Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
“Lucy?”
“Lucifer.”
“Wait… really? The devil? In the flesh?”
“Yeah. He came through all pissy because Hades was rearranging shit. He figured it was time to come up here and have some fun. Sucky timing.”
“Do you think I can go down there?”
“I don’t know that part,” I admitted. I knew I could go down. That was no issue. I was from there, after all. And maybe, if Lucifer was still in charge, I would feel more confident. The thing was, it was Hades. He was notorious for never letting anyone back out of Hell. Those were humans, though. Nox was… less human.
That said, Hell was Hell.
Even with some of the demons escaping onto the human plane, there would still be tens of thousands of them down there. They might even start shit with me.
I was back at full strength; I could handle it.
Nox was… delicate. Sure, she seemed a little more revived this morning. Objectively, it was from all the sleep. But I wasn’t above taking a bit of credit for it, either.
I didn’t like the idea of trying to defend her from all the evil intentions of the demons while also trying to locate the damn river.
Maybe I should have left her back at Arick’s place. Sure, he was under intense pressure from the gods, especially Zeus himself. But he was clearly managing to keep his home protected.
It was too late for that, though. Nox was never going to let me turn back when we’d covered so much ground already.
I could make her stay in the car. But then she was unprotected in a tin can. I could think of half a dozen different types of demons who could rip the car to pieces to get to her.
She was safer with me if she could descend. If not, I might have to ask her to use her shadow to defend herself, even if it would drain her.
“This is it?” Nox asked, looking at the woods.
I hadn’t been sure until I parked the car, but I could feel the strange pull of it, the tug of my homeland in my blood.
Seeing as I never felt that way any other time, I figured it meant the hellmouth was still open and active.
“This is it,” I confirmed, feeling a sliver of unease moving down my spine.
“It’s that bad?” she asked, making me look over. “You have a muscle twitching in your jaw,” she told me.
“It’s not great. There’s a reason I was happy to come up here. But if I remember my geography, we don’t have to go deep into hell to find the river. It’s more of an along-the-way thing meant to stop guests from escaping. They stop, get thirsty, drink the water…”
“Speaking of,” Nox said, turning to lean between the front seats into the back, rummaging around in the floorboard until she came back with a slightly crushed water bottle. “Do you think this will be big enough?”
“I’m pretty sure we would only need a drop in each of their drinks. Should be plenty.”
“Good. So… are we ready for this?”
To go back to Hell?
I was pretty sure I’d never be ready for that.
“Yep. Let’s do it.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Nox
He was trying to play it down for me as we trekked through the woods, but Daemon was nervous.
Whether that was for himself, for me, for the mission, or all three, was anyone’s guess.
I stuck close to him, heeding his warning about stray demons potentially lurking around.
Apparently, Daemon could sense the Hellmouth. Much like, I guess, I could sense the magic in the cave. All I felt was the chill; all I could hear was the crunch of our feet on the underbrush.
“What’s—“ I started, ramming right into Daemon when he stopped suddenly.
We must have made it.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped to the side to see what Daemon was looking at.
I wasn’t sure what I expected. A hole in the ground leading to the Underworld, maybe.
I hadn’t anticipated what was in front of us.
Arms and legs and entrails and, oh, God, a head, strewn about.
The smell of blood and decay met my nose, making my stomach twist and bile rush up my throat.
Daemon moved so fast, twisting around, slapping a hand over my mouth, and pushing me against a tree. “Don’t. Don’t,” he added in a softer voice. Then, in a whisper, “he’s still here.”
Panic gripped my system, chasing away the sickness in my stomach, making me feel like I was vibrating.
My pulse was pounding in my ears, but I tried to focus past it, to hear or see what Daemon was picking up on.
“Shadow. Now,” he said.
Then, just as I pulled my shadow cloak around me, a giant figure appeared out of the trees.
This, this was what you thought of when you imagined a demon. Not Daemon’s gorgeous human body with sexy little horns and a forked tongue.