Page 65 of The Road to Hell

I turned, searching—though for what, I didn’t know. There was no floor beneath my feet, no air to fill my lungs. Just the heavy press of silence, wrapping around me like an unseen shroud.

Then something moved.

The darkness stirred, tendrils curling and unraveling, stretching toward me. I tried to recoil, but there was nowhere to go. No ground, no sky, no up, no down. Just shadows slithering toward the edges of my mind, pressing against something I hadn’t known was there.

A wall.

Thick. Solid. Unyielding.

The shadows stirred at my feet, then rose, forming a long malleable body. One that struck at the wall. Again. And again. Andagain.

Each strike sent a tremor through me, rattling my bones, cracking something deep within. The pressure built, an unbearable weight crushing against my skull.

Until the wall shattered, the blocks crumbling into ash. The shadows recoiled, and I fell throughnothing.

Until—

A voice.

Familiar. Warm. A tether slicing through the void.

“We need to keep moving. We aren’t safe yet.”

Sensation slammed into me all at once—heat searing my skin, smoke curling around my legs, sulphur burning my lungs. My boots hit solid ground with jarring impact, my knees buckling. My heart pounded and I panted for breath.

A hand clamped around my wrist, yanking me forward.

I gasped, my head snapping down to see long, firm fingers wrapped around my arm. I followed the line of his grip, up his arm, to the broad set of his shoulders.

Rathiel.

My heart lurched at the sight—and feel—of him. He looked younger somehow, which was strange considering he would have stopped aging a very, very long time ago. And did his jaw lack a scar? I remembered touching it. But there was nothing there. His skin was smooth, perfect, kissable.

I cleared my throat. “Where are we going?” The words spilled past my lips without me thinking them.

Rathiel spared me another glance, then led me outside. “The kennels.”

The moment he said it, the memory slammed into place like a blade driven straight through my skull. Clarity swept through me and my senses cleared.

I cast one last look over my shoulder, my father’s palace looming behind me, its towering spires piercing the smoke-choked sky.

We were escaping.

Because of my father—because of Deidre.

Betrayal. Torture. Belial. The words echoed through my head. I’d learned the truth about the prophecy. I’d learned about the rebellion. And now Lucifer wanted to break me.

And Rathiel?—

My head snapped toward him.

He was saving me.

He’d driven a blade through Gremory’s chest. We’d hidden from the guards. And now, we were running. Running for the kennels, where Mephisar and Sable waited.

Elation surged through me. The hellwyrms.Myhellwyrms.

I could fly myself out of here, but Mephisar and Sable would incinerate anyone who dared come near me. They were the perfect allies for this daring escape.

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