The wave of demons stampeded over Nightblood Academy. Some of the flying demons collided with its stone walls rather than bother to change course. They were like battering rams, oblivious to their own injuries, desperate to keep up with me. A scream burrowed its way into my consciousness. It was a grating voice that had my hackles rising. I turned a corner. Chanelle scrambled on her butt on the ground against the advance of an incubus. Her wings were soot-stained, the white feathers at the tips broken and hanging limp.
For a fraction of a second, I considered turning a blind eye. It would be so easy to claim ignorance later on. But I just couldn’t get out of my own way. I latched on to the mind of a winged monstrosity to my left and threw the flying demon at the incubus.
“Close the portal!” I screamed at her as I leaped past. She teleported away just before the demon horde crashed over her.
The portal loomed in front of me. Despite myself, I stopped with one foot over the threshold and scanned the horizon. My heart spasmed at the sight of Kai cutting a path right through the middle of the demon procession to get to me. His eyes were like two nuggets of dark green crystal. Sharp and filled with rage. A few seconds more and he would be on top of me. I gave myself a moment to catalogue everything about him. He’d let himself off the chain and it translated into unparalleled violence. Even with me clamping down on their minds, the demons ran roughshod over each other to get away from his blade.
His bellow of rage was eaten up by the gnashing of the demons around me. Our eyes locked. I love you. I blew him a final kiss and stepped through the portal.
The other side was like a mirror opposite of the Academies. The ground turned into a lifeless, hard rubble of earth. The air was choked with the scent of brimstone and burning oil. The moon here was red. Along the horizon sat a gathering of squat buildings. Fire blazed from the centre of it. I focused my gaze on the buildings and ran straight towards them, boosting as much of my power as I possibly could.
Behind me, the portal groaned. I threw my magic at the undead and the dark mages who fled with their counterparts. My feet jerked to a halt at the sound of the rushing wind. Sparks of multi-coloured light burst at the seams of the portal. It roared like the disapproving growl of a lion. And then it began to close. Demon stragglers shot back through just before it winked out. Sorrow stabbed at my chest. Thousands of demonic faces stared back at me, their mouths open in glee, their eyes bright with a killing rage.
I stared back, sickened by their expressions, frightened beyond recognition that I was here alone with them. The word built up in my mind. I was never going to get out of this one alive.
“Mawatah!” I screamed. Death.
A pressure in my mind rocked me backwards. It shot through the light of the red moon and gripped each and every one of the demons. For a second, they opened their mouths and fell to their knees in supplication. Then the world exploded in a blaze of blue and black. Thousands of screams imprinted themselves onto my soul.
Everything went black.
I came to lying in a pool of my own blood. There was pressure at the back of my eyes. I sniffed and scented salt and iron. My nose was bleeding. My arms and legs were so heavy it was like I was being magnetised to the ground. There was a blackened, clawed foot just to the left of my field of vision. Something with a tail lay to my right. It took me a long moment to remember that I had commanded thousands of demons to die. How long had I been lying here for?
In the human world, Hell was depicted as an inferno. An eternity of fiery damnation. Most of the supernatural community thought of it as layers of increasing despair. In my mind, it had always been a cavern of ice. This was a barren wasteland. Completely without life and hope. I wouldn’t put it past Lucifer to shape Hell to every person’s perception of complete and utter misery.
I was alone, hungry, and helpless. I was miserable alright.
An attempt to get my body to move resulted in me vomiting down my chin. All good. I was covered in demon blood and guts anyway. What was a little vomit on top of that? My brain felt like someone had taken a pickaxe to it. My eyes closed once more.
When I opened them again, the red moon was directly above me. If I used Earth logic to chart the movement, it meant that at least half a day had passed since I arrived. My body felt no stronger. It was a miracle nothing had come by and scooped me up. Then again, if they had, chances were they probably mistook me for dead. I certainly felt like it.
My eyes wouldn’t focus. I lay there until the moon crept lower on the horizon. No matter how long I breathed it in, I still couldn’t get used to the bitter scent in the air. If there was anything growing here to produce clean oxygen, I wouldn’t even know it. I was tapped out. A quick look into the reserves of magic revealed two sparks: one blue with a green tinge, one black laced with silver. But there was no
