Things had been quiet since the erinyes burst free of the gateway five days ago. Those hideous creatures had flown away from here so fast, that no one had been able to launch an attack against them. They were most certainly wreaking havoc somewhere in the world, but that was a problem for later.
For now, we waited, and we continued to lose to Erin.
I hadn’t heard from Morax since yesterday morning, when he’d mentally sent me a message telling me the angels had River, and that they might try to escape Hell. After his message, I tripled the guards around the gateway. If the angels came this way, I would not allow them to flee with her. I’d only slept for an hour since, but nothing had emerged from the gateway, and I hadn’t heard from Morax again.
I’d been patrolling when Erin suggested a break for all of us. Deciding it was either try for a distraction, or continue to prowl the camp until I drove myself mad, I’d opted for the distraction.
I kept my gaze on the gateway as I collected the cards Vargas dealt. Sitting out the fight against Lucifer had never been my plan. However, these humans had grown on me, and I’d become okay with staying above to help keep them safe. Though, I’d much prefer to be tearing the head off something right now, instead of staring at a pair of twos.
“I swear you’re cheating.” Vargas shot Erin a pointed look before grimacing at his cards. His nearly black eyes narrowed as he tossed his cards aside. “Not going to attempt this one.”
“I would never cheat you.” Erin smiled sweetly at him as she batted her eyelashes. “I warned you the first time we played that I was as lucky at cards as I am good at riddles.”
“I like her better when she’s answering our riddles,” one of the skelleins muttered.
“So you did,” Vargas said and leaned over to snatch a piece of jerky from her pile.
“Hey!” she protested.
He grinned at her as he took a bite. “You know you’re going to give it back to me when the game is over anyway.”
And so she did. Every time we played cards, the game ended with Erin having the largest pile before her. She divided it back to everyone, but it had become a point of pride for someone to eventually beat her.
“Not the point!” Erin retorted. “And just for that, I’m keeping some of your losses.”
Vargas ran a hand through his short black hair and tried to put the bitten piece of jerky back. She slapped his hand away.
“Children,” Wren admonished and placed a can of peas on the pile.
My gaze slid to the woman sitting beside me. Wren had shown up with some of her human friends the day after Kobal and the others entered Hell. At first, I’d been tempted to toss her into the gateway without so much as a second thought. On our journey here, she and her friends had tried to ambush us and been determined to kill us. I’d assumed I’d never have to see her again, so when she arrived here, I was perfectly fine with killing her.
Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with me. After a lot of discussion, Erin convinced me to let Wren and her friends not only live, but to also stay. Wren and company were fighters and survivors, perhaps more so than any of the other humans here. I had to agree that they could prove to be valuable assets. They had survived this long in the wilds after all. They had even survived Kobal leaving them tied up in the woods.
Not only that, but they had tracked us all the way here. I couldn’t turn away such talent with a weapon, or knowledge of this world, while our forces were divided and the battle for Hell waged.
Erin and Vargas hadn’t been with us at the time Wren and company attacked. They had been with River and Corson, so they didn’t dislike or distrust Wren as much as I did. I watched every move she made and made sure demons were with her and her followers at all times. I’d grown to trust her a little more, but not enough to let my guard down around her.
When I’d asked Wren why she risked their lives by following us, she’d told me that Kobal’s words intrigued her. She had gazed at me from her blue eyes with her pale blonde hair dangling over her shoulder in a loose braid as she spoke, “Your boss said to me,‘You have no idea what monsters truly are, but if we fail, you will. If that happens, you will look back on this moment and know I was right.’”
Wren had revealed that she had to learn what Kobal was trying to succeed at doing. If she discovered he was only blowing smoke up her ass, she brazenly admitted that she’d intended to kill him. That statement had made me laugh, the skelleins pull their swords, and the other demons close in around her, yet she’d shown no alarm. I’d decided to let it all play out until Kobal returned to make the final decision about her.
If she tried anything against one of us again, I’d happily rip off her head and use it as a soccer ball. Maybe the sport would be the one thing Erinwasn’tgood at, but I doubted Erin would be willing to use a human head for fun.
The human race was too damn sensitive about things, I realized with a sigh.
One of the skelleins whooped. Its teeth chattered together as it claimed the pile in the middle. High fives went around the circle. Erin so rarely lost a hand that when she did, everyone celebrated it as a win.
Another skellein gathered the cards and started shuffling them through its bony fingers with a speed the humans had trouble following. Their heads bounced up and down and side to side when the skellein flipped some cards through the air before catching them. The skellein dealt out the next hand as a vibration rattled the Earth.
The vibration was so small that I knew no one else felt it, but with my ability to make the Earth move, and therefore a connection to it in this world and in Hell, I sensed the tremor. Rising, I studied the gateway only ten feet away. Nothing moved there, but another quake rattled through the truck.
The skelleins, demons, and humans patrolling the gateway continued their pathways across the charred ground, unaware something had occurred. The ground rumbled beneath my feet again, growing stronger until I felt it all the way to the tips of my fingers.
“Shax, it’s your bet,” Erin said.
My gaze searched the gateway as the rumbling continued.
“Shax?” Vargas inquired.
