I darted to the side and nearly tripped overa rock in my rush to avoid the woman diving at me. I flung myselfto the ground, rolling over and rising back to my feet. Hawk leaptup and ran toward me with his head down and his arms pumping.
The woman pulled up before she crashed intothe wall and spun toward me. Her claws clicked together, and thesnakes around her head all swiveled to look at me. They hissed asthey felt at the air with their forked tongues.
Flames burst from my fingertips; I lifted myarm and released a ball that crashed into the woman. She spiraledhead over heels into the lanavours.
“Let’s go!” Hawk shouted and grabbed myarm.
Spinning me around, he kept hold of my armas we raced down the roadway. Our rapid breaths and the loud slapof our boots against the dirt echoed off the rocks. I had no ideawhere we were going or how deep we were traveling. All I knew waswe had to stay away from thatthing. Otherwise, I’d findmyself sitting face to face with my ancestor.
Something whistled behind us. I jerked to ahalt, shoving Hawk backward and pushing him into the wall as thewoman rushed past us with her angel wings folded against her oncemore. Resting my hand on the wall, I tried to control theadrenaline kicking through me in order to draw on the soothingpresence of the life flowing through the rocks.
I latched onto that life, drawing it deeperinto me. There was something almost familiar about the life fillingme. My head fell back as my gaze went to the sunlight and the worldabove that I could no longer see, but I knew it was up there, and…in here?
Heaven, Hell, and Earth had all been oneentity when the world was first created. Then Hell had broken away,followed by Heaven, to form their own planes. But they’d once allbeen interlocked together, and I could feel those interlockingbonds now. I had no idea if I was drawing life from Hell right nowor if I was somehow pulling it down from the Earth above, but itwas familiar, and the power wasminefor the taking.
The shadows withdrew from around me as themidnight blue sparks I drew forth lit the ground. The creature spuntoward us; her own forked tongue slithered out at us before shelaunched forward. Hawk tried to pull me back, but I spun my handaround, lifted my palm, and released a blast of energy. The airaround us crackled and became electrified before the ball slammedinto the woman’s chest.
Her hands clawed at her chest and her wingsbeat at the air. She rose three feet off the ground as she releasedan ear-splitting shriek. I threw my hands over my ears as she bentbackward before collapsing onto the roadway.
Lowering my hands from my ears, I gazed inwonder at her crumpled body. On the air, the rank scent ofsomething rotten burned into my nostrils, and I realized it wasfrom the black blood oozing from the grotesque woman.
“We have to go,” Hawk said.
I pushed myself away from the wall to stepcautiously around her body. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from thepile of snakes surrounding her leathery face. My throat becamedrier with every tip-toeing step I took around the carcass until Iwas sure there was nothing but dust within my mouth.
Then, one of the snakes shot up only inchesbefore me. It struck at me, its fangs missing my leg by merecentimeters. My scream lodged in my throat as I jumped back fromit. Hawk’s hand flew to his heart, and he staggered away.
The snake’s red eyes burned through theshadows. Its tongue slithered out as it tracked me. It struck at meagain, the force of its momentum dragging the dead body it wasattached to a few inches forward. I stumbled further away from itas it went ramrod straight before collapsing beside the tumbledmess of its friends.
“I could have done without that in my life,”Hawk muttered.
“You and me both.”
A rock clattered against something fromsomewhere behind us. My head snapped up as the first lanavourstepped back into view. Lifting my hands, I managed to get a smallball of fire to form, but the creature jerked backward anddisappeared before I could throw it.
I cursed and nearly stomped my foot infrustration but managed to stop myself in time. I really freakinghated these things. Turning, we plunged back down the roadway untilwe came to a place where the road split in two.
***
Kobal
Rounding another corner, I skidded to a stopwhen I came across the body of a furie with a scorch mark in thecenter of her chest. Fire hadn’t taken her down; the furies had anespecially high tolerance for flames.
Her body was confirmation that River coulddraw on the flow of life in Hell too. I hadn’t known if it would bepossible, and if it was possible, I didn’t have any idea what itwould do to her. What it might be doing to her now.
“Eight left,” Bale panted from beside me andkicked aside one of the snakes.
“I’d almost forgotten how ugly these thingswere,” Corson said.
Turning away from the body, I broke into arun again. Driven forward by my need to get to her, I almost didn’trealize the pathway branched off in two different directions untilI skidded to a halt a few feet down the left-hand path. I scentedthe air for River’s crisp, fresh rain scent. Amid the harsherscents in the air, hers was easy enough to pick up and follow.
“This way.” Turning to the right, I moved inthe opposite direction. My heart pumped faster as I realized whereRiver and Hawk were heading. I had to get to her before she walkedstraight into a pit of deviousness and torment; one she might notsurvive unscathed. If she survived at all.
***
River
“What is this?” Hawk rasped.
