His gaze held mine while he waged a battlewith himself. His dominant, demon nature, that would die to protecthis Chosen, wanted to snatch me up and run. The part of him thathad started to understand my more emotional, human side realized Iwould fight him every step of the way. I’d gotten away from himbefore, I would do it again if he tried to bend me to his will oncemore, and he knew it.
“River—”
“We’ve tried everything else. Let me trythis before climbing in there,” I said far more calmly than I felt.Please don’t force me to stop or leave.I didn’t think ourrelationship could take it if he disregarded my feelings again.“Don’t you prefer to have me standing here with you, rather thanwalking in there?”
The muscles of his arm bulged as his eyesstopped switching between colors and burned the color of moltengold. More fire blazed over his skin; it licked up to circle aroundhis elbows. A burst of clipped words, uttered in his guttural demonlanguage, came from him. I didn’t have to understand demonish toknow it had been a spat of curses.
He squeezed my wrist before releasing it andstepping away from me. Running his hand through his hair, he tuggedat the ends of it as he turned to pace a few feet away from me. Theothers moved out of his way when he stalked ten feet before turningand coming back at me. He stopped beside me. His body was coiled toleap into action, but he didn’t try to grab me again.
I had no doubt he’d tear me away from thisplace at the first sign of trouble. For now though, he would notinterfere. Taking a deep breath, I turned my attention back to thehole before me. The blood flowed from my palm, dripping into thepit and splattering onto the narrow trail winding into theunfathomable depths of Hell beneath us.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on drawingon the life pulsing through the Earth beneath my boots. It wasn’tthe vibrant pulse I’d always felt before coming here, but Iwelcomed it into me as I pulled it forth. I compelled the flow ofit into my hand and into the blood slipping from me.
Close,I willed the gateway as Iformed the mental image of the Earth shifting and sliding forth toknit together within my mind.
Opening my eyes, awe slid through me asgolden-blue sparks danced across my fingertips. They flowed intothe blood slipping from me to turn it a pinkish color. Erin,Vargas, and Hawk crowded closer; Bale and Corson remained unmoving.Kobal stood rigidly beside me, his eyes fixed on the pit.
A feeling of rightness stole through me asmy blood continued to become paler in color from the growing lightencircling my hand and wrist. The light intensified, but the flowof blood eased as the healing powers of the Earth and my increasedrate of healing worked to close the cut.
Keeping my hand over the pit, I reached upwith my other hand and sliced the blade across my palm again. Kobalspit out another round of curses as sharp inhalations from theothers sounded around me. This time I barely winced at the bite ofthe blade piercing my flesh.
The darkness in the pit below slinked backas my radiant blood dripped down to chase the shadows back. Mybreath came faster, excitement coursed through me as more of thepit was revealed. I realized it wasn’t a narrow trail along thesides of the walls beneath us, but a winding pathway the size of aroad that led deeper and deeper into the bowels below us.
I still couldn’t see the bottom. I wasn’tsure there was a bottom, but whereas I’d only been able to see tenfeet into Hell before, now I could see almost a hundred feet down.With every drop of blood, the shadows slipped further away toreveal more of the road.
“Ay dios mio,” Vargas whispered. He liftedhis cross necklace and kissed it.
“The road to Hell,” Hawk muttered frombeside him.
Kobal stepped closer to me, the energy ofhis life flowed into my back to coalesce with my powers. I had noidea what took me over, but without realizing I intended to do it,I placed my other palm against his chest. My back arched and myhead fell back as the pulse of his life flooded my blood.
Kobal jerked, and his hand encompassed mywrist, but instead of trying to pull me away, he flattened my handagainst his chest and held onto me. Love for him swelled within me,causing the light dancing over my fingers to grow. I thought Iheard the shadows hiss, but I couldn’t be sure over the cracklingof energy flowing out to cover my entire arm before spreadingacross my chest.
No matter how far the shadows slid away, orhow bright the light grew, the hole remained open and the samesize. I sliced my palm five more times while keeping a mentalpicture of the gate closing in my mind, but it made no differenceas time stretched onward.
Weakness seeped into my muscles, and theflow of my blood eased, but I refused to move away from the hole. Ireleased Kobal to slice my palm open again, but he grasped my wristbefore I could.
“Enough,” he said gently.
“It will work,” I grated through my teeth.“Itisdoing something.”
“You’re burning yourself out, not to mentionthe amount of blood you’re losing.”
“I candothis.”
His hand around my wrist slid over my armand around to cup my face. He clasped hold of my chin beforeturning my head toward him. Concern and love filled his eyes.“You’re going to make yourself sick. You’ve made progress, but ifyou keep going, it will all be for nothing. You’re barely standinganymore.”
I wanted to fight him on it, but I couldn’tdeny the way my body swayed. This had to work. Itwouldwork. I was getting closer to figuring out how to close it, and Iwouldfigure out the key eventually, but not if I couldn’tstand anymore.
I closed my hand and pulled it away from thehole. The energy I’d been borrowing from the Earth and Kobal flowedback into its sources. The shadows of Hell rushed forward once moreto fill in the space my blood had cleared, obscuring the depthswe’d just been able to see.
Kobal jerked me back and jumped in front ofme when the shadows leapt from the pit and snapped toward me. Ahair-raising snarl tore from him as he bared his fangs at theshadows. This time I was certain the shadows hissed before theyswiftly retreated into the hole to slither over the top of eachother like a pit of snakes.
“Well, shit,” Hawk muttered, and Vargaskissed his cross again.
“They can’t do anything to you,” Corsonsaid.
“What are they?” Erin inquired.
