Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The angry skies were behind us, but we were still beneath thick gray clouds, as if this circle abhorred the sun. How was this circle so lush and green with such little sunlight? But then, I was assuming that the flora of this world needed the same sustenance as the flora of ours.
Kabiel walked ahead of us with Jilyana while Asbeel flew above us, scouting the terrain. The others fell behind a little, making up the rear. But I made sure to stay close to Gabriel. I’d almost lost him. I wasn’t letting him out of my sight.
The chasm was a few minutes away, and then we’d be on the bridge and into the fifth circle.
We’d find the relic, and once we were in the fourth circle, Lucifer would find us.
I stole another glance at Gabriel. Did he look pale? Were those dark smudges under his eyes? Was he still hurt?
“I’m fine, Rue,” Gabriel said. “You don’t have to worry. Our bond allowed you to heal me fully.”
Mention of the bond left me feeling strangely empty. “It’s gone now, isn’t it? The bond?”
“Yes.” He looked relieved. “It’s gone.”
“You’re relieved?”
“Aren’t you?”
I should be, so why did I feel like I’d lost something vital?
“It’ll take a little getting used to,” Gabriel said. “It also means I won’t be able to track you easily if we get separated.”
“We won’t get separated.” I wouldn’t allow it.
He glanced down at our joined hands. Had I done that? Taken his hand?
I made to let go, but he gripped my fingers, letting me know it was all right. Our gazes locked for a long beat, and something stirred in my chest, a sliver of warmth unfurling to wrap itself around my battered heart.
“It’s huge!” Jilyana cried. “Look at it.”
The moment was shattered because we were coming to the chasm—a split in the earth that stretched as far as the eye could see on either side of us.
Asbeel landed neatly in front of us. “There are several bridges crossing the chasm. Not that it matters, because we can fly.”
“Any sign of the guardian?” Kabiel asked.
“Xelion said the guardian would be gone when the sun was at its peak, but the sky is overcast, and the world is gray, so it’s hard to tell.”
“We’ll have to assume he’s away for now,” Kabiel said. “Let’s cross.”
We hurried to the nearest bridge stretching over the endless chasm, an aperture filled with mist, so it was impossible to tell how far it descended.
Kokabel launched himself into the air but made it barely four feet off the ground before crying out and dropping back to earth.
“What is it?” Asbeel asked.
Kokabel stretched his wings, then snapped them shut. “It hurts to fly.”
Yomiel tried it with the same results. “There must be something in the air preventing flight to force the use of the bridge.”
“Then we use the bridge,” Kabiel said. “And we do it fast.”
“Don’t look down.” Gabriel gave my hand a squeeze.
The bridge was a solid structure, steady beneath our feet and wide enough for three of us to walk side by side, so Kabiel and Gabriel flanked me, keeping me between them and away from the railings—barriers made of stone and shiny brown metal.
Copper? No, that was too soft a metal. Gold?
Softer still. It didn’t matter; we were halfway across now.
But the other side was a shimmery veil, making it impossible to determine what lay beyond.
Thanatos had said something about it being a watery circle.
But how watery? I couldn’t swim. Had never learned.
I’d have to hope that flying wouldn’t be a problem in the fifth circle so that the watchers could carry me.
We were halfway across when a male materialized in front of us. He had to be at least eight feet tall and built to withstand a beating. His skin glowed with inner light, but his brown eyes held no fire.
“Passage is forbidden,” he said wearily. “Please do not make me hurt you.”
“We need to pass,” Gabriel said. “Lucifer is waiting for us.”
“Passage is forbidden,” he said again, but this time his gaze flicked to something behind us.
Someone.
Another man stood behind us, watching us with angry eyes and a bitter smile. He wasn’t as large as the one blocking our path, but there was an aura of lethality about him that made the hairs on my nape quiver. He said something in a gruff tongue, then doubled over in pain.
“What’s happening? What’s wrong?” Jilyana took a step toward him, but Asbeel pulled her back.
The groaning man said something else, his angry eyes now filled with remorse and fixed not on us but on the man blocking our path. He let out a final cry before bursting from his skin and morphing into a massive bird with a hooked beak.
He took to the air cawing loudly, the sound one of pain.
The large guy leapt off the bridge, body arching as it fell toward the mist. An invisible force grabbed him by his limbs so that he was spreadeagled, looking up at the sky emotionlessly as the bird swooped down toward him.
“Move!” Kabiel ordered us.
Gabriel pulled me away from the scene just as the bird buried the tip of its beak in the man’s abdomen.
His agonized scream echoed in my ears as we ran across the bridge. The shimmering veil rushed to meet us, and we passed into a forest dotted with trees heavy with low-hanging purple fruits.
It took a moment to adjust to the sudden change of scene and for the caw of the bird and the man’s gut-wrenching screams to stop echoing in my head. But then the man standing under the fruit-heavy trees came into focus.
He held a basket filled with the fruit and was staring at us in shock.
Wait…it was the man from the bridge, the one who’d turned into a bird.
“What is this?” Gabriel demanded. “You were on the bridge just now.”
The man set his basket down and wiped his hands on his trousers, mumbling something in a language I didn’t understand.
“We can’t understand you,” Kabiel said. He looked across at Asbeel. “Can you understand?”
“No,” Asbeel said.
A figure emerged from deeper in the forest, large and golden—the other man from the bridge. But this version had life in his eyes and a smile on his face.
He didn’t look surprised to see us and raised his hands, clapping them together a couple of times.
A fuzzy sensation passed through my brain.
“What did you do?” Gabriel demanded.
“I opened your minds,” the bronze man said. “Now you’ll be able to understand the many languages of Gehenna and be understood so that you may communicate with the people who inhabit this world.”
Shit. I understood him. How the fuck had he done that?
He joined the smaller man and picked up the basket. “We’ve been expecting you for some time.”
“I still can’t believe it,” the smaller man said.
Expecting us? “How could you know we’d be coming?”
He gave me a tired yet enigmatic smile. “Join us for lunch, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
My stomach chose that moment to growl.
“We’d be delighted,” Gabriel said.
“Gabriel, we don’t know who these men are,” Kabiel reminded him.
“Ah, how remiss of me,” the larger male said. “My name is Prometheus, and this is my mate, Lorcan. I give you my word that we mean you no harm; in fact, we may be able to facilitate the task ahead of you. You can trust us.”
My gut gave me no warning. No alarm bells. “Will your food be safe for a human?”
“Our food is safe for all.” He beamed proudly.
“In that case, we’d love to join you for lunch.”
Kabiel frowned but didn’t protest as we followed the two men deeper into the forest.
I hoped my instinct wasn’t leading me astray here, and when I squeezed Gabriel’s hand, he shot me a look that echoed my thoughts.
We’d find out soon enough.