“It is,” Kobal confirmed.
I missed the ocean. Missed the salt of it on my lips, the soothing flow of its waves against the shore, and the cries of the birds soaring above. This crashing fire had none of the teeming life the sea did, but it still drew me toward it.
Stopping at the edge of the waves, I gazed out over the oracle. The fires rolled on for a good hundred yards before slipping beneath the wall across from me. “Where does it come from?” I asked.
“The oracle is an extension of the Fires of Creation,” Kobal said from beside me. “This chamber doesn’t possess the same amount of power as the chamber housing the Fires, but there is enough here that the human world can be looked upon. Because the fire here isn’t as strong, we can get closer to the oracle.”
I remembered gazing down into the Fires of Creation that had forged Kobal and thinking how angry and hot the flames looked. Now that heat blasted against me, but nothing would deter me from getting closer to it.
My heart beat faster with every step I took toward the fiery sea. I yearned to peer into the oracle and see my brothers. Ihadto know Gage and Bailey were alive. I’d sacrifice everything for them and would do anything to ensure they had a future.
The trembling in my legs grew, but it wasn’t only from exhaustion anymore. No, I feared looking into those fires and discovering my brothers’ broken bodies. A lump wedged in my throat. Every step became harder to make, but I continued until I stood at the edge of what could only be called a shore.
I kept my feet away from the rolling inferno as I gazed over the crests. “Will it work for me?” I asked Kobal when he stepped beside me.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you see anything?” No matter how I tried, I couldn’t keep the hope from my voice. Ineededsomeone to see something beyond this place.
“The wall,” he replied and rested his hand on my shoulder. “Mac is guarding it. The wall still stands.”
My shoulders sagged beneath his grip. “Hawk?” I asked when he came forward to stand on my other side.
“I see the ocean, but not this one,” he said softly.
“Is it the ocean from home?”
Hawk had lived in the town next to the one I grew up in, but we hadn’t met until we were both at the wall.
“Yes, and there are boats on it, people fishing.”
My hands fisted as I tried to will something into view. No matter how much I tried, all I saw was fire and the sparks floating through the air. “Do I have to look somewhere special?”
“No,” Kobal replied, his hand tightening on my shoulder when I swayed on my feet. “We should go.”
“Wait.” All I wanted was a glimpse of Bailey and Gage, just onetinyglimpse. “A few more minutes.”
I sensed the other demons and skelleins closing in behind me. The hounds’ claws clicked against the rocky ground as they patrolled the cavern. I didn’t look at any of them.
“You must drink,” Kobal said and handed me a canteen.
My fingers curled around it, and I lifted it to my mouth. Hot water trickled past my lips. I greedily gulped it down before reluctantly pulling it away. Kobal took it from me and handed it to Lix as I focused on the oracle again. Before me, the waves of fire parted like a curtain pulling back from a window.
My heart plummeted when I saw what the oracle revealed.
CHAPTER 7
River
The Last Stop bar the skelleins built around the gateway into Hell had been on fire the last time I saw it. If there had been any remains of the bar, they’d been cleared away to reveal the charred earth the fire had ravaged. The skelleins who stayed above to help guard the gateway hadn’t bothered to rebuild anything.
The scene slid further away to create a panoramic view of the area and the demons and humans camped there. Their numbers were far smaller than I recalled. It didn’t take me long to discover why as the oracle revealed the mounds of overturned dirt marking the numerous graves at the edge of the woods.
At the edge of the clearing stood a young girl with her wheat blonde hair falling in ringlets around her shoulders. Her kelly green eyes surveyed the clearing with sadness. Unlike the ghosts everyone could see due to the opening of the gateway, I was the only one who had ever seen the child, Angela. I didn’t know what she was, or why she appeared to me, but my instincts said she wasn’t a bad thing.
Suddenly Angela’s head lifted and her eyes latched onto mine. I didn’t have a chance to blink before the scene shifted and I found myself standing before her. Angela’s mouth curved into a smile as she gazed at me.
Angela’s rosebud mouth opened, but if she spoke, I didn’t hear her. She’d never spoken to me before. She’d tried to stop me from doing things with gestures, but never words. Lifting her hand, her fingers attempted to caress my arm. I felt nothing against my skin.
