Page 63 of Hell Sent

Paladin Adamus kept his distance from the body, as if it were contaminated by some contagious evil. “A summoning gone wrong? It’s hardly rare for a demon to kill its own summoner.” He glanced up at Azreth. “No offense.”

“The truth does not offend me,” Azreth replied. Raiya gave Azreth a reproachful glance, as if she resented the implication that he might betray them. She trusted him so deeply that merely acknowledging this truth—that all demons were dangerous—offended her.

“The summoning circle the last cultist made was in the tunnels below the castle,” Raiya said. “We should start there.” She stepped around the dead priestess, and he followed close behind her.

The scent of decay tainted the air. They passed twisted, dead forms of more velravens and a thresher—more inhabitants of the hells brought here by Gereg and Nirlan. The bodies bore the same strange gouges they’d seen on Gereg.

Azreth made a mental list of things that could cause this much carnage but were also small enough to fit through the castle’s halls. The list was not very long. His fingers fiddled with threads of magic at his side as he peered into every shadowy corner they passed.

The only thing he wanted to face less than a vythian was another demon. The vythian had been bad, but at least it wasn’t intelligent.

The corridor opened into the massive room at the center of the castle. Azreth recognized it. The last time he’d passed through, he’d left it strewn with the bodies of mortals who’d tried to stop him from leaving. The bodies were gone now, but the room was not much cleaner for it. None of the lamps were lit, and the fireplace was dark. Cold air blew through broken windows while moonlight glinted on their broken glass.

There was rustling from above them, and Raiya came to a quick stop. Azreth put a hand on her shoulder as he raised his sphere of mage light higher. It floated to the ceiling, casting light on dozens of dark shapes in the rafters. More velravens. They seemed to be sleeping.

“Just birds,” he murmured to her. “They’re small.”

“They’re quite large by our plane’s standards.”

“But not bigger than I am.”

Just as he spoke, the creatures moved. They awoke in unison, and there was a great fluttering of dozens of wings as they took off. Raiya ducked. Azreth raised a hand to summon a sword, then he realized the birds weren’t attacking them. They flew in all directions, out windows and down hallways.They were fleeing.

Hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. “Something frightened them,” he said. Raiya glanced up at him, shifting nervously.

Suddenly, it was deathly quiet. Even the wind seemed to have stopped, as if nature itself feared whatever was coming. Azreth listened to the silence, staring deep into the shadows around them.

Behind him, something moved.

He spun, putting himself in front of Raiya. Waving a hand, he summoned a magical shield. No sooner had it appeared than a beam of magic impacted the shield, blowing it to pieces. Azreth stumbled back, but another attack was already coming. He raised the shield again just in time for a second blast to hit it. He forced more magic into the shield, and this time, it didn’t break.

He looked beyond his shield long enough to see a demon approaching them—long enough to feel a pang of dread as he realized that the other demon was much larger than himself.

As the demon launched another knifelike shard of crackling magic at him, Azreth rushed forward, shifting to one side to deflect the shard with his shield. He caught a glimpse of the demon’s expression—faint surprise—just before Azreth slammed into his knees. His weight knocked the demon off his feet, and they both went tumbling across the floor.

Azreth wouldn’t last long if they took to wrestling on the ground. He tried to roll to his feet, but a clawed hand swiped at him. As he grabbed the other demon’s wrist and leaned back to avoid his claws, the demon arched over him, trying to pin him. Azreth jabbed a fist into his chin, knocking him off balance long enough to flip him with a twist of his thighs. With the demon under him, he swung an arm to gather magic into the shape of a blade, and in the same motion, he drove it toward the demon’s throat.

The other demon was fast—much too fast. Before the blade could make contact, something flashed through the air and hit the side of Azreth’s head, knocking him to the floor.

He rolled to his feet, bracing for another attack. The other demon was already standing, watching Azreth impassively, his posture relaxed. He hadallowedAzreth to get up. Otherwise, he would have been dead already.

All of it had happened in a matter of seconds, but his heart was already racing and his muscles were burning from exertion.The mortal plane had spoiled him. He’d almost forgotten what a fair fight felt like.

Panting to catch his breath, Azreth studied the demon. He was taller than Azreth by at least a head, and his fingers were tipped with long, tapered claws. He was probably older than Azreth, but his crimson skin bore few scars, as if he’d not lost many fights. It went without saying that he wasn’t missing any limbs.

When he looked closely, Azreth saw runes glowing very faintly all over his body, catching the light whenever he moved. Nirlan had succeeded in binding him.

Azreth guessed the demon would have happily killed them even without Nirlan’s encouragement, though. A faint scent of amusement and bloodlust floated off the demon’s skin. He was enjoying this. He was already sure of his imminent victory.

Azreth glanced over his shoulder to look for Raiya. She and the others were wisely standing back. He was glad they knew better than to try to help.

Raiya looked up at a balcony on the second floor. Careful to keep the other demon in his peripheral vision, Azreth followed her gaze. A human was perched there in the shadows, watching them. Azreth recognized him immediately, even hidden in the shadows, as if the man’s blackened soul called out to him.

“Nirlan!” Raiya’s voice snapped like a whip, and Nirlan reacted as if he’d been struck. He turned and ran out of sight.

“Go!”Azreth shouted to Raiya, and she jumped at the volume of his voice. “Go after him!”

Claws sliced across his chest. He recoiled, blindly throwing out a wave of amorphous magic. It knocked the other demon back, but it was all wild strength and no finesse. Touching a hand to his chest, Azreth felt blood where the claws had cut deep. He let it bleed. He couldn’t afford to expend magic on healing superficial wounds—he might need every last drop to fight.

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