Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
My face was pressed up against stone. I stared back at Freya, her body barely able to squeeze between the rock.
We were wedged in a crevice, and as I took a deep breath, the stone wouldn’t allow enough room for my chest to fully expand.
A bead of sweat trickled down my face, but there wasn’t sufficient room to lift my hand to wipe it away.
“You didn’t tell me Hell was so inviting,” Freya said through gritted teeth.
“Yes, well, I haven’t seen this particular side of it before.
” I twisted my neck around to gaze up the crevice in the opposite direction to find Samuel slipping along the rock easily, pushing forward as if nothing was the matter.
“Samuel, some of us are more than just muscle and bones, you know. We don’t have a natural lubricant coating our exposed muscles. ”
Samuel paused to look back at me. “Ah. Apologies. I’ve had complaints that the entrance I used was far too literal, so I chose another. I didn’t realize you were claustrophobic.”
“I’m not claustrophobic as a general rule,” I said, shifting forward an inch. Pebbles rained down from above, the space threatening to collapse at any moment. “But I’m not sure anyone would be comfortable with this amount of constriction.”
Another stab of pain in my gut reminded me that I was probably not in very good shape at the moment. I felt blood rise in my throat, but I swallowed it down.
“Very well,” Samuel said. “Close your eyes. Imagine you’re no longer confined by rock walls. You’re out in the open, air all around you.”
I did as he asked, closing my eyes and visualizing a field, open with the sun beating down on me overhead.
“Just breathe in that fresh air,” Samuel instructed, and I did, imagining the scent of soil. “Now, open your eyes.”
I lifted one eyelid tentatively, then opened both to stare around in wonder.
Not only were we not in a crevice squeezing the oxygen from our lungs, but we were in the sky, miles from the ground.
I froze, not daring to breathe as I stared down at the balance beam I was perched on.
A gust of wind assailed me, threatening to topple me over into free fall.
“Samuel,” I said, trying to keep any hint of panic from my voice. “This isn’t much better.”
Samuel frowned. “Well, I don’t know what you expect, Callum. This is Hell. There aren’t going to be fields of posies for you to traipse through.”
“Fair enough.” The potion I’d ingested that had allowed me to sneak across the town square on silent feet would quite literally make my feet lighter, probably enough to keep me buoyed in the air should I misjudge and step off the balance beam.
More confident with this in mind, I looked back and held out a hand to Freya.
She swayed uneasily, looking about ready to faint. When she beheld my hand, she grabbed onto it tightly, like a lifeline.
I offered her an encouraging smile before following Samuel along the balance beam. We passed through a cloud, condensation clinging to us as we pushed ahead. When the air cleared, Samuel was waiting expectantly at a door that seemed to lead nowhere.
“Come on then,” he said, nodding his head toward the door as he opened it and stepped within.
“Are you sure your friend is sane?” Freya grumbled.
“First of all, he’s hardly a friend.” I considered. “He’s more like a work acquaintance really. And secondly, I never claimed he was sane.”
Freya let out a breath. “Well, if I’m going to die here, best make it quick.”
We stepped through the door after him … and out onto a dark staircase.
I blinked as I readjusted to my new surroundings.
It was like a dungeon, torches burning in wall sconces, while the opposite wall was nonexistent.
Not that one could escape that way. Far below, lava swirled lazily, bubbling and belching noxious fumes into the air, which smelled terribly of sulfur.
This was more the sort of scenario I’d expected from Samuel.
“Up here,” Samuel waved us up to him. He nodded toward a door far up the staircase.
My eyesight still under the effects of potion, I could see that it was made of skulls, just as the door to Lucifer’s chamber had appeared to me every other time I’d called on him, even before Samuel had taken over as escort.
The bone gleamed beneath the torchlight, and I tried not to look too closely at the tortured shapes of the skulls, how their mouths grimaced in agony or opened in silent screams, still moving as if alive in their torment.
Freya clung to me as we ascended, not like the fierce warrior I’d come to know her to be.
It was nice to see that she could be affected as well.
Hell was a special sort of place that made one reflect on their lives and past actions, and whether they’d been good enough to avoid becoming a permanent resident.
I’d certainly spent time pondering the weight of my soul.
“You’re out,” she said.
I glanced down at my chest, where she indicated my orb. “Ah, yes. I was in need.”
She put a hand over my orb and traced a rune there. It suddenly filled with a small amount of energy, although this energy was pink. I lifted an eyebrow.
“You can have some of mine,” she said. “I have a feeling you’ll need it.”
I clasped her hand. “Thank you, Freya.”
She nodded.
“Lucifer hasn’t been in a terribly good mood lately,” Samuel said conversationally as we walked. “Just fair warning, since I expect to win our bet.”
“The warning is appreciated, but unnecessary. I brighten everyone’s day.” I was about to say more, but something far below caught my eye. Heavy steam. I tilted my head to watch as lava cooled below, the orange lava rapidly becoming black, as if infected.
“She’s here,” I said.
Freya’s face sobered. “We’d best hurry then.”
We picked up our pace as we walked hundreds of steps up to the top of the staircase. I was huffing by the time we reached it, bending double to catch my breath.
“This truly … is Hell,” Freya managed between gasps.
“Thank you,” Samuel said, not even winded. “Reputation is everything here.”
A crackling sound began to encroach on where we stood, and I peered past Freya to find frost racing up the steps. “She works fast,” I observed.
Samuel peered over the side of the stairs at the lava pit below, which now lay motionless and black.
“Oh, Lucifer will not like that at all.” He shivered and rubbed his hands over his shoulders.
I didn’t see that it did much good, as he only reproportioned the blood coating his muscle.
“In fact, I think I’ll leave you to it. No need to get involved if he loses his head.
” He nodded as he slid down the staircase past us, making for a door.
The frost beat him to it though, and he looked uncertain as he stepped upon it.
Immediately, the frost climbed up his feet and legs, racing over his glistening body, freezing it into a hard shell of ice.
“Oh, dear,” Samuel said softly before his face was stiff with cold. In a moment, the ice around him had thickened, and he toppled over, tumbling down the steep staircase, landing on different parts of his body that slowly chipped off like ice.
After a moment of watching his descent, and dwindling body mass, Freya gestured to the door. “Shall we? Before we join him?”
“Yes,” I agreed, grabbing the skull-shaped door knocker. “But to be fair, Samuel probably enjoyed that. Immensely.”
“Well, I won’t,” Freya insisted, gesturing for me to hurry as the frost continued to climb after us.
The door knocker resounded deep and loud before the door clicked open.
I slid inside with a relieved sigh as Freya shut the door firmly at our backs, leaving the frost behind, at least for now.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be you,” Abigail said, crossing her arms and looking put out.
I imagined the same look crossing Lucifer’s face.
And like her handsome father, her green eyes seemed to hold an intelligence well past her years.
But that was only an illusion created by her youthful appearance.
I had to remind myself constantly that this was not a fourteen-year-old girl, but rather a spawn of the Devil, decades old.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to see you again, at least,” I said, ignoring her rude greeting.
Abigail seemed to be assessing us, eyes sliding from Freya to me. She smiled, her features softening even as her razor-sharp teeth came into view. I felt Freya go stiff at my side. “It’s always a pleasure,” Abigail said. “I expect you’ve come to see Father?”
“Yes,” I agreed. “It’s rather pressing.”
She turned on her heel, marching deeper into the room.
We followed. I wanted to warn Freya to be ready for anything, but she seemed to be of that mind already, two of her hands gripping the handles of swords.
The room opened into a throne room, but rather than a buffet laid out, as was the usual custom when I arrived, a large pit lay before the thrones, where lava could be seen below. Three walkways traversed the hole in the floor.
“You’ve redecorated,” I called out lightly to Lucifer, who was sitting languidly on his throne. A green demon with a body similar to an armadillo, with a tapered, stretched face, rubbed his feet.
Lucifer’s face lit up and he kicked the demon to make room as he got to his feet. “Ah, Callum. Always a pleasure.” His eyes slid to Freya, and he lifted an eyebrow, noting where her hands had wandered. “And who is your overzealous friend?”
Freya lifted her chin. “Greetings, Prince of Lies. You may call me Freya.”
“Prince of Lies!” Lucifer laughed, putting a hand over his heart. “You wound me, Freya. A silver tongue doesn’t make me a liar, so much as a distorter of truth.”
That was basically being a liar.
“But enough of these awful, ignorant labels,” Lucifer said. “Come join me.” He gestured to the pit. “Just mind your step.”