“What is that?” Bale asked.
“The one-hundred-first seal has fallen,” I replied. “The drakón are free.”
“I think that’s our cue togetout,” Magnus said.
“Yes, it is,” Bale agreed.
Turning away from the fires, I ran up the pathway behind the others. The hounds carved a line through the lower-level demons and Hell creatures by tearing them in half or knocking them over the side of the cliff. A lower-level demon lunged at me from behind. Its razor-sharp talons sliced down my back before I turned to seize its throat.
I walked it to the edge and tossed it over as another bellow issued from below and the flames shot higher. Morax, Verin, and Calah stopped beside me to peer into the inferno.
“I think continued fleeing would be best,” Lopan said and patted Calah on his head.
Calah scowled, but before he could respond, a manticore tail whipped out of a tunnel the shadows had obscured beneath us. The scorpion stinger struck Morax in the center of his chest.
“No!” Verin shrieked.
Blood spurted from Morax’s mouth and his body jerked before he froze. Leaping forward, my hand caught in the waistband of Morax’s pants as the manticore pulled away. The tearing of cloth filled the air as his pants ripped away from him and the manticore rose away from me.
“Fuck!” I tossed the ruined fabric away as another manticore soared out of the tunnel and pierced Morax’s thigh. The creatures snarled at each other as they dipped toward us while they brawled over their catch.
“Closer,” I grated through my teeth.
Bracing my legs apart, my muscles bunched as I prepared to leap off the pathway and grab Morax the second they came within reach. They didn’t fly closer, but rose higher with Morax’s frozen form between them. My claws dug into my palms as I watched them. Morax was one of my strongest fighters, closest allies, and one of the few I considered a friend. Iwouldget him back.
The manticores were almost to the edge of the gateway when they tore Morax in half.He can still regenerate…
Each manticore lifted their stingers to their mouths and gulped down their half.
“Nooooo!” Verin’s heartbroken wail drowned out the triumphant cries of the manticores and the roar of the drakón. Calah snatched Verin back and clasped her against his side when she almost tumbled over the edge.
The inferno below rolled apart to reveal the first drakón rising toward freedom. The gigantic beast released a wall of blue fire from its mouth, its wings fanned the flames below as it soared upward. Opening its skeletal jaws, the drakón swallowed both the manticores whole.
Calah held Verin up when her legs gave out. Lopan shifted to the side when Calah lifted Verin and tossed her over his shoulder. Her sobs were the only noise punctuating the strange hush that descended after the drakón’s emergence. And then another drakón roared from below and the fires surged higher once more.
***
River
“The angels are using a lot of power for this,” Caim murmured as he stared at Angela.
“I know they are,” I whispered.
Closing my eyes, I became completely still as the warmth of the sun’s rays flooded me. For one second in time, it was just me and this powerful world that had helped to forge me into the person I was.
Opening my eyes, I blinked against the sun before returning my attention to the pit. I searched for Kobal amongst the fleeing horde, but he was still nowhere to be seen. He was alive, but I wanted to see him.
I looked back to Angela now encased in a vibrant white light that caused others to stumble out of her way. Corson lifted his hand to his forehead to shield his eyes as he turned his head away from her.
“What are the angels trying to say?” Corson asked as Angela kept her hand over the gateway.
“I don’t know,” Caim murmured.
I knew, but I couldn’t tell Corson. Like Kobal, he would stop me from doing what needed to be done.
The demons and creatures who had fled Hell turned tail and bolted for the woods when the aura surrounding Angela grew stronger. The ones that weren’t struck down by Kobal’s followers fled into the trees, but no one pursued them. They remained where they were, waiting to see what would happen, and waiting for their king to arrive.
“Is it an angel?” Vargas breathed.
