Page 23 of Prince of Ruin

Me. I’m the human.

What if Mom raised me all this time, only for me to be a living sacrifice for these creatures? That invisible skeletal hand tightens around my throat. I turn to run, but the bat whips around and blocks my path, his massive muscular form having no trouble nudging my fragile human form back into the giant cavern, and I emerge from the tunnel to buttery light and the stench of sulfur so thick, I almost choke on it. Steam fills the air, adding heat to the room packed with more furry bat-beast bodies that move to the beat of the drums. Torches run along the wall of the dome-ceilinged cavern.

And the creatures....

Not much scares me. I am the child of a witch, and Mom used to read all kinds of horror stories to me long before they should have. But the beasts of this place are something I might have found within those pages. They’re all bats like the one with me, with largeblack eyes, upturned snouts, large ribbed ears, their fangs glinting in the torchlight when they throw their heads back to laugh—if you could call that screeching, scream-like sound a laugh.

They wear nothing, revealing their muscled humanoid torsos and muscled arms that merge into massive wings and end with talons instead of hands. Soft black fur begins at their hips and covers them all the way down to their feet, where clawed toes peak out. The music is loud, the creatures completely intoxicated with spirits. My heart is pounding, my hands slick with sweat, and now the panic comes in full force, threatening to make me either pass out or puke, if not both.

I look up to find several hundred more bats hanging upside down from the tall cavern ceiling. Against the wall, one smaller, human-sized bat crawls up the side of the cavern with ease, using its feet and taloned wings to grip the stone wall. It crawls over another bat, trapping it beneath its body, and that’s when I see its very humanoid dick slip into the other bat, who screeches, but appears to be enjoying the unexpected penetration.

I freeze. Holy shit. They’re fucking, right out here in the open. Not only them. There are a lot of bats fucking other bats, pinning them against the walls and fucking them in a primal, animalistic way. It’s a full-on bat orgy, as if it were mating season in Bracken Cave.

“Mother Terra.”

I turn my head toward the voice booming through the cavern. Unlike the screeching filling the cavern, this voice is deep and commanding, holding enough authority to silence the other bats. The bats slow their fucking and dancing and quiet their singing long enough to turn their attention toward a bat that is larger, darker, and far more intimidating than the one that captured me.

A terrifying monster compared to the basic beasts around me.

Like the other bat-folk, he has pointed ribbed ears covered in a thin sheet of silky black fur. He lifts his upturned snout, his inky black eyes inquisitive as they roam over the crowd. Fangs curl over his lower lip, and the jeweled talons tipping each massive, leathery wing glimmer in the faint lava light. But the crease in his brow is deeper than many of the bats I’ve seen, who all look joyous and drunk. This one looks far too serious, like he’s never seen a good day in his life. His lips press together in a firm line that creases into a frown.

He leads a human to the edge of the cliff where steam rises from the pit. The human looks to be around my age, her head shaved on the sides, the longer part on top falling over the left side of her face to her chin. Sweat beads on her pale, naked skin, and a rope is tied around her neck, with which the bat uses to lead her.

“Mother Terra, may you find this sacrifice pleasing to your senses,” the leader continues, his voice low, yet holding enough authority to keep every single bat in the cave silent. “May this rich human blood sate your appetite, that you might show mercy on our land once again. And finally, may you return to us our Spine Sovereign, for without a leader, we are lost.”

Chants begin filling the cavern, making the ground tremble beneath my feet. I can’t decipher what they’re saying, but it can’t be good.

This was a mistake. I’m an idiot for leaving the safe haven of home for this hell. Hell—thisishell. Dad was right—our land is a portal to the underworld filled with demons—the worst of their kind. Before my eyes, debauchery and murder. And Mom—Mom—led me here. They fucking brought me here and abandoned me.

I would cry, drop to my knees and let the heat behind my eyes find relief with my sobs, but I don’t have time to give into that feeling before two bats appear with spears, prodding the human toward the pit. When the human resists, one of the spears punctures her side, and crimson blood streams down her slender waist. My hand flies to my mouth.

One of the bats bares its teeth, clearly annoyed with her resistance, and pulls the spear back to jab her harder this time—but no need. She spins around,facing the creatures head on. Both fists in the air, she flips them the bird.

“Fuck you!” she screams, then she takes a step back, off the cliff—and falls to her death below.

NO! All I can do is stare in utter horror as the pit of lava swallows her body whole, flames consuming what’s left above the surface. It’s not until the entire chamber grows silent and a thousand pairs of eyes are on me that I realize a scream has ripped out of my chest.

Silence. Utter silence fills the cavern now, every single beady eye of these beasts resting on me, a human, as if waiting for me to be ushered into the lava pit next. Oh, for fuck’s sake. I know for a fact I don’t have the courage to go as bravely as that girl did. I’ll go kicking and screaming like a god-damned toddler at bedtime.

I should run. I am their prey, and I should get the fuck out of here if I want to live. So why aren’t my feet moving?

“Abaddon,” the bat who dragged me here says, as it wraps its membranous wing around me, and my body goes cold. It tugs me forward, andnowmy feet choose move. Of course. “Look what I found.”

So this is the infamous Abaddon. The Bat King looks my way, and every drop of blood seems to slow in my body as I freeze like a prey beneath the gaze of a hungry predator. He doesn’t look as excited as theothers about the sacrifice, about throwing that woman to her death. That furrow between his brows is deeper, his shoulders hunched, wings sagging slightly. He looks…tired. So tired. But when his eyes meet mine, I swear hope fills those black orbs. His brows arch, his wings lifting slightly, his mouth opening with a gasp as he stares at me as if seeing a ghost.

My body locks up as Abaddon runs his eyes over me, whispers filling the chamber from the bat-beasts who are quietly waiting. And I swear, my heartbeat can be heard echoing through the entire cavern. And they could hear it, no doubt. They could probablyfeelthe vibrations of my heart as it beats wildly against my ribcage.

“There’s no way,” Abaddon says, his voice lowered in disbelief. It’s not husky or screamy like the other bat folk, but deep and authoritative. A wave of panic washes over me as he assesses me warily, giving a predatory tilt of his head while his thin upper lip peels over two splinter-like fangs. “Clavicle?”

Clavicle. Clavicle.Somehow that name clangs a gong in the back of my mind, and Mom’s words echo in the following silence.

If you don’t convince Abaddon that you are Sovereign Clavicle, the Prince of Ruin, the ruler of the Spine Empire…then he may kill you.

Abaddon—the eight-foot bat-creature standing twenty feet away, whose large, black eyes are glued onme. My mouth is woven shut, terror gripping my throat too hard for me to correct him. And maybe…maybe I shouldn’t correct him. Not if I’msupposedto be this Clavicle. Not if I’m supposed to convince him that I am the Prince of Ruin. Then again, Mom just watched as a bat carried me away. Mom brought me to this hell. Why should I trust them? What if they only brought me here to be the next human sacrifice?

The furrow in his brow seems to have deepened, if that was possible. His muscled, human-like chest heaves as he slowly approaches, eyes trained on mine. “Is it…is it really you?”

I keep my feet firm as he nears, clenching my teeth to stop their chattering, because holy hell, he’s huge. Easily eight feet tall, with massive membranous wings, each tipped with a talon that must be six inches long. Gold rings glitter on each talon, one ring embedded with a crimson ruby that glimmers in the torchlight. He stops right in front of me, two gold rings in one of his ribbed ears clinking together. My muscles are stiff as dried clay, as if my body’s response is to look like a statue in order to survive. I never pictured the devil as a bat, but there he stands in all his glory, towering over me.

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