Page 40 of When Monsters Fight
“Yes.” He looked relieved. “It’s gone.”
“You’re relieved?”
“Aren’t you?”
I should be, so why did I feel like I’d lost something vital?
“It’ll take a little getting used to,” Gabriel said. “It also means I won’t be able to track you easily if we get separated.”
“We won’t get separated.” I wouldn’t allow it.
He glanced down at our joined hands. Had I done that? Taken his hand?
I made to let go, but he gripped my fingers, letting me know it was all right. Our gazes locked for a long beat, and something stirred in my chest, a sliver of warmth unfurling to wrap itself around my battered heart.
“It’s huge!” Jilyana cried. “Look at it.”
The moment was shattered because we were coming to the chasm—a split in the earth that stretched as far as the eye could see on either side of us.
Asbeel landed neatly in front of us. “There are several bridges crossing the chasm. Not that it matters, because we can fly.”
“Any sign of the guardian?” Kabiel asked.
“Xelion said the guardian would be gone when the sun was at its peak, but the sky is overcast, and the world is gray, so it’s hard to tell.”
“We’ll have to assume he’s away for now,” Kabiel said. “Let’s cross.”
We hurried to the nearest bridge stretching over the endless chasm, an aperture filled with mist, so it was impossible to tell how far it descended.
Kokabel launched himself into the air but made it barely four feet off the ground before crying out and dropping back to earth.
“What is it?” Asbeel asked.
Kokabel stretched his wings, then snapped them shut. “It hurts to fly.”
Yomiel tried it with the same results. “There must be something in the air preventing flight to force the use of the bridge.”
“Then we use the bridge,” Kabiel said. “And we do it fast.”
“Don’t look down.” Gabriel gave my hand a squeeze.
The bridge was a solid structure, steady beneath our feet and wide enough for three of us to walk side by side, so Kabiel and Gabriel flanked me, keeping me between them and away from the railings—barriers made of stone and shiny brown metal. Copper? No, that was too soft a metal. Gold? Softer still. It didn’t matter; we were halfway across now. But the other side was a shimmery veil, making it impossible to determine what lay beyond. Thanatos had said something about it being a watery circle. But how watery? I couldn’t swim. Had never learned. I’d have to hope that flying wouldn’t be a problem in the fifth circle so that the watchers could carry me.
We were halfway across when a male materialized in front of us. He had to be at least eight feet tall and built to withstand a beating. His skin glowed with inner light, but his brown eyes held no fire.
“Passage is forbidden,” he said wearily. “Please do not make me hurt you.”
“We need to pass,” Gabriel said. “Lucifer is waiting for us.”
“Passage is forbidden,” he said again, but this time his gaze flicked to something behind us.
Someone.
Another man stood behind us, watching us with angry eyes and a bitter smile. He wasn’t as large as the one blocking our path, but there was an aura of lethality about him that made the hairs on my nape quiver. He said something in a gruff tongue, then doubled over in pain.
“What’s happening? What’s wrong?” Jilyana took a step toward him, but Asbeel pulled her back.
The groaning man said something else, his angry eyes now filled with remorse and fixed not on us but on the man blocking our path. He let out a final cry before bursting from his skin and morphing into a massive bird with a hooked beak.
