Page 52 of Hellfire to Come
Sound rushed in.
For a long moment, I wasn’t sure if I had actually opened my eyes, or if I’d only imagined doing so. Everything was blurry, shifting shapes, half-formed shadows swimming in a haze of amber candlelight and something richer beneath it, like sunlight straining through molasses. I blinked. Once. Twice. The room stilled and focused. Wood-paneled ceiling. Worn rafters. The faint scent of pine and blood and burnt herbs.
I was alive.
“Shit…” Chester’s voice cracked mid-word, his hand knocking over a bowl of dried herbs. “Echo, she’s…she’s looking at me. She’s…Holyshit, she’s awake!”
The blur above me sharpened slightly.
Echo’s eyes locked on mine. Her breath caught in her throat. Her hands froze, halfway between my chest and a bowl of glowing sigils etched in salt. Or, sand. Things were very blurry without my glasses. The wolf growled softly near my side, tail low, head tilted. But there was no menace in him. Just stunned reverence.
“Alice?” Echo whispered, voice trembling, as if she was afraid saying my name might shatter the moment.
My mouth was dry. My lips cracked. But I forced the word past them anyway.
“Hey. This is not actually hell, right? I mean I’m awake in my own world? Right?”
Chester whooped so loud I flinched. “Oh, deargods, she’s actually talking. She’salive!”
He grabbed Echo in a wild embrace, spinning her around despite her protests.
“I’m fine,” I rasped, even though it was a bald-faced lie. Every nerve in my body was fried. My skin felt like it was made of bruises and regret. But I was awake.
Alive.
Lucid.
I blinked again, the weight of the room settling in around me. I was back in the safe house. The cot beneath me was firm and familiar, and someone had clearly tried to make me comfortable, too many blankets, too many cushions, but all of it withcare. There were runes drawn on the walls. Burnt candles on every available surface. The smell of incense, medicinal herbs, and desperation lingered thick in the air.
The wolf was still beside me, eyes locked onto mine like he didn’t trust the world not to take me again. His fur was still matted with blood. Mine? Someone else’s? I didn’t care. His presence made my chest ache with gratitude.
But one presence was missing.
“Where’s Brooklyn?” I asked, heart stammering.
Chester froze. Echo hesitated, eyeing me like one would eye a snake debating if it would slither away or bite you.
“She’s not hurt,” Echo said finally. “She’s not…hurt. She’s okay. She just… went to get help.”
“That’s vague,” I muttered. “even for a demon.”
“She went to the reservation,” she clarified after a beat. “To the shaman. Laughing Crow.”
My blood turned to ice. “She…what?”
“You didn’t give us a choice, Alice,” Echo muttered, almost put out as if I was trying to be difficult just to make her day miserable. “You were barely breathing. Rowan’s still barely alive. Samir won’t speak to any of us—he is hiding in his room. She said she’ddo anythingto get help. She left hours ago. Dominic went with her.”
My breath caught in my chest. I didn’t need to ask what Brooklyn meant byanything. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach, the way the spell inside me had changed. Rewritten itself. Not vanished, no. But no longer trying to consume me. Someone had paid its toll.
And that someone had been her.
“No, no, no,” I mumbled, trying to sit up. “We have to go. We have to stop her, get her to undo whatever stupid…”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Echo snapped, her touch gentler than her words. She pushed me back down with a surprisingly steady hand. “You’rebarelyhere as it is. You just clawed your way back from whatever spell that bastard laid into your veins. Sit. Breathe. Let your body remember how to be whole again. The last thing I need is for Brooklyn to kill me because I let you get out of bed.” She muttered that last part under her breath.
“But she…”
“She’s Brooklyn,” Echo said simply. “And that means she’s strong. And also, the most reckless, bull-headed creature I’ve ever met until she introduced me to you. If there’s a fight to be had for your life, she’s not losing it.”
