My heart pounds in my ears like a battle drum, and I hate that it’s all there is to hear.
It seems like it takes ages to walk a very short distance. Iceman leads us meticulously, slowly, purposefully. He doesn’t hesitate as he guides our group to pick our way around the jutting headstones, and he doesn’t rush us into making a mistake.
The irrational side of my brain can’t help but think we’re never going to reach the mausoleum. But we do. Just in time for my blood to run cold.
One look at the mausoleum shows me that it’s overrun with dark silhouettes of demons. They’re just...standing there, gathered around it. I don’t know what these demons did to weaken the Hellgate in Hell’s Embrace and be able to make it to our portal, but this once peaceful cemetery is now utterly terrifying.
They look more like carved specters in the night than living and breathing Hellish entities. But it becomes very clear right away that something is wrong.
“They’re not moving,” Iceman whispers, barely loud enough for me to hear.
There have to be at least two hundred of them gathered, and they’re not moving or making a single sound. This isn’t a balls to the wall, blatant attack like what happened in Georgia at Flint and Alder’s portal. These demons aren’t simply trying to bust out of Hell and run rampant through the Mortal Realm, gaining power and earthly pleasures. This is something different. It’s like…
“They’re waiting for something,” Echo murmurs, stealing the words right out of my mouth.
And right then and there, I know exactly what that something is.
Me.
21
A million things race through my mind all at once. Who are they? Are they here to kill me or collect me like before? Why? But the one question I can reach out and get a hold of, the one that makes all of this even more alarming is, how? How did they come through our portal? I thought my induction was supposed to stabilize the Hellgate and help stop this from happening. I thought that as a Nihil, I’d be just what the Gate needed and we’d be protected.
But as I stand, shrouded in shadows and confusion, staring at demons who look calculated, organized, and determined, it’s clear...something has gone terribly wrong.
Iceman looks back, giving each one of us a loaded look. When his icy blue eyes settle on my face, I know what he’s saying without him having to speak it. I know what they’re all saying, as one by one, their gazes lock on me.
Be careful.
Stay alert.
Swing like hell.
And don’t you dare fucking stop.
Iceman moves, and we move with him.
In the span of a breath, two long swords made entirely of ice appear in each of his palms as he calls to his power. He tosses one each to Echo and Crux, before making a third for himself and gripping the icy hilt. A flicker of light behind me draws my eye, and I see flames moving over Jerif’s hands. I exhale a deep breath and banish the trepidation in my chest as I face forward, ready as I’ll ever be for what’s next.
The second we all step onto the path that leads to the mausoleum where Hell’s portal awaits, that eerie, unnatural silence finally shatters.
Two hundred demon heads swivel in our direction, and then shrieks rent the air. The noise is so loud and so sudden, I would’ve involuntarily pissed my pants if anything had been in my bladder.
I cringe as the terrifying noises seem to bounce off every headstone and crypt.
“Get the Scythed One for the Ophidian! Kill the rest!” My head whips up at the shouted order, and I see that the voice came from a demon perched on the roof of the mausoleum, skulking like a gargoyle.
“Stay in formation,” Iceman orders, and that’s all any of us have time to say, because in the next instant, all two hundred of the demons rush at us.
Flames erupt from Jerif’s hands like a volcanic eruption, and Echo’s shadows that were once shrouding us from view form into angry tentacles, ready to snatch the attackers in their tendrils and snap some necks. Crux, Iceman, and Echo grip their icy blades, and I’m in the middle of them all, clutching my scythe like my life depends on it, because it absolutely does.
I don’t even know at what point my terror activated my scythe’s blades to come out, but I stroke the smooth wood, thankful for the wicked, gleaming, demon-ashing weapon. I pray to whatever the fuck I am and the blood flowing through my veins that this will be enough to see us through this. That I won’t fail my guys like I did last time.
I don’t understand why this is happening, but we’ll have to figure it out when this is all over. It’s like these demons tracked me here to this portal, and that thought fills me with dread.
We’re surrounded in seconds.
The guys try to tighten their formation around me, because I know without a doubt, that their unspoken agreement is to not let these fuckers take me. It’s my own unspoken agreement too, just like I’m determined not to let anything happen to them.
I feel more than see the first wave of demons hit. It’s like a tsunami of black slamming into us, and all four of the guys stagger into me at the same time. But it seems my guys were waiting for that. Like they’ve somehow planned this, Crux makes a fist beside his head, and the circle of demons closest to us burst into blood and sinew as their bodies turn inside out. Before the corpses even finish falling, Jerif makes flames engulf each body, protecting us in a ring of fire.
Iceman lifts a hand in the air, and right outside of the flames, he starts raining down
