Deal With the Devil (Hell Boys #1)

Prologue

My lungs burned in my chest, crumbling to ash. My feet were two bleeding blocks of meat in too-tight shoes, jarring pain up my aching legs with every strike against the craggy, scorched earth. Hot, acrid, humid air clung to every part of me, making me feel like I was running through soup.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t stop. And all they did... was laugh.

Loud, raucous, poisonous laughter battered my eardrums. The other race contestants had all reached the finish line ages ago, leaving me in the last and most humiliating place.

Skins of all shades, colors, furs, and scales. Horns, pointed ears, fangs. A myriad of shining eyes from red to very pale white. Beings that shouldn’t exist. Creatures that were never meant to be real.

These vicious competitors all stood before me—united in one single goal—laughing their asses off at me as I stumbled over the finish line and collapsed at their feet.

“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” someone jeered.

A swift kick to my stomach shot the last traces of air screaming out of my lungs, cutting off any chance of me responding even if I wanted to.

“My five-hundred-year-old arthritic grandmother runs faster than you, and she’s got one eye and three legs.”

“Is this the true measure of a demon?” a cold, haughty voice slithered in my ear. “Pathetic creatures.”

“Enough.” A shadow fell over me—as large and intimidating as his booming voice. “Move to zone four. Your next trial starts now.”

The crowd jogged off, leaving their snickers and sneers in their wake.

I strained to get my hands and knees underneath me. “S-sir?” I croaked. I reached my hand up. “A little hel—”

He stomped on my hand, crushing it between his hoof and the heated earth.

My scream echoed through the Scorched Valley.

“Zero points for that sneak attack, boy. Your reflexes were too slow, and where the fuck’s your weapon?

” He scoffed. “But two points for finally showing some balls. Putting on such a pathetic display just to draw me in and attack when you’re faking being down.

Clever little demon.” Something akin to respect bled into the psychopath’s voice. “Very clever.”

Bending over me, he put his mouth to my ear as he grabbed me by the back of the uniform and hauled me to my feet. “I shall respond in kind.”

My eyes bugged. “What?! But I wasn’t—!”

He threw me none-too-gently in the direction of the retreating group. I landed face-first on the craggy rocks—my body folding in and crumpling on itself, every inch of me singing with pain.

Tears sprang to my eyes.

“Don’t you dare,” a feminine voice hissed from the depths of my clothes. “Don’t you dare shed a tear. Where do you think you are, girl? Happy Daisy Fairy Land?! This is hell! The slightest trace of weakness here will get you devoured, killed, or worse!”

What could fucking be worse than those two options?! I raised my head, latching on to half a dozen faces who were watching me with growing snarls. And why do I have a feeling that whatever worse is... they’re planning to do just that.

“Get up,” she hissed. “Now!”

I got up. Feet bleeding, face ground up, and two fingers assuredly broken, I got to my feet and crossed the short length of the valley to the waiting group of monsters.

The sky was different in hell. There wasn’t so much sunlight as there was glowing, flickering light from millions of fires burning across the realm. It filled the air with a heavy, acrid taste and smell that made every breath ache.

I looked around for a single living, green thing anywhere, but there was nothing. Nothing in the valley but hard, cracked, scorched earth, billowing smoke, and a hundred-foot-high cliff face that cleaved the flat valley in two, and denied us view or access to the other side.

We were a group of about fifty or so. I walked through the gates of Abaddon for what I thought was orientation, but before I could touch the steps leading to the main doors, Erlik barked at me to hurry the fuck up and join the rest of the fresh meat gathered around the statue of a half man, half goat.

He told us to follow him because our entrance trials began immediately. He also said there wasn’t any point in learning each other’s names until they were complete. He was right. Because before the trials started...

...there were a hundred of us.

The clomp, clomp, clomp of Master Erlik’s hooves echoed in our ears as loud as the faint screams carried in from every direction.

Erlik was a handsome man—demon—for all that his bottom half was snatched off an animal.

He had a strong, scruffy jaw; a wicked grin; and bright, tantalizing ruby-red eyes.

He had the face of every bad boy who told you straight to your face that your attempt to change him would only result in him ruining your life.

“Climb.”

I froze. “What? What are you talking about? Climb what?”

Without bothering to glance in my direction, Erlik pointed up. “This is your final trial. Climb to the top of the mountain. Anyone who reaches the pinnacle may consider themselves a new student of Abaddon Academy,” he stated. “Anyone who falls and dies may consider themselves dead.”

My nostrils flared at his uncaring delivery.

“Anyone who doesn’t try,” he continued, “may also consider themselves dead, because I will eviscerate all cowards.” Erlik blew sharply on his fingers. “Begin.”

“Wait,” I screeched as the men rushed the cliff face—knocking, shoving, and punching each other aside as they did so. “Don’t we get climbing gear, protection, something!”

Erlik raised one surprisingly thin and delicate brow. “No.”

“Of course not!” I burst out—fear, pain, and exhaustion bringing me to snapping point. “Could you have made these stupid trials any harder!”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Erlik breezed. “Thank you for reminding me.”

His reply didn’t have time to penetrate my brain before he snapped his fingers and howling lit the air.

Whipping around, I took one look, and screamed.

Wide, red, angry eyes. Foam and drool dripped from snarling maws.

Grotesquely muscled bodies covered singed, black fur, and razor-tipped paws bigger than my head pounded the ground as not one, or two, or twenty, but dozens upon dozens of these horrible creatures appeared from nowhere and raced across the valley... straight toward me.

“Hellhoundssss,” she bellowed from below my collar. “Get up the fucking cliff, human! Now!”

She didn’t need to tell me twice.

Racing past a guffawing Erlik, I launched at the cliff face—desperately scrabbling for purchase.

The cliff was rocky and jagged, boasting nothing but protrusions to grab on to.

That should’ve made things easier if it wasn’t for the fact the cliff wasn’t made of natural rock and dirt.

My hands closed on smooth, slippery obsidian—just about the worst fucking thing you could try to climb freehand.

I jumped, grabbed, and scrabbled at the rock—hands slipping on the stone and opening seams in a dozen little places, but still I didn’t stop. “Come on,” I bellowed at myself, climbing a foot from the ground, and then two. “Come on!”

“Ahhh!”

Someone fell past me, nearly knocking me off smashing into my shoulder before crashing to the ground.

The hellhounds were on him in a blink. Terrifying, blood-chilling horror rocketed through my body as five of them pounced on him. He was still screaming when one ripped open his stomach and started eating.

Everything went white. I think I was screaming. I think the hidden passenger in my shirt was screaming too. I couldn’t comprehend of either as I climbed—climbed, climbed, and climbed with no more thought in my head but to get away from those horrifying monsters.

“No! No, no, no!” My bloody hand slipped on the rock. “You’re not dying here! Dora needs you! Keep going!” Tears cut tracks down my cheeks as someone else fell from the cliff, and their dying screams pummeled my eardrums. “Keep going! She needs—”

A tight grip closed on my wrist, snapping my head up. Blinking, swimming eyes latched on to a wide, gleeful grin, and just above it, the pinnacle.

I’m almost to the top. My eyes saw it was true, but my heart could scarcely believe it.

Only a few more feet and I’m there. Oh my gosh, I’m going to do it.

I’m going to get into the academy! Dora, I’m coming!

“Th-thank you,” I rasped, tugging on my wrist. “But I think I can climb the rest of the way on my own. I don’t need hel—"

“Sorry, worm.” Impossibly, the smirk grew wide—curling in on itself like the Cheshire Cat. “This is as far as you go.”

“Wha—”

Yanking sharply on me, he broke my hold on the rocks... and let go.

Screams echoing through the valley, I plummeted through the air... into the eager, waiting maws of the hellhounds below.