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I gaped at her, my head reeling in alarm. “You can hear my thoughts?”
This was something new. As far as the Nephilim knew, demons couldn’t read minds.
“I’m not a psychic, my dear.” She smiled and wrapped a thin arm around my shoulders. “But you and I are intricately laced. Not only are you the daughter of this body, but you house a piece of me inside of you. Once in a while, I get a wave of your emotions. It’s like the scent of salt from a strong ocean breeze. Nothing tangible, but enough to help me get a reading.”
Swallowing my panic, I sucked in my cheeks and tried to calm down my racing heart. The less emotional readings she could get off of me, the better. I didn’t need another demon inside of my head. One was enough.
“Where are we?” I asked. The darkness hid most of the distinguishing features of the forest. If it had been daylight, I could’ve picked out our location in seconds.
“Turn around.” She waved her hand. “Have a look.”
I spun to look behind me and gasped. I should’ve known she’d bring me here. Not ten feet in front of us lay the Hell Gate, a cavernous hole leading into the Earth. It was here that Margaret Thatcher had nearly taken me. My blood had soaked into this very soil. I thought I was going to die that day. The memories rushed back to me, making me shiver with fright.
“This is your destiny,” Elizabeth said, pulling me closer to the gaping hole. She leaned over the darkness, the moonlight glinting off her teeth as she smiled. “I’ve been watching you this summer, my dear. You have become everything you were meant to be. A strong warrior of epic proportions. A means to a new world. I couldn’t be prouder.”
She wrapped me in a hug and I stared over her shoulder, my jaw slack. All I’d wanted this summer was to become just that—a warrior who could change the world. Little did I know, my demonic mother wanted the same thing for me. Yet, as close as I was to her goal, I felt further and further away from my own.
A Nephilim warrior couldn’t be part demon. And she couldn’t be with Gabe.
“It’s time,” Elizabeth whispered into my ear. “Goodbye, my daughter. Good luck to you.”
With a solid push on my back, she shoved me into the pit. Caught unaware, I cursed and tumbled down the steep drop, clawing at the soil for a handhold. All the while, my mind whirled with anger. What kind of mother sacrificed her daughter like that?
Dirt rained on my head, blinding what little sight I had in the blackness of the hole. My fingers clutched for rocks and fists full of gravel, anything to slow me down. But they came away empty, scraping roughly on the rocks and leaving layers of my skin behind. Further down I tumbled, unable to stop my descent into the hellish gaping mouth. It wasn’t until a blast of icy cold winter hit my face did I manage to roll to a stop.
The atmosphere around me had changed. Gone was the cool night air of the Black Hills National Forest. In its place was a dry, charged environment that chilled me to the bones. I looked up and gasped. Bare hills rolled for miles and miles, as far as my eyes could see. An eerie dim light shone upon the land. In the sky above, the sun was eclipsed by a moon, its rays struggling to warm the world below. No trees or grass grew around me. Beneath my bare and bloodied feet lay only the dry and crumbling dead earth of a land too barren to thrive.
This was Hell.
So much for the fiery pits Granny had railed on about. This was the opposite of that. An icebox of evil. I rubbed my hands on my arms, trying to create some heat. The pajamas I’d thrown on this evening had been torn and tattered during my fall. Blood seeped through the fabric over my knees, trickling down my shins.
There wasn’t enough time to assess the damage. The echo of footprints made my heart jolt in fear. Something was coming. I sprinted in the direction of the nearest hill and crouched in its shadow, pressing my back up against some large rocks. If this was Hell, then I didn’t want to meet the residents. Who knew what they’d do to an angel in Hell?
Even a demonic angel like me.
About fifty figures came into view over the next sloping hill. Their shape was very human, yet slightly translucent. They shifted and blinked like ghosts in the night. Despite their ethereal appearance, their feet stepping across the land made sick crunching noises. They marched like men on a battlefield, ever closer to my hiding place, making me crouch even lower into a ball. Soon enough, the sound of clicking and snarling reached my ears as the creatures called to each other in a language too ancient for me to comprehend. It raised the hair on the back of my neck and irritated my ears like nails on a chalkboard.
I’d never seen anything like it. It was too terrible for words.
I held my breath as they passed by. Every muscle in my body tensed. The acrid scent of rotting meat lingered on the stale air, causing my stomach acid to bubble up to my mouth. Still, I remained deadly still. One little sound, and these creatures of Hell were going to find me. I was inches from death.
And then suddenly they paused, only feet away. Close enough to touch now. Thankful for the darkness and the shelter of the hill, I held my breath. My heart called out for my family I’d left behind. Despite my frequent claims this summer that I wasn’t a child anymore, I wanted nothing more at that moment than to hide in my father’s arms. To make the monsters go away. I wanted to close my eyes, pretend I was back in my bed at the manor, but my eyes remained glued to the awful sight.
The ghostly figures were naked, but void of any distinguishing male
or female features. Everything about them felt alien. As they talked in their strange languages, their eyes flashed red.
Instantly, it clicked for me. This was a pack of ferals in their habitat. The foul demons that I extinguished on Earth. This was their natural form, what they looked like before they took a human shell on Earth.
I crunched a handful of dirt in my hand to keep from shaking. There was only so much longer that I could keep this position. My calves screamed in pain and my shoulders ached. The muscles in my thighs shook with the effort to squat, but I had to be ready to run for it. At any moment, they might spot me. This wasn’t exactly the greatest hiding spot.
How do I get out of here?
The question bounced around my head as I kept a wary eye on the band of ferals. They had surrounded the base of a hill, the very hill I’d landed in front of when I’d been thrown here by my loving mother. The creatures shifted, allowing me a glimpse of a dark gaping hole in front of them. Wide enough to drive Granny’s 1988 Buick through, it shimmered like the surface of a dark lake.
That must’ve been the gate—the very gate I’d been shoved through. In my panic, I’d missed it. Hope sprang alive in my chest. If I could get back through, I might have a chance. A chance to get back to the manor and warn them. A chance to see Gabe one last time...
“Come on,” I whispered to myself, feeling the screaming of my muscles. “Move along. I want to go home.”
