“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But Hell is about to come to Earth.”
“Ay dios mio,” Vargas muttered. He lifted the cross hanging from his necklace and kissed it before tucking it inside his shirt. With a resolute expression, he lifted his rifle to his shoulder and aimed it at the gateway.
“The angels may also be on their way,” I cautioned.
The skelleins stomped their feet and their teeth chattered excitedly. “We always enjoy killing ourselves some angels!” one shouted, and the rest released a whoop of joy.
“Crazy bastards,” Erin muttered.
Wren stared at them like they’d lost their minds. Perhaps they had, perhaps we all had, but that didn’t change the fact that Earth as everyone knew it was about to change again.
From within the shadows of the gateway, the beat of wings resonated against the rock walls as a rokh took shape. It shrieked in excitement when it spotted the freedom it sought. Its gold talons curved as it flapped its wings faster and burst from the gateway.
Bullets riddled its body as it rose higher, its multi-colored wings reflecting the sun behind it.
CHAPTER 29
River
Keep going. Get out. Get out! You can try to fix this when you’re out of here, but you have to be free to do it!
I kept telling myself this, but though I’d gained strength from Kobal, it wasn’t enough. I could barely keep my feet under me, and I couldn’t let Kobal carry me again. We all needed our hands free as much as possible to survive the craziness surrounding us.
“The manticores are out! Angels are not!” Morax yelled over his shoulder at us.
“Did you communicate with Shax?” Kobal inquired.
“Yes. I can’t get in touch with Bettle again, but Shax and the others have been warned about what is coming.”
Please let them survive it, I pleaded as my right leg gave out on me.
Kobal lifted me into his arms before I could hit the ground. “Put me down!” I said.
“No.” I knew there would be no changing his mind.
The walls shook around us, and more rocks fell as three more demons toppled into the nothingness below. The numbers on both sides of the fight were dwindling.
“Head for the throne room!” Kobal shouted to Morax. “I can open a gateway there that will take us out!”
Morax gave a wave of his tail in response. After another hundred feet, he veered to the left and into a tunnel. Many of the demons, paliton and craeton alike, followed him. Some kept going along the roadway toward the gate above.
Knowing he wouldn’t put me down, I draped my arms around Kobal’s neck when he entered the tunnel. His muscles bunched and flexed against me. One of his hands shielded my head as the ground heaved upward again. My eyes darted nervously to the ceiling as more dust and pebbles rained down.
“Can’t you open a gate here?” Hawk asked from behind us.
“We would have to stop here,” Kobal replied. “And it takes time to open one.”
The Earth quaked again and larger chunks of stone clattered around us. The dust became so thick I could barely see Lix in front of me. Phenex yelped when a rock caught her on the shoulder.
“I’d prefer not stopping right now,” Magnus said as he wiped dust from his hair.
“Agreed,” Hawk panted.
Morax took another turn and entered the cavern with the silent waterfall of fire. I gazed into the flames as Kobal ran beneath them. Their heat warmed my skin, but they didn’t burn me.
Kobal leapt effortlessly over the stones winding through the red and orange river and into the enormous room at the end of the stream. With every step he took into the room, more colors blazed to life in the pathway of stones beneath him. The symbols etched into the walls twisted and moved toward him as if they were greeting their king.
The power of those symbols crackled against my skin, strengthening me further as the room came alive in a way I’d never dreamed possible.
