Page 30 of A Match Made in Hell
‘Sath!’
He either doesn’t hear me or doesn’t care, because it’s not affectinghim, he’s a great oak weathering a storm while little Willow over here gets blown about. I dig my feet into the floor to stop myself moving any further towards that contraption, and am considering tugging on his arm for some attention, when everything stops.
I gasp. ‘What’s –’
‘Shh.’ Sath spins round. His eyes glow, and even in those human clothes he is painfully inhuman. ‘We’re not alone.’
11
‘What –’
‘What part ofshh–’ Sath closes the gap between us – ‘did you not understand?’
I purse my lips. He seems quite distressed by the idea of one of his demons running around. If he’s the one in charge, can’t he tell them to go away? I would ask, but I am extremely busy being quiet. I fix him with a glare so he knows how much I’m enjoying being given orders.
‘I suppose asking you to stay hidden while I deal with them is too much to ask?’ Sath says.
I smile sweetly. ‘Thought you told me not to speak?’
Sath looks torn between rolling his eyes and throttling me. Black flames swirl down his arms, sending a blaze of heat over my face, but I don’t recoil. Despite everything, I’m confident these flames aren’t designed to hurt me.
In fact, they’re not designed to burn at all, but create. The flames twist and turn around one another, forming into metal. A dagger. Sath passes it to me without a word. It’s heavier than I expected, with an intricate floral pattern carved into the handle. The blade is curved and deadly sharp.
Seriously, is there nothing he can’t do? ‘How –’
‘Not now, Willow.’ His flames are already forging something else, something bigger. A sword this time, made of black metalthat flickers blue when he waves it in the air. A sapphire gleams from a pommel inset into the hilt, with a rainbow of six smaller gems encircling it.
I’m suddenly less touched by the fact he gave me a knife.
‘Why don’t I get a sword?’ I grumble.
I’m not provided with an answer, so I can only assume he’s doing it to be difficult. Leaving the iron maiden behind, we head into the corridor, Sath in front. He stops when we reach a fork, head cocked to one side, before taking the right-hand turn decisively.
Something in the furthest room is screeching.
‘Stay behind me at all times,’ he orders. ‘Or, better yet, don’t come in at all.’
Unfortunately for Sath, my disposition has always leaned towards disobedience. Plus, there’s no way my curiosity is going to allow me to stay behind. It’s a shame we don’t have phones here; I’d be an internet sensation if I got footage of whatever’s in this room.
Sath kicks the door in, despite a perfectly good handle being right there, waiting for it to crash to the ground before stepping over the splintered wood. My curiosity is immediately washed away by a wave of fear.
Because it’s not one demon. It’s five. And unlike the demons I’ve seen here so far, there are no human-like qualities to them at all.
They’re shaped like bats, if anything. They shriek and extend their wings at the sight of us, membranous tissue stretching out wide. They’d be kind of cute, if they were smaller. And didn’t have fangs.
And weren’t flying towards me.
One shoots through the doorway and dive-bombs into my chest. I go down. Hard. My teeth rattle as it leaps atop me, jaw opening wide, stretching longer than its whole head. Oh shit. Ikick and scream and writhe beneath it, hopelessly unequipped for this. I’ve never taken a self-defence class in my life.
Perhaps I should have listened to Sath when he suggested I hide.
Sath. The knife he gave me is still in my slick grip. I twist, trying to shove it upwards at something, anything, that might hurt it. The thing shrieks again, and then it’s leaning towards me, mouth descending towards my neck, pincer-sharp fangs inches from me now; my heart beats a frantic rhythm in my chest, slamming against my ribcage as teeth graze my skin, and I refuse, I simplyrefuse, to let it bite a chunk out of me.
Using abdominal muscles I’m shocked to discover I possess, I sit up and headbutt its muzzle. The bat flies backwards in a gust of wind, hurtling into the room towards Sath. He shoots a bolt of fire, but it dives out of the way before reversing and coming for me again.
I jump to my feet, lashing out, trying to shove it; it swerves my hand and sinks its teeth straight into my forearm.Fuck.
The knife drops from my hand. My scream echoes through the corridor. Tears leak from the corners of my eyes. Sath calls out a warning, but what good is that to me; I need himhere, now, fighting it off.
