Chaol
“I’m glad you asked. That really depends on you.”
“All the gates are closed right now. No demons can enter or exit Hell. I have no idea why.” As far as he knew, nothing like that had ever happened before. There were always routes in and out of Hell. Something big was going down, but he had no idea what.
Daniel reared back to look at him. “Wait, what? How are we supposed to get there, then? You lied to me! You said you could take me—”
“Oh, shush. Your other option was to hang out down there with that reaper masquerading as your mother, remember? And I said demons can’t get in or out.
It’s why I was stuck out here. Think of Purgatory like a pathway between the realms. Souls pass through here to get to Heaven or Hell.
With Hell’s gates closed, it prevents demons from entering or leaving.
But human souls, they still have to be able to travel to their final destination, right? ”
“Right,” Daniel agreed dubiously.
“But that means you need to trick this place into thinking Hell is where you’re meant to go.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“By wanting it.”
Daniel paused, then said, “Come again?”
Chaol chuckled. He liked this human. “You have to make yourself believe you’re meant to go to Hell.
That’ll make the Soul Gate appear.” Most souls didn’t want to go to Hell, but that was their intended destination no matter what.
Behaving as though that was where Daniel was meant to go should do the same thing, essentially.
Chaol was winging it, no pun intended, but he had a feeling it would work.
“Soul Gate,” Daniel repeated.
“Just wish with all your might, little human. Think about how much you want to get back to Earth. How much you need it. And how much you need to go through Hell to get there. It’s the only way. Hell is your ticket back home. Hell is what you need. You want to go there. You must.”
Daniel went quiet, tucking his chin against Chaol’s shoulder. His fingers pressed divots into Chaol’s back.
Nothing happened at first, but Chaol didn’t expect it to be immediate.
He didn’t imagine it was an easy thing to convince himself he wanted to go to Hell.
That was okay. They could drift through the air for however long Daniel needed.
In this form, he could easily carry Daniel’s weight for as long as it took.
Eventually, a red light appeared in the distance, floating in the sky directly in front of them. The Soul Gate. Chaol pushed his body harder, wind gusting behind them with every flap of his wings.
“That’s good, little human. Very good.” One clawed hand rose, cupping the back of Daniel’s neck, and the human made a questioning noise in his throat. “Don’t look yet. This can be disorienting. Most souls aren’t conscious for it.”
“Most souls just wake up in Heaven or Hell?”
“That’s right. Only the ones with unfinished business find themselves in Purgatory. Reapers track them down and try to send them on their way. Hold fast now, and keep your eyes closed.”
“Oh, God.” Daniel tucked his face deeper into the curve of Chaol’s neck. Chaol’s arms tightened around him.
As they passed through the Soul Gate, the haze of gray around them transformed to deep, crimson red.
It was like a technicolor tunnel of flashing red, black, and gray.
Chaol tucked his wings and dove straight into it.
Daniel uttered a ragged sound as he felt the change in their speed and direction.
His legs wrapped around Chaol’s hips, and Chaol suppressed a groan.
Flying was no more complicated to him than walking, and with Daniel pressed against him so enticingly, it was hard to remember that he couldn’t sink his teeth into this golden soul.
That would surely turn Daniel against him, and he didn’t want that.
He wanted to stay with Daniel—because he needed him to get to the surface. That was all.
That wasn’t all. But he couldn’t entertain anything else.
The technicolor haze gave way to dark rock, and when the tunnel finally opened up, Chaol pulled up, bringing their bodies horizontal.
Daniel’s blunt nails dug into his back. Chaol laughed again, unable to resist bumping his head against Daniel’s in a teasing little touch.
Daniel groaned, hooking his heels together at the small of Chaol’s back.
“Please don’t drop me,” he whimpered.
“I said I wouldn’t.” He would reassure this human as many times as it took. What would it be like to earn his trust?
“Are we almost there?”
“Yes.” He didn’t need to fly with Daniel in his arms down here, though.
It would draw too much attention. In fact, Daniel would draw attention just by existing here.
Better that they were on the ground when that happened.
There were bigger things than Chaol in the sky, and he wouldn’t risk taking a hit and actually dropping Daniel.
Even if it couldn’t kill him, they’d get separated.
And he’d be damned—heh—before he let this human out of his sight down here.
“But I still shouldn’t look?”
His fingers sank into Daniel’s curls, and the human shivered. Fuck, he wanted to make him do that again. “You can look, if you’d like an aerial view of Hell.”
Daniel’s head twisted around, and he gasped.
Chaol tried to see it as a human might see it for the very first time.
They didn’t have a sun or moon. The sky, during what was considered ‘day,’ was a greenish-gold that reminded him of what sunlight might look like through darkly stained glass.
At night, it was blacker than black. Traveling at night would be hard.
Hell was never pleasant for a human, but things came out at night to prey on the human souls.
It would be best to hole up somewhere when night fell, for Daniel’s sake.
Of course, there were also places like the Pit that were always dark, which was where the worst demons would be, but Chaol had no intention of letting Daniel go anywhere near there.
Right now, it was day. The sky was as bright as it would get, which was still dim enough for the world to be cast in relative shadow.
In the distance, the city of Pandemonium rose like a specter from the grave, slender stone buildings rising up toward the sky.
There were other villages in Hell, but Pandemonium was the biggest. If Hell had a capital, Pandemonium would be it.
Human souls passed through it on their way to the Pit, and because of that, it had the largest population of demons in Hell.
Other winged things were visible in the distance, some moving fast and others floating lazily.
There were many mighty creatures here that had never been to the surface before.
Daniel wouldn’t have any frame of reference for some of the beings here, no matter how much his guild thought it knew about Hell’s creatures.
The tunnel they’d entered through was part of an enormous cave system, the roof of which still sheltered them from the rest of the world.
Chaol plummeted to the ground, snort-laughing at Daniel’s yelp of fear.
Just before they reached the ground, he slowed with a powerful beat of his wings, landing gracefully with an armful of quivering human.
Daniel didn’t move at first, panting against his neck. “Jesu—mmph.” Chaol pushed Daniel’s head so the word was muffled against his skin.
“Don’t say that here,” he warned. “Many things here are burned by the words. You mustn’t speak of holy things, human. Understand?”
Daniel squirmed out of his arms and dropped gracelessly to the stone floor. “Yeah, I understand. Sorry.” He stood, brushing his clothes off.
Chaol softened. “Don’t be sorry. You said one of them in Purgatory. I should have warned you before we arrived.”
Daniel turned away from him, looking out at the foreign landscape. “Wow. So this is Hell.”
“Is it what you expected?”
Daniel shook his head. “No. I expected fire and brimstone. This is… like another planet. Is that a stream?”
Chaol shifted back into his human form, stepping up beside him and following his gaze. “Yes, but don’t drink it. It isn’t water.”
Daniel’s nose wrinkled. “Trust me, I don’t plan to eat or drink anything here.”
“That would be wise. And you shouldn’t have to. You have no physical body here. You shouldn’t feel hunger or thirst.”
“Oh. Good. One less thing to worry about.” He cocked his head thoughtfully. “Although it makes more sense now why even demons want out of here. Where’s the fun in living forever if you can’t enjoy a good burger or beer every now and then?”
Chaol smiled. “Exactly.”
“Wait, do you know what those are? Have you been to the surface before?”
“I have. I’ve only been in Hell since the nineteen-seventies.”
Daniel studied him curiously. “Why are you trying to go topside now?”
Chaol didn’t have all the details about what had happened to his brother, but he knew the paladins were involved somehow.
He’d known Amon was planning an attack on the guild at his lover Lilith’s behest. What he hadn’t expected was for other demons to get involved in stopping him.
He wanted to find out who was responsible.
But Daniel was a former paladin. Telling him he was going to avenge his brother, paladin-killer Amon, probably wouldn’t go over well.
“I have friends on the surface,” he said instead. “I’d like to see them again.”
Daniel hummed. “Same. I guess we should get moving, then?”
“Yes. Stay close. The goodness in your soul will be a beacon to all. I’ll do my best to protect you, but you’ll still be in danger.”
Stress lined his face, but still Daniel tried to smile. “Well, it wouldn’t be Hell if it was easy, would it?”