Page 89 of Hell Gate

Valerian growls, getting in my face. “You are Lilith, little flower. You. You’re our mate. Our goddess incarnate.”

The others make fierce noises of agreement. I swallow past the lump in my throat.

“We’ll never be separated again. Right?” Vale gives me a hard, heart-stopping kiss.

“Never.” I clutch his arms.

They study me for another beat. I nod, harnessing the flickering fire within me. This body is mine. This life is mine. Their love is mine. No one can take any of it from me—not even my past self locked behind the seal.

“Okay,” I say.

“You can do this,” Alder says. “You’re a survivor.”

“Our little fighter,” Matthias adds fondly.

“And you’re not alone.” Valerian’s knuckles graze my jaw. “With us, you’ll never be alone.”

Their belief in me twines around me, chasing away my doubts. When I falter, they’re there to catch me. It’s the reminder I need, the push that keeps me going.

We face the crackling air of the portal together. Anticipation of the unknown flutters through my stomach. Is this what the moment in isekai manga where the main character faces their new world feels like? Uncertainty, yet pulled in by the allure of the unknown? The thought stirs a rush in me. I always dreamed of that moment and this is my chance to live it as I step back into the place I truly belong.

“Ready?” Alder asks.

My chin dips in determination. “Let’s do it.”

Vale steps behind me and the others take my hands. We climb the last available steps. A faint wind blows through the portal that is much warmer than the damp, chilly air at the beach below. It feels nice.

Before I step through the gate, the hardest moments of my life flash through my mind. Mrs. Clark’s wariness of how unnatural she claimed I was. The kids that bullied me because they were afraid of me. The times the world looked down on me and drilled it into my head I was not enough.

I am enough. I’ve always been enough.

Gritting my teeth, I jump into the shimmer in the air, Matthias and Alder squeezing my hands tight. My stomach plummets when it feels like we’ll fall to our deaths before we’re compressed on all sides and sucked through dark clouds of smoke. The sensation knocks the wind out of me. For a moment my panic spikes, remembering the black smoke portal in the castle.

The only thing keeping me upright when we hit hard ground is their grip on me.

“Sorry. We should’ve warned you the landing can be rough,” Matthias says.

Valerian lands nearby in a swirl of smoke with more skill than me. He comes to my side, grasping my chin to check me over.

“I’m fine.”

Rainer, now sporting short horns, gets up from his perch on a rock and shakes his head with a smirk. “Thought you’d gotten lost. The area’s clear. Hellhounds are up in the canyon’s caverns, but I don’t sense any soul reapers.”

To underline his warning, a bone-rattling howl splits the balmy air.

Now that we’re no longer in the mortal realm, my guys have dropped the small glamorous that masked their demon traits, their ears pointed and their eyes more luminous. Maybe it’s the effect of being in the underworld, the natural power in tune with them.

My lips part as I take in our surroundings. We did it. We’re in Hell. Some part of me recognizes it, unfurling inside me like a flower in bloom. It’s strange to recognize a place I’ve only seen in my dreams and fragmented memories, to not feel the ever present ache of being out of place, yet have no idea what lies ahead.

At first glance, we could be at the base of any craggy ravine, but the sky above is a deep hue of red twilight with violet clouds that no sunset could create. Steps carved out of the dark colored stone rise in the distance, the top shrouded in fog. I wonder how far we are from the Devil’s castle in the city reaching into the otherworldly sky.

“We should move before the hellhounds pick up our scent,” Alder says.

Valerian gestures behind us to the mouth of a cave. Blue light like the kind put off by bioluminescent organisms casts a soft glow on the walls coming from a small stream weaving a meandering path through it white smoke bubbles from its surface.

“This way,” he directs. “It’s the fastest route to the river from here.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE

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