Page 23 of Hellfire to Come
At first, it was just a whisper beneath the groaning stone, like wind curling through freshly sprouted leaves. But then it grew. It layered. Many voices humming in perfect, hypnotic unison. No melody. Just purpose. As if the building itself was being called to attention.
I felt the magic behind it before I saw anything. A slow tightening in the air, like pressure building beneath my skin. It scraped across my bones, foreign and invasive.
Dominic stiffened beside me, his nostrils flaring, his animal instincts rising fast. He grabbed me around the waist and tucked me behind him in a too smooth of a motion.
“They’re calling something,” he said, voice roughening.
“Or someone,” Echo added, already backing into position next to him. The red sigils etched on her blade began to glow.
I unsheathed my dagger sliding sideways so I could flank my mate on the other side. I’d be dead before I’d hide behind him when there was danger. He rumbled unhappily but said nothing.
Smart male.
The stone beneath our boots throbbed faintly now, as though the structure was some enchanted beast that was awakening, its heartbeat restarting sluggishly at first but getting stronger with each thump.
“They’re trying to make sure we don’t reach Alice,” I said with the certainty etched into my bones. The magic felt wrong, but I understood it deep down, my blood was answering its call without my permission. “Or, if we reach her to not be able to leave. It’s a magical trap.”
“Get ready.” Dominic growled. He was already shifting, bones cracking and reshaping into something leaner, sharper. The panther dropped beside me with a thud, his tail lashing, eyes glowing faintly in the dim light.
“Back to back,” I pulled on Echo’s arm to get her moving closer. “We keep each other’s backs. Don’t let them isolate you. I’ll do my best to hold a shield against their magic for as long as I can. You three kill anything that moves within reach.”
They came from the shadows.
Five this time, maybe more behind them. Robes like smoke. Eyes gleaming with silver flame, sigils pulsing eerily on their skin. They didn’t hesitate. One threw a bolt of pure force at us. I raised my hand instead of forming a shield, catching it mid-air and absorbing the energy into my palm with a snarl. For a split second I felt the shock on the faces of those around me but I had no time to think what that meant. Taking a page from Alice’s book, I decided to own it, as she would say.
“Wrong move,” I hissed at the equally shocked witches, and hurled the cursed magic back.
It struck one in the chest and slammed her into the far wall with enough force to crack the stone, impaling her like a bug. Dominic launched forward, claws flashing in the gloom, and tore through the wards shielding another. Chester and Echo moved as one, coordinated in ways I never thought they could be, slicing and searing with brutal elegance. It was a deadly dance that flowed as if we’d practiced it for years.
A witch tried to flank me, her blade drawn with poison dripping from its edge. I ducked under it and drove a pulse of energy into her chest. She screamed as her body crumpled into the far pillar. Another tried to bind me in glowing sigils, but Echo’s blade severed the witch’s arm before the spell finished. Chester hurled his dagger across the room. It sang through the air before burying itself in the last witch’s throat.
I fought with the strange power rising in me, as if it had always belonged there.
The magic came easier now. Wilder. I didn’t question it.
A scream pierced the air. Not one of ours. The final witch collapsed, her mouth open in a silent curse.
We didn’t stop to check if there were more waiting around the corner.
We ran.
Down, around, through the suffocating dark. The walls were narrowing now, the ceilings were getting lower. Archaic carvings lined the stones, pulsing with low, green light. The air grew thicker, hotter, reeking of rot and old blood. Before I was ready to accept that I was back where everything started, my boot scraped over flat dusty packed ground.
We reached the lower hall.
That’s when the Guardians came.
I barely had time to shout a warning before they were on us.
Guardians.
More grotesque than before, skin stretched taut over bulging muscle, their armor fused to flesh like it had grown there. Leather harnesses held jagged swords and hook-blades, their faces hollowed out into masks of decay. And those eyes…dead, sunken things, pierced sharper than any weapon. They saw nothing, felt nothing. Just vessels of pain and purpose.
Dominic met them head-on, all fang and fury, a black blur of muscle and teeth. I followed, slicing through one with a blast of pure kinetic force still humming at my fingertips. It shattered the Guardian’s weapon, sending bone and steel flying as his body slammed into another.
Chester was laughing, actually chortling, as he hurled a Guardian up the staircase like a ragdoll. Echo was right behind him, a goddess of flame, igniting another with a flick of her wrist. Their demon magic danced between them in spiraling arcs of fire and shadow, scorching symbols into the walls.
The wolf, blood-soaked and feral, darted between the bodies, jaws clamped around a thigh. He ripped. Twisted. Shook it like a toy. Viscera rained across the stone.
