Chapter 14 Holly
HOLLY
The night passed without a wink of sleep. I had too much on my mind, and thoughts kept swirling no matter how much I tried to settle. It didn’t help that I lay in the arms of the sexiest, most infuriating man I’d ever met. Or that he was a demon. Or that he’d told me the world was in danger.
Can’t I just meet a nice, normal man? One I can introduce to my parents, who won’t cheat, and whose big, important decisions are about what house we buy or where the kids go to school?
Except, now that I’d met Abaddon, I didn’t have any desire to find someone else.
Which was the crazy, painful part of all this.
A man, a demon, I’d met days ago was now all I wanted from life.
He was as far from normal as possible, my parents would argue about whether I needed therapy or an exorcism, and the literal fate of the world hung on his choices.
Which really put the fact that he’d chosen me into perspective. Fuck.
Eventually, dawn’s light pushed through the storm outside, and I gave up on sleep. I needed to move, to do something. Starting with breakfast.
Abaddon slept soundly as I stood and pulled on my clothes. In his arms I never felt cold, but as soon as I lost contact with him, the chill bite in the air reminded me where I was.
Plus, when he wakes up, we should probably talk rather than fuck. Staying naked won’t make that any easier. It was an annoyingly sensible thought, and I hated listening to it.
Even if the power had worked, I wouldn’t have risked cooking anything after my last experience. Instead, I filled a bowl with cereal, dried fruit, and milk. I’d rather have eaten something warm, but it would do. While I ate, I tried to think about the future.
It wasn’t easy. There were so many unknowns to wrestle with. If Abaddon stayed, could he live among people? Or was his disguise too fragile? That was just the start.
Belial watched me stalk around the cabin, and I wondered how we’d hide him from prying eyes, too. We would, I promised myself, find a way.
My aimless wander around the cabin brought me to the basement door, and I paused. Abaddon had warned me against going down there, had told me not to. But now the wards were down, like every other magic he’d built. I bit my lip.
What did he have down there? What did he not want me to see? A collection of corpses? A sacrificial circle? Or his collection of One Direction memorabilia?
I had to know.
The door opened at my touch, and I peered into the dark steps beyond.
Using my phone for light, I made my way down the crude steps carved into the rock.
The air felt thick and heavy on my skin, like a sauna if it was somehow dry.
At the bottom, I stepped out onto a hard and uneven floor, shining my phone’s flashlight around.
The chamber I found myself in was smaller than the cabin above, and cruder.
Unlike the care Abaddon had taken building his home, this looked like someone had blasted a hole in the ground and called it done.
The walls and floor glinted in the light that spilled through the doorway, made of a black, glassy material.
Overhead, wooden beams supported the cabin above.
In the center of the chamber stood a thing. I didn’t have a better word for the twisted metal structure that took up most of the basement like a surreal sculpture ready to pounce. Spindly limbs reached out to the walls, supporting a gaping maw large enough to walk through.
I swallowed and stepped closer. This had to be what Abaddon was hiding from me, and I wished I had a better light source to examine it by. Whatever it was, it had a mesmerizing effect on me, drawing my eyes in strange directions.
Between that, the uneven floor under my feet, and the darkness, it’s no wonder I slipped. I bit back a yelp and flailed for balance, catching one of the sculpture’s outstretched arms to steady myself. It sliced into my hand, and I hissed in pain, but managed not to fall.
Pulling my hand back, I had to fight a strange sucking sensation.
Where my blood marked the metal, dark flames ignited, spreading up and down the wires.
That gave me enough light to see the strange formulae carved into the walls, covering every inch, as well as the fine metal wires I’d been lucky to avoid in my stumble.
It had taken Abaddon a long, long time to build this gate, and I wondered how much it would slow him down if I broke it. Despite his promise, the idea was tempting. Men had promised me the world in the past, and usually ended up giving me some cheap flowers instead.
Abaddon seemed different, but they always did, didn’t they? I wouldn’t go out with a man if I knew he lied to me. And Abaddon was, literally, a demon. That kind of made trust hard.
Of course, he was also honest about who and what he was. Did that make it better or worse?
“Fuck it,” I said to myself. “If he wants to go, he’s not worth keeping.”
I turned to leave, only to see a shape in the doorway. Abaddon. All I could make out was his silhouette and the glow of his eyes, narrow and angry.
I froze.
“I told you to stay out of here,” he growled in a voice too low for a human. “You agreed. And the first chance you get, you invade my privacy.”
I nearly snapped back an angry reply, but caught myself just in time to hold it back. He was right, and what reason could I give? I needed to pry into your secrets to make sure I can trust your oath? Nope, that’d just make things worse.
“This is the gate you’ve been working on?” I tried instead. “Your way home that never worked?”
“Yes.” He advanced into the room, towering over me. “I scavenged for metal, learned to work it, built a gate that would work if only I had the power. And now, you give me that gift and risk taking it from me at the same time.”
Even now, enraged and inches from me, I felt no danger from Abaddon. And as the energetic glow behind him illuminated his regal features, I saw more than anger in his expression. Confusion, sorrow, anger, and other emotions I couldn’t name.
“I’m sorry,” I said. It seemed weak and insignificant in the face of his suffering. “I didn’t plan on damaging it, I just needed to know what’s happening.”
“You could have asked.” His flat, clipped tone was worse than if he’d shouted. “I’d tell you anything if you just ask.”
I drew a shaky breath and decided to take him at his word. “So what happens when you open the gate? What happens to Earth?”
“I don’t know. I wish I did.” His eyes looked past me, at the twisted metal of the gate. “If I have done everything right, it will connect to my home dimension. I do not know what will await us there. Hopefully allies in my fight against Baal.”
That he talked about us, and what we’d find beyond the gate, was both reassuring and painful.
“No matter whether or not I find friends, no one will miss a new gate opening. To most houses, your world would be nothing more than a prize to seize and strip bare. My enemies, but also my allies.”
“Then fuck this, I don’t care, you’re not turning this thing on.” Outrage filled my voice, lending me a certainty I didn’t feel. How are you going to stop him, Holly? Harsh language?
“That won’t matter in the long run. Someone will find this world eventually, whether through this gate or one of their own. Perhaps if I control access, I can prevent anyone from taking advantage.”
“No one’s found us so far,” I pointed out.
“That was before a demon lord hid here. Once Baal’s hunters find me, he will set up a gate to make sure I’m destroyed.”
“But…” As I struggled to build my next argument, the world shook. Light flickered from the gate, and I heard a sound like ten thousand voices raised in worship. I didn’t need Abaddon to tell me the gate was opening.