Page 22 of Hellfire to Come
I paused at a junction, hand pressed to the grimy stone to hold myself upright, breath shallow, sweat slicking my temple despite the cold. The air here had teeth, biting at my skin, every nerve bristling with warning.
Two halls diverged before me, dark and gaping, the space heavy with the threat of something ancient stirring just beneath the surface.
One curved upward toward a splintered staircase barely clinging to the wall, its steps broken and warped by time and disuse. Faint whispers of light filtered through the cracks above, chasing shadows like they were afraid to linger.
The other sloped down. Into blackness. Not the passive kind, but a darkness that felt alive. Sentient. Hungry. It reached for me without moving, promising the kind of pain you don’t come back from the same.
I didn’t flinch.
I didn’t need to.
Because the pull in my chest, that invisible thread tied to Alice, snapped taut, strained to the edge of breaking, the weight of it crushing every breath.
There was zero doubt in my mind.
She was down there.
And she was running out of time.
My heart tripped.
“She’s below us,” I whispered through numb lips, well aware of what was down there.
Dominic stepped beside me. “You sure?”
“Yes.”
Not a question. Not a hunch. A certainty that rang through my bones. The bond pulsed again, almost violently this time. Alice wasn’t just below, I could tell that she was moving. Alive. Desperate.
“She must’ve escaped wherever they held her,” I said, dread spreading through my limbs just thinking what she could find there. “She’s trying to meet us, the crazy female.”
“That explains the tremors,” Chester muttered from right behind me. “Your girl has quite the chaotic signature when she starts flinging magic like she was born with it.”
“She does, doesn’t she,” I snorted, ignoring the comment about her acting like she was born with it. He was more observant than I gave him credit for and I’d hate if I had to kill him now. One, the demon started growing on me. Two, Alice was a priority.
“We should double back,” I said, straightening and forcing the tremor from my voice. “There’s a split by the antechamber. If we take the lower hall there, it loops around the core foundations. We’ll find the entrance to the cages level.”
“Brilliant,” Chester muttered. “Just what I wanted, spending time around cages.”
I turned a sharp look on him, but he only shrugged, unapologetic. His meaning rang clear—I’m just saying what everyone’s thinking. They’re the ones too scared to say it.
“What else will we find?” Echo asked, her voice low, blade already in hand. She ignored her companion so naturally I had to bet that Chester had a habit of being a smart mouth when the stakes got high. I had no time to make a comment about any of it.
Never got a chance.
As if summoned by her question, the wall beside us let out a deep, splintering groan. The stones shuddered beneath our feet, dust sprinkling in fine streams from the ceiling. We all took steps back, plastering closer to the walls in case the roof caved in on us. A cold draft curled through the corridor, creeping along the back of my neck, too slow, too deliberate to be just air passing through. It carried the scent of damp earth, rot, and something older. Something feral.
The scent of ozone burned my nostrils.
A sound followed.
Low.
Rhythmic.
Wrong.
It was chanting.
