

“I see,” I said, and though my senses were still thrown off by the noiseless fire, I did understand it.

The barta demons emerged again. They walked their same pathway and turned back.

Before coming here, Kobal told me that the last time they tried to attack Lucifer in the throne room, many of the palitons—the demons who fought on his side—were slaughtered and he’d been severely injured. I could see why as they’d been little more than sitting ducks. The tunnels branching off the cavern below had only enough room for two or three to travel side by side, making it difficult to maneuver troops through them. It would be easy to pick off the attackers before they made it into the cavern.

“Have you ever tried to attack Lucifer from up here before?” I asked.

“No,” Kobal replied. “There are numerous tunnels above us in these walls, but this is the lowest one. If we could have somehow lured him out of the throne room before, the jump from this height wouldn’t kill us, but it would break enough bones that we would be picked off below. Those who didn’t jump and remained above, could launch some kind of an attack on Lucifer’s followers, but we still wouldn’t make it into the throne room and Lucifer never would have risked coming out of there before to fight us.”

“But he will now,” I murmured.

Kobal’s eyes were troubled when they met mine. “I believe he will.”

“Is there another entrance into the throne room?”

“Not that I know of, but I’m certain there are hidden ones. The varcolacs and Lucifer wouldn’t establish their base in a place with only one way in or out.”

“True.”

“The next time the bartas appear, you’ll blast them.”

I glanced between him and the bottom of the cavern again. “I’m not sure I can hit them from this far away.”

“Even if you can’t kill them, Lucifer will know you’re here. You’re a prize he wants for himself, Mah Kush-la.”

This time Kobal couldn’t stop his claws from extending all the way. This was his plan; we’d all agreed it was necessary, but I had no doubt this was an absolute last resort for him.

“I’m going to be fine,” I whispered. “I’m way up here.”

“The angels can reach here easily enough,” he grated from between his teeth.

“I’ll be able to see them coming if they do come this way.”

“Promise me you’ll protect yourself first, that you won’t stay for me if things go bad.”

“Kobal—”

“Promise me you will not hesitate for me. You will leave.”

I winced before taking a deep breath. “I’ll leave.”

He glanced over my shoulder at Corson. “Make sure she does.”

“I will,” Corson promised.

“We all will,” Lopan said.

Kobal held my gaze before releasing my hand and cupping my cheek. “It is time to work your magic.”

Glancing at the cavern, I watched as the patrolling bartas reemerged. “It is.”

Stepping back, I became hidden from below again. I braced my feet further apart as I closed my eyes to concentrate on the pulse of life flowing through the rocks beneath my boots. It was still more difficult for me to draw on life in Hell than it was on Earth, but I’d gotten better at doing it.

Drawing on the energy in the ground, I pulled on it until it slid through my toes before seeping into my ankles and spreading further up my legs. When I had a solid grip on the life force beneath me, I focused on the far bigger resource standing at my side, Kobal. He’d always been the strongest catalyst for bringing out my ability to wield life. My fingers caressed his as I fed on the flow of seemingly endless power swelling through him.

The hair on my nape rose and my breath came faster as power raced through my veins. Turning my hand over, I opened my eyes as midnight blue sparks lanced across my fingers like mini-lightning bolts. Harnessing those bolts, I focused them into a ball of energy that swelled within my palm until it rose to hover above it.

Moving forward to stand at the edge of the tunnel again, my eyes landed on the bartas as they patrolled across the stepping stones. They stepped onto the main cavern floor before turning to head back toward the waterfall. Flipping my hand over, I aimed the ball at the two of them and released it in a rush of power.

One of them must have sensed something as it looked up at the last second, but the other never saw the ball until it struck its chest. The energy passed straight through the one who had looked up before hitting the other barta. They both stared at where the ball had entered their chests before they lifted their heads and bared their lethal fangs at us.

The first one took a step forward before freezing and glancing at its chest again. It released a low keening sound before its claws grasped its flesh. Behind it, the other did the same thing until they were both tearing at their chests. They succeeded in rending their flesh and ribcages open to expose their still beating hearts.

The second barta roared as the heart of the first one exploded and it collapsed into the flames. Its body was absorbed by the stream seconds before its friend fell into the fire.

The seconds ticked endlessly onward as everyone held their breaths.

Then, all Hell broke loose.