I gave a brief bow of my head in greeting while wishing I’d learned some more demon words before coming here.
“It is good to see so many of you again,” Kobal pitched his voice to carry throughout the cavern. “And it is time you met your queen, my Chosen, River Dawson.”
An excited murmur raced through the crowd. I resisted pulling at the collar of my dress as I met their curious gazes.
“You will protect her life above my own,” Kobal continued. I glanced at him, not exactly thrilled by that statement, but Kobal remained focused on the crowd. “We are the closest we have ever been to defeating Lucifer. Our time has come,” Kobal continued. “He will be stopped, and we will reclaim Hell.”
The crowd shifted, many of them stomped their feet, and a strange, almost guttural cheer went through them. It took me a minute to realize they weren’t cheering but saying,Helka,over and over again. Simultaneously, each of them lifted a fist into the air and released a shout before their hands fell back to their sides and they became silent once more.
I glanced at Hawk. He looked like someone had tossed him into the ocean and he didn’t know how to swim. I felt the same exact way.
“Is there somewhere we can speak privately?” Kobal asked Morax.
“Yes. Follow me,” Morax replied.
CHAPTER 13
River
The demons split apart as Morax led us through the crowd. Verin sauntered beside him, her hips swaying with each step. Curious eyes burned into me as I walked past the demons, but no one spoke to me again. All of them bowed their heads to Kobal once more, and he paused to speak with some of them before continuing. A few of the ones he spoke with fell into line behind us, while one of them turned and disappeared into the crowd.
I didn’t take an easy breath until we stepped out of the chamber and into a side tunnel barely large enough to fit the two of us walking next to each other. A glance behind me revealed Hawk, Lix, Bale, Corson, and Magnus also following us. The hounds created a wall at the back of the pack.
Morax stopped before a boulder blocking the end of the tunnel and stepped to the side. His tail coiled around the edge of the rock. The muscles in his tail flexed when he lifted the rock and set it aside to reveal the room beyond.
I peered in at the gray walls and floor of the room. Each of the four corners had a small Hell fire burning within a pit. The warmth of the room brushed against my skin and caused sweat to bead on my brow, but it was nowhere near as unpleasant as the heat from the Oracle.
Kobal led me inside and the others filtered in to spread out around us. A large, stone slab in the center of the room was set up like a table. It had half a dozen pink quartz rocks surrounding it. The rocks were at least two feet high with a flat top perfect for sitting. Six black goblets sat on the table, and more were displayed on the shelves lining the back wall. To my right, a narrow hall led away from the room, but no one moved toward it.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“Hell has many hidden chambers where demons reside. There is no way to uncover all of them. What one demon knows, another doesn’t, and so on,” Kobal replied. “This is one of those chambers.”
“Our world is always changing and evolving, even when it is staying the same,” Magnus murmured. “But Hell is a place for those who have perished and death always bring about change, does it not?”
“It does,” I agreed though his words gave me that whole feeling of falling through the rabbit hole again. Magnus had a way of making things confusing, at least to me and Hawk. All the demons understood what he said perfectly fine; he made my head ache. “What does Helka mean?” I asked Kobal.
“Hell king,” he answered.
“Oh.”
Behind me, the boulder creaked as Morax shifted it back into place and the entrance was covered once more. I glanced over my shoulder at the demons I didn’t know. They must be some of Kobal’s more trusted allies who had remained in Hell after the gateway opened.
“How many fighters have been lost since you left us?” Kobal inquired.
“About a hundred,” Verin replied. “We’ve taken out at least twice as many of Lucifer’s followers.”
“But then the lower-levels have always been stupid and weaker and therefore easier to kill. He’s keeping his upper-level demons restrained right now and only sending his weaker fighters after us,” Morax said. “We engaged with them yesterday, but it was a half-hearted attempt on Lucifer’s part.”
“Any idea why?” Kobal inquired.
“He’s plotting something. What it is, we don’t know,” a demon with three-eyes answered.
Stepping forward, the demon extended one of his hands to me. Every one of his different colored eyes dared me to take the hand that was easily the size of my head. The eye in the center of his forehead was a striking aqua blue, while the left one was orange and the right green. Easily eight feet tall, he was solidly built and handsome with his broad cheeks and wide jaw.
“I am Calah,” he said.
I took hold of his hand the best I could, considering I couldn’t wrap my fingers all the way around it. “River,” I replied.
