Chapter 10 #3
Rian touched his amulet. It was like his good luck charm.
The Grand Priestess had assured all the Guardsmen they didn’t need to touch it to talk to those still topside, but it just made Rian feel better.
He’d given the Grand Priestess all the time he could to get them an exact location on his mate.
The last time he’d talked to her, Audrey was still being kept in Adramelech’s castle.
But by all accounts, that place was massive and searching for his mate like a needle in a haystack wasn’t something they had time for, so he’d given Calysta a shirt of his that still bore Audrey’s scent so that the Priestess could scry for his mate.
“Calysta, you found anything yet?”
“I have but I have Kyra verifying what I see.” Calysta sounded worried, which was never a good sign.
“And that means…” Rian asked, trying to mask his growing concern.
“It means that Audrey is no longer in Adramelech’s castle.
She’s not even in that realm,” Kyra answered, practically spitting as she explained.
“The bastard has moved her into a lower level. From the map Brann left that’s only good because it puts her closer to Kayne’s location, or where we think he’s buried.
But that means your girl is in with the nasty beasties.
My guess is the Chancellor is still pissed and this is her punishment. ”
“Son of a bitch!” Rian cursed aloud. Pacing the floor as he tried to calm down, his thoughts were chaotic. His panic was rising. If that bastard had hurt her again…
“Rian. Rian!” Kellan yelled into his mind cutting off Rian’s next thought, then stepped in front of the Dragon Leader and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Calm down. You’re spinning out. Nothing’s changed.”
“Nothing’s changed? How the hell has nothing changed?”
Rian tried to slide past to continue pacing and thinking, but the scarred dragon simply stepped in front of him again and this time, he looked pissed.
“You still gonna save your mate?”
“Hell yeah.”
“You still gonna save Kayne?”
“Yes, Kell. What’s with the twenty questions?” Rian was getting angrier by the minute.
“Not twenty, two, and they prove nothing’s changed. We’re still here to do a job and that’s what we’re gonna do. So pull your oversized head out of your ass and lead this group.”
Without another word, Kellan returned to where he’d been standing beside Declan at the back of the group and acted as if nothing had happened. Rian knew Kellan was right, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t embarrassing to have his brethren hand him his ass for the second time in as many days.
The silence in the room was almost as annoying as everyone staring at him was.
Ignoring the thoughts his brethren weren’t even trying to block, the Dragon Leader took a deep breath and forged ahead.
“Sorry…again. As usual, Kell’s right. Time to go.
” Looking to Brannoc he asked, “You get the info you needed from Kyra to find Audrey?”
“I did. We’re good to go,” Brannoc answered while rolling up his maps and stuffing them into his backpack.
“All right, you heard the man. Let’s head out.” Rian motioned for Brannoc to take the lead. As planned, the Guardsmen spread out on both sides of the dilapidated asphalt that at one time had been a road.
They walked for three blocks before turning west then another two blocks before turning into the eeriest graveyard Rian had ever seen. It was straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, complete with broken headstones, disrupted graves, and crying stone angels outside crumbling mausoleums.
“I know I’m gonna get bitch-slapped for this, but why is there a cemetery in hell? I mean, aren’t these people dead when they get here?” Rory asked from the back of their formation.
“You’re right…” Lennox snorted.
“See?” Rory butted in with pride in his voice.
“You’re gonna get bitch-slapped.” The whole group chuckled at Lennox’s comment.
Ignoring his youngest brother but promising both himself and his dragon to kick his butt later, Rian commanded, “Look alive, people. There’s a shitload of hiding places in this creep show.”
Brannoc raised his fist—the military signal for stop—looked over his shoulder at Rian, and pointed ahead. “The entrance to the lower levels is inside the chapel just ahead.”
A single nod and Rian barked, “You heard the man. Heads up.”
The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
His dragon’s growl—a low, continuous rumble of anger with their present situation—rolled around and around in his head.
Rian spread his enhanced senses as far as they could go, and could feel his brethren doing the same thing, all making sure no one and nothing could sneak up on them.
Outside the chapel, the two lines of Guardsmen split, one going left, the other right, leaving Brannoc and Rian to watch the front door. One by one, his brethren called in their okay. Mere seconds later, all but Maddox and Kellan had returned.
“Where are you?” Rian snarled.
“Going through the back door, kid. See you at the altar,” Maddox answered, completely ignoring Rian’s frustration.
Deciding it was not a battle he was willing to fight, Rian ignored his oldest friend and said, “Watch yourselves. We’re going in.”
Carefully pushing open the one remaining door attached by a single hinge with the end of his broadsword, Rian held his breath as the scent of mold, mildew, rot, and raw sewage assaulted his senses.
The Dragon Leader could only imagine what had caused such a stench and thanked the Heavens for his enhanced senses so he didn’t step in it.
The wooden floor groaned under the weight of the eleven huge men as they slowly approached the pulpit at the front of the sanctuary.
Brannoc stepped up on the podium, immediately kneeling and searching for the symbol Calysta had told them would be carved into the floorboard just about the entrance to the Lower Realms of hell.
Counting to sixty while listening to the sounds of the group’s navigator brushing dirt, debris, and only the Heavens knew what else from the floor in search of the glyph, Rian listened to the thoughts of his brethren.
They all agreed that something was up. It had been way easier than any of them had imagined… too easy.
It wasn’t that he doubted his abilities or those of his brethren; it was the simple fact that they were in hell, about to go up against Satan’s right hand man, and not a soul had so much as said boo to them.
Except for the insects roaming every available inch of the landscape, they hadn’t seen anyone at all.
“Found it,” Brann shouted, immediately followed by the low scraping groan of rusted metal being moved against its will.
“All right, let’s move,” Rian commanded.
One by one, he watched the men he’d pledged loyalty, fealty, and brotherhood to disappear into the smoke-filled darkness. The last one down, Rian pulled the metal door closed and climbed down the ladder straight into his worst nightmare.
His brethren were being detained by rabid hellhounds, all salivating to eat each and every one of them until nothing remained but a few little gooey bits.
Behind the Guardsmen, blocking the only escape Rian could see, were at least fifty undead soldiers dressed in every imaginable uniform since the beginning of time, armed and ready for battle.
The scent of Bellflowers cut through the sulfur and brimstone a second before a seven-foot monstrosity of unknown origin made his way through the parting sea of zombies.
The iron chain wrapped around his meaty, talon-tipped paw rattled and scraped against the ground as he walked toward Rian, a look of utter superiority etched upon his reptilian face.
Searching for Audrey while attempting to look bored with the production before him, Rian sighed and said, “Adramelech, I presume?”
Nodding like a king to his loyal subject, the Chancellor said, “Rian and the dragons, how nice of you to drop in. I’m so glad to finally make your acquaintance.”
“The pleasure is all…”
The words froze in Rian’s throat. A red haze fell across his vision and his dragon roared so loudly the confines of the Dragon Leader’s mind rattled.
Utter rage filled every cell in his body as one jerk of Adramelech’s chain brought Audrey stumbling to the forefront with a heavy iron collar around her neck and shackles on her wrists and ankles.
His body shook with a fury he’d never imagined possible in all his hundred and sixty-five years. Audrey’s gorgeous porcelain skin was marred with bruises, welts, and open sores. Even the tops of her feet and the back of her hands bore proof of the Chancellor’s cruelty.
Dried blood, Rian knew was her own by scent, and bits of straw matted her long ebony hair.
Her usually vibrant violet eyes were bloodshot, despondent, and swollen from crying, the tears having left tracks in the dirt on her cheeks.
Her lips were so puffy, cracked, and bleeding that when she tried to give him the smallest of smiles, she winced in pain and tears filled her eyes.
Taking in the ripped and frayed white cotton frock so threadbare that only small pieces of it had not already become a hole that the Chancellor had dressed Audrey in, Rian knew it was just another form of torture.
Adramelech had resorted to shaming the princess to try to break her spirit.
But even that had not stolen the fire inside her soul.
Looking deep into her eyes, Rian focused on their mating bond and pushed the words directly into her mind. “I will get us out here, but not before I make that sorry sack of shit pay for everything he’s done to you.”
Recognition shone bright in her eyes. She could hear him, and after just a single heartbeat answered, “I know you will. I tried to give up. I tried to force him to kill me but through it all, I never lost faith in you. I lo…”
Before she could finish, Adramelech yanked on the chain attached to Audrey’s collar, causing her to stumble forward and then spin around to stay upright.
The site of the raw and beaten flesh of her back pushed Rian over the edge.
Lunging forward, he flew toward the Chancellor.
The poison-tipped silver-bladed athame Calysta had given him before the descent into the Abyss appeared in his hand.
Raising the blade over his head, the Dragon Leader aimed for the Demon Lord’s heart.
Audrey screamed.
The Guardsmen roared.
And Rian’s world went instantly and tragically black as Adramelech shouted, “Stad! Titim! Codladh!”
I knew it was all too easy…