Page 33 of Eternal Sacrifice
“Let’s take the crows!” He pressed into the mattress on either side of my head, forcing the material down before letting it spring up again. “Go into the crows. Go into the palace. Sneak around.” He raised a single eyebrow with a face full of mischief. “Find the book.”
The last part snagged my attention. Maybe we could fly through the palace and find the book that Marlene had used. One day we might find the answer as to why she was collecting the fragments. But it would be even better to know that someone else wasn’t hiding in the shadows, waiting to take a stab at us. That and maybe something inside those pages could help me figure out how to save Jax from his fate.
“When do you want to go?”
“How about now?” Justice beamed before letting go of the mattress to fall on top of me.
I was sandwiched between him and the bed, keenly aware it was nearly sexy time, and his lithe body was pressed against mine in all the right places.
“Mmm, yes,” Justice affirmed, tasting the streams of lust emanating from me. “Later, Fox.”
I nodded, knowing the constant sex was bordering on problematic. Something I worried would be a problem ever since we picked up the habit in the honeymoon realm. Demons didn’t seem to do much, but fight and fuck anyway.
“Just close your eyes, pet. The crows are waiting outside.” Justice ran a hand down my side, gripping my hip tightly as if he worried we would be separated when we entered the birds’ bodies.
I opened the crow’s eyes, blinking as I adjusted to the bright afternoon light. The bird had no problem seeing, but I still wasn’t fully awake. A familiar sizeable black crow stood beside me, cawing as it stretched its wings. I cawed back in response to Justice, spreading my wings like a spill of oil. Sometimes forcing my way into the mind of an animal felt like a battle of opposing forces, but this felt like slipping on a favorite sweater. Comforting warmth wrapped around me, even as the cold air rushed past my feathers as we flew to ring one.
I didn’t know the palace anywhere near as well as Justice, so I let him guide me toward one of the balconies. He seemed to pick this one intentionally, despite the multitude of others to choose from. I wondered what the imposing stone of the palace, jutting into the red-tinted dark sky, looked like to the common demons. It was impressive, but also held that familiar sense of home that dulled its luster in my eyes.
I landed on the railing next to Justice, tucking my wings as I waited for him to signal where to proceed. He hopped onto the stone ledge before walking through the open glass door. With his wings tucked to his side, it almost looked like he was walking with his hands clasped behind his back. Only, of course, in bird form.
Once I followed Justice inside, I realized it was an empty room. It looked similar to my room, at least in general layout and size. But this room sat entirely vacant.
Justice’s crow continued walking across the floor and towards the closed door. He approached steadily, and I heard a click and watched the door open. He waited at the threshold for me to catch up. The moment I did, his wings extended, and he took to the air inside the hallway. I followed, pushing off the ground and powering my wings to propel me through the air.
We flew side by side, occasionally landing on perches made from light crystals as Justice plotted our course turn by turn. Hallways would appear, Hell’s way of giving us a clue where to go, and we twisted our way through the maze. Even though most of the palace looked identical, I noticed the general ambiance turning darker, and the light crystals started to cast a dull, red glow.
This part of the palace was familiar. The air turned colder while Justice and I silently made our way toward the pit of Hell.
A door appeared out of the darkness, growing larger as we approached. It stood ajar, allowing swirling wisps of color to leak into the hallway. I looked over to Justice, directly into the beady black eyes of Crowley. I wished he could mentally reply to any words I spoke into his mind, but only silence transpired between us.
He took the lead, landing on the ground and tucking his wings tightly to him before creeping toward the opening. I could hear muffled voices growing louder the closer we got. Justice poked his head through first, and I crowded on top of him to get a look.
I froze, transfixed by the sight in front of me.
Long black hair fell down the back of a curvy, seductive demon. Lucifer was strapped, shirtless, to an X-frame. A myriad of cuts marred every inch of his exposed skin. The blood that leaked from the wounds shimmered with specks of gold.
“Angel blood,” the demon singsonged as she poured a bowl of shimmering gold blood onto a pile of bones and flowers. It sizzled the moment the blood hit, and white, billowing smoke rose into the air.
I had expected Marlene’s voice since Marlene’s book rested on the table beside the offerings. She had assumed the role of cockroach in my mind, and I expected it to be her back from the dead.
Justice moved underneath me, attempting to back out of the doorway. I hadn’t expected the movement nor the jostling, and my wings shot out on instinct.
It attracted Lucifer’s attention, and our eyes met. His widened ever so slightly before he turned to see if the other demon had noticed. While most of my mind screamed that Lucifer was in trouble and about to be unalived, a small part worried I had stumbled upon the King of Hell during a fetish scene.
“Is everything alright?”I asked into his mind.
I waited for an answer. I waited for Lucifer’s lazy, eccentric voice to waft into my mind like a breeze in summer.
His lips moved, pinning me in place as I watched him mouth one word, “Help.”
I scrambled back, using my beak to pull on Justice’s feathers until we were back in the hallway.
Justice turned to look at me, his bird beak slightly a jar. I don’t think I have ever seen a bird look shocked before.
“We need our bodies and backup. Time to go,”I ordered before pulling my consciousness out of the crow.
Justice’s body was draped over me, dead weight pinning me in place.
