Page 52 of Widow

"We can have more than one favorite customer. And now that your brother is gone to the light side, you rank near the top." Tony, the giant, turned around and walked back into the stables.

The light side? So that meant Inferna was the dark side? What was this, Star Wars?

Lucifer and Ric came to stand near us.

"Brace yourselves." Ric's words didn't make any sense to me at first, but then Tony reappeared, leading something on a giant leash.

I rubbed at my eyes, thinking I must be hallucinating. He was leading a giant creature that looked an awful lot like a snake but with dragon wings.

It spotted us, and its eyes changed colors. This was it. This was how I would die. Not from the spiders turning on me, but from a giant flying snake.

The end of its tail lifted slightly and wagged in the air like a dog. It moved past Tony and towards us. It had some kind of seating contraption strapped to its back.

If they thought for one second I was going to ride on it, they were mistaken. I shook my head back and forth and watched as Lucifer stepped forward to pet the thing.

"It's a hell serpent." At least Ric was now talking to me again. "This one is well-trained and better than any horse."

Did the thing breathe fire? Its eyes landed on me, and it felt like my heart stopped beating. It sniffed the air, and a wide grin spread across its face. It had really sharp teeth.

"He likes you," Tony said. "Miles never likes someone so quickly."

"Does he like me so quickly because he wants to eat me for lunch?" At my words, Miles dropped his smile and stuck out his bottom lip.

Tony patted him on the head. "There, there, Miles. She just doesn't know you yet. Give her one minute on your back, and she'll be kissing your snout before you know it."

I seriously doubted that.

Ric grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. My feet weren't budging, and I shook my head again. I was pretty adamant I was not going on the top of it.

"I'll hold your hand the whole time. My wolf doesn't like the idea of flying either."

"It's not my spiders that don't want to fly, it's me."

Lucifer and Kai were already climbing up on the thing. There were rope ladders on either side of it, and they took the front two seats of the contraption strapped around its body. They looked down at me, waiting for me to climb up.

"It's perfectly safe. Lucifer wouldn't put you in danger." Sammy got a thoughtful look on her face as she looked back and forth between Lucifer and me.

"Yeah, Lia. Lucifer wouldn't dare put you in any kind of danger. Especially after last night." Ric made a growling noise from behind me.

I ended up at the ladder, and Rick prodded me in the back with his finger. I let out a frustrated sigh and began to climb, because what the hell? We were in Hell. This would be a story to tell.

A story from the padded cell of the mental hospital.

Had I finally snapped? Had all the pressure over all the years finally gone to my head? Was I in some kind of delusional state?

I made it to the top, slid over in the seat, and quickly buckled the seatbelt. Rick slid in next to me and buckled his as well.

I would just pretend we were on a ride at Disneyland. A new, scary ride that pushed all sense and logic out the window.

With a giant leap, Tony jumped into the saddle. It was a big damn saddle. He turned his head around and looked at us. "You ready?"

I grabbed onto Ric's hand and held on for dear life. The hell serpent started to run a bit, and suddenly leaped into the air, its wings snapping out and sending us soaring into the sky.

"I hate flying." Ric was squeezing my hand back, and we both moved closer to each other in solidarity of our fear.

Kai swiveled his head around and started laughing. "You two are ridiculous. You're not going to fall out of the damn thing."

I pinned him with a death glare, and he turned back around, laughing even harder.

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