Iceman screams out in frustration, and I hear something crash before more demons cry out. “Jerif!” Iceman calls out. “We’ll hold them! Take her to Duo!”
I don’t know how he gets to me so fast, but one minute, I’m being shoved farther back by Crux, and the next, Jerif is there, blasting a line of fire between us and the horde, separating us from the other guys.
“No! They need to come with us!” I scream.
Jerif ignores me and grips my arm, pulling me back. “We need to go! Now! The guys will follow as soon as you’re in Duo.”
All I can do is hope that he’s right and that the guys will somehow get out of this, because the last thing I’m going to do is be stupid and try to argue or go back.
Jerif pulls me, keeping his upper body twisted so that he can launch fireballs behind us as we run. I don’t dare look back, because I can feel the demons right at our heels. Every time a fireball lands on one of them, the heat scorches my back, letting me know exactly how close they are.
Our steps pound against the ground, and I find it odd that I can still hear that amidst all the shouting, grunts, and death cries. When I see movement in my peripheral, I know the demons are gaining on us. I keep telling myself to just make it to Duo. I’ll be safe in Duo. But there’s this other assholish part of myself that keeps saying, what if you can’t get in? What if Trēs was my only hope? Maybe these guys overestimated me. Maybe I’m not powerful enough to pass through these Rings. Maybe—
Jerif yanks on me harder, breaking my panicked train of thought. As much as I have an instinctual reaction to yell at him and lob some choice swear words at his manhandling of me, I keep my mouth shut and try to move faster. Hope slams into me when I spot the stone wall separating Ring three from Ring two. We’re almost there.
Like that thought alone just invited all Hell to break loose, I hear a strange skittering noise above me. I should know better than to look up. Every scary movie in the history of the world has taught me the right protocols to enact whenever a weird noise sounds off around you. You either ignore it or pull the covers over your head and hope it goes the fuck away. But what does my dumb ass do? I look up.
My eyes adjust to the writhing darkness just in time to see that something is crawling on the wall high above us. A lot of somethings. Whatever the fuck is up there clings to the cavern walls with their hands and feet, and they’re getting ready to pounce.
I yell Jerif’s name, trying to pull back on his grip on my arm to get him to look up, but it’s too late. Bodies come leaping off the top of the wall at the exact moment that we cross the threshold from Trēs to Duo.
I feel like I’ve been hit by a meteorite as a body crashes into me. My arm is yanked from Jerif’s hold and wrenched painfully as I go down with a scream.
I can see Jerif being pummeled by more falling demons as I smash to the stone floor, a pained grunt leaving my body along with all the oxygen in my lungs. My scythe goes flying, but I suddenly smell ash in the air, and I hope the blade took out a demon or two as it went bouncing away.
Jerif bellows in outrage, and I feel the heat of his fury-fueled flames against my face as he starts trying to push up from the ground and burn everything around him.
I’m flipped onto my back by clawed fingers at my side, and I balk as I stare up at a demon that looks like a cross between a pterodactyl and an orc. It snaps its razor-sharp elongated beak at me, and I flinch, terrified of what it will feel like when it rips into me. I know it’s going to hurt, but will it be the kind of pain that overwhelms the senses and almost shuts the body down? Or will adrenaline be my friend and block it all from me as I’m ripped apart?
The demon snaps at me again, but its beak never makes contact. A long serpentine tongue slips out of its maw instead, and it licks the side of my scraped and bloody face. Revulsion pumps through me as it pulls its tongue back into its mouth, and I watch it swallow my blood down it’s throat, making a clicking, growling sound in apparent satisfaction.
Oh God, please don’t let it eat me alive.
I hear Jerif snarling and fighting somewhere behind me, but I’m too terrified to look away from the huge demon sitting on top of me to see if help is on the way.
“Mmm, delicious,” the pterodactyl demon declares, his voice too Mike Tyson for his size. I didn’t know this thing could talk, but that just makes it all the more terrifying. “The Ophidian wants you.”
My entire body is trembling. I can’t even feel the individual beats of my heart anymore because it’s thrumming too quickly. “The Ophidian?” I have no fucking idea what that is, but the name sends ice down my spine, holding me rigid with frozen fear.
The demon’s wrinkled gray cheeks pull back on either side of its beak in its own version of an eerie grin. “The Ophidian will be pleased with me for bringing you.”
A sudden sound of a high-pitched screech gives me pause, and rational thought sucker punches past my overwhelming fear. I buck my hips, but this demon is too big to really allow for much movement beneath it. By some miracle, another demon trips into us, and the pterodactyl-orc loses its balance. It snarls at the
