AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And we don’t have time to give you those answers, Miss Maria.” Heath flashed her a sharp smile before tilting his face upwards. His eyes fluttered shut, and his head cocked to the side. He held up a single finger as if to say, ‘wait for it.’
A second later, a loud, ear-shattering scream reverberated through the night. My heart battered my ribs with a frightening speed as I twisted my head to stare up the staircase.
“What the fuck is that?” Kace’s eyes were wide in his face, all of the blood seeming to drain from his cheeks. Before I could stop myself, I moved so I stood directly beside him, interlocking my fingers with his. His head snapped down to our joined hands, shock splaying across his face, before he gave it a tight squeeze and pulled me closer to him.
My blood sluiced in my veins as fear and anxiety wrought havoc on my thoughts.
What was that noise?
Or maybe the better question was…
What creaturemadesuch a wretched sound?
The scream was quickly joined by another and another, until above us, the air was alive with a cacophony of noise. The sound… It was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. It scratched at my soul, reminding me distinctly of nails on a chalkboard and making my entire body tremble with fear. There was something so predatory about it, so innately lethal, that ice-cold fear encased my heart in an impenetrable vise.
“The reapers.” Aiden’s face lost all of its color as he ripped his gaze off of the staircase and focused on the caves. Tunnels branched in all directions, a labyrinth of rocky walls and pitch-black darkness we would have to venture through in order to escape. “We need to go. Now.”
“Reapers?” Maria whispered.
Aiden began distributing lanterns to Beau, Kace, and Tanner, keeping one for himself. He surprised the shit out of me by handing me a flashlight.
“Stay within my sight at all fucking times,” he hissed as the warm glow from the flashlight illuminated the craggy rock walls and the water dripping from an unknown source. The air was muggy and tepid, but it did little to stop the goosebumps from pebbling on my arms.
I tried to shut my emotions down, tried to make myself impassive in order to block out the fear and helplessness that gnawed at me, but it was impossible. Both of them sank their teeth in me, tightening my muscles and refusing to be shut out.
“I thought you wanted us to separate,” I retorted, and Aiden’s eyes flared, chips of obsidian in the scarce lighting.
“Now is not the time for your sarcasm, Bianaca.” Spinning on his heel, he took a step inside the cage. “Let’s move.”
Kace gripped my hand even tighter, dragging me along, as Tanner and Beau moved to stand at my back. Beau’s pomegranate scent combined with Tanner’s leather one overwhelmed me, giving me a sense of safety and security, which overrode the fear that threatened to suffocate me.
I was fucking terrified. I could only remember one time when I felt such fear, the day Dylan, my step-brother, had—
Shaking my head from side to side, I took a step into the tunnel.
Behind me, the screams of the reapers got even louder, the noise stabbing at my ears. Pain exploded in my skull, but I pushed the feeling aside as I focused on putting one foot in front of the other. One step. Another step. And then another.
My light bounced off the walls as I walked, trusting Aiden to lead the way.
Directly in front of us, the path broke into two separate tunnels, each one leading in a different direction. Tanner cursed from behind me, and Kace’s grip in mine turned to iron.
But then Heath moved forward, his gait decidedly cocky and nonchalant, and headed down the right pathway, whistling beneath his breath.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Aiden hissed, and though I couldn’t see his face from where he stood in front of me, I detected the slightest hitch to his voice I’d never heard before.
He was absolutely terrified.
“Did you ever read the poem concerning the Nine Circles of Hell?” Heath asked, his tone almost casual. “They had to cross the River Acheron on a boat to reach Limbo.”
“What the fuck does that have to do with anything?” Tanner demanded.
I could practically hear Heath’s answering smile. “Because it tells us where we need to go.”
“How does that…?” I trailed off as the answer came to me, my eyes darting to the water dripping from the walls. “Oh. The water.”
“According to the poem, Limbo is full of people who were never baptized. People who didn’t have enough faith to enter Heaven.” Heath paused, allowing us to catch up. I swore with every step we took, our lights became more and more unreliable. My flashlight went from a dull golden glow to a nearly non-existent stream of white, barely able to penetrate the darkness a few steps in front of me. Tanner’s lantern constantly burnt out, despite his repeated attempts to light it.
What the fuck was happening?
