“Move!” a female shouted to my left.
Then a small hand wrapped around my wrist and yanked me forward. I screamed as I fell and I fell and I fell. My arms and legs flailed around while I desperately tried to catch my footing.
Suddenly, a soft pink light appeared ahead of me, and within a moment, I dropped into a room. I landed with a thud in front of another large, misty black portal and grunted. I didn’t believe in a god, but, damn, was I thanking one right about now …
“Iza,” a female said.
I peered up to see that girl from The Lounge the other night. She stood in a fairly large room with egg-white walls and two red velvet couches on either side of the portal. Two guards, dressed in suits with reflective black eyes and huge horns, stood beside her under the dim light.
“I’m Dani. We met at The Lounge,” Dani said. “You’re safe here.”
While Dani was sweet, I had just walked through literal Hell with demons everywhere, and I might or might not have been freaking out a little bit. I looked over my shoulder and chewed on my inner cheek, really making sure that I was okay.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“What are you doing here?” Dani asked, brows furrowed. “How’d you find this place?”
I opened and closed my mouth a handful of times. “I … we … Acaros …”
She arched a brow. “What’d Acaros do?”
“I followed him into a portal,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. I just want to go home.”
“Nonsense,” she said. “You’re already here. Let’s get you fed.”
While it probably wasn’t that smart to eat in Hell—because what did they eat, human flesh?!—I followed Dani out the double doors and stopped. The sky was a light pink with feathery white clouds. Beds of roses lined the white stone walkways, which led to a towering castle.
Dani giggled and pressed two fingers against my chin to close my open mouth. “You don’t want to keep your mouth open like that for too long or else the flying dicks might find you and use you for eternity.”
My mouth dropped open even more. “There’re flying dicks?!”
Another laugh left her mouth. “To the northeast. There is an entire island of them.”
I looked over at her, eyes so wide that I thought I popped a blood vessel. “You’re lying.”
“I can bring you there if you?—”
“No!” I exclaimed. “I need to rest after that portal.”
And besides, if Acaros found out that I’d summoned another sex demon last night, followed him into a portal because I had no self-control, then visited an island with flying dicks, I didn’t knowwhathe would do to me.
“You’re lucky that I was returning home at just the right time,” she said. “You could’ve been stuck in that portal for days. Or worse … I heard that someone had it out for you. If they’d found you first, then …”
My eyes widened even more. “Then what?”
She pressed her lips together and stayed quiet, and I decided to drop it. Acaros and Professor Laufer had mentioned that someone had it out for me because I was dating—are we dating?—Acaros, and I could only imagine what would happen.
After looping her arm around mine, she guided me toward another walkway off the main one. Demons walked to and from the nearest bustling town, their eyes hazy with lust and pink drinks in their hands.
“That town is called Chastion,” Dani said. “I’m sure Acaros will take you there sometime.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Why?”
“He’s kinda mad right now.”
“At you?”