Page 52 of The Road to Hell

But the second we stepped into the open air, I stopped short.

The scent hit me first.

Cold, demonic, male.

My body locked before my mind caught up, my instincts reacting before reason could. My hand clenched around my sword hilt, my shoulders going rigid. The scent wasn’t strong, but it was distinct—too familiar, too unwelcome.

Lily took a few more steps before noticing I wasn’t moving. “Rathiel?” she called, turning toward me.

I didn’t answer.

I scanned the horizon, my breath slow, steady, controlled.

Then I spotted him.

Calyx.

He leaned casually against the rock outcrop a few feet away, one boot planted against the stone, arms crossed over his chest. His dark coat, tattered at the edges, barely fluttered in the stagnant heat. Midnight-dark hair framed a face that was too smooth, too perfect. If not for his eyes, most would have called him beautiful, like all the other fallen.

But those eyes.

Pale, ghostly, unnatural. Courtesy of the somnix parasitic demon residing within him.

A slow, knowing smile curved his lips. “Well,” he drawled, his voice smooth as glass but carrying that familiar undercurrent of something predatory, “I was starting to think you wouldn’t make it out of there alive.”

Lily stiffened beside me.

Eliza’s fingers twitched toward her daggers.

Vol muttered a curse.

I didn’t move. I just stared at him, every muscle wound tight.

Because I knew Calyx.

And if he was here, waiting for us, it meant we had a bigger problem than hellspawn.

ChapterFourteen

LILY

The moment I laid eyes on Calyx, my magic roared to life.

I clenched my fists, forcing the hellfire to hold steady and the shadows to obey. Calyx’s gaze landed on me, a slow, easy smile curling his lips. He leaned against the rock, one boot propped up, arms crossed like he had nothing better to do than lounge in the middle of Hell’s wastelands. The dim glow of the sky cast gave him an eerie blood-red aura, his dark hair barely stirring in the thick, stifling air. He looked comfortable. At ease.

I hated that. Hatedhim.

Gripping my blade tightly, I immediately scanned the surrounding horizon, the ridge lines, the rock spires, every shadow, every pocket of heat-distorted air, in search of the other fallen. Where there was one, there were others.

“Eliza,” I said under my breath. “Flank left. Stay alert. If you see so much as a shadow, you yell.”

She didn’t question me—merely shifted her footing and angled slightly to the side, her daggers drawn.

Calyx’s relaxed laughter dragged my attention back to him. He watched me with a lazy grin, as though he was enjoying what he saw.

“Oh, calm down,” he drawled, voice as smooth as silk. “This isn’t an ambush. It’s just me.” He gestured to himself with a mock flourish and fake pout. “Unarmed. Unaccompanied. Tragically outnumbered.”

I stared at him, then burst out laughing. “And I’m just supposed to believe you? Weren’t you trying to kill us a day ago?”

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