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I start going straight forward, walking as fast as I can down the wide, dark hall. Everything is quiet except for the soft sound of wind blowing through the hall, yet I feel no breeze on my skin. Maybe because I’m only here in astral form? It would be easy to feel unnerved by this place, yet it has the same familiar energy as Hell.
It feels like I’ve been walking forever by the time I finally come to a crossroads of sorts. Stopping in the middle, I slowly turn around, looking down each dark hall. To my right, there’s a faint blue glow and I recognize it right away.
Hellfire.
“Lucas!” I call again and rush toward the glow of the fire. Sand crunches under my feet and the hall starts to narrow. Pushing into a run, I hold the torch to my side and come to a stop at a large door. Two torches are on either side of it, but unlike the one in my hand, they’re lit with hellfire.
“Lucas?” I ask and reach for the door. Something powerful vibrates with energy behind it. I square my shoulders and extend my free hand, telekinetically opening the heavy, stone door.
It slowly slides open, and I see a glimpse of a throne room, with tall pillars painted in vibrant colors. The room is several stories tall and beautiful, filled with intricate paintings and a pool of water on either side of what has to be the throne. Hellfire burns on the surface of the water, and I’m overcome with the desire to walk down the painted stone and sit my ass on that throne. “Lucas,” I call again, voice hardly louder than a whisper.
“He can’t hear you.”
I whirl around and my breath hitches in my chest. Standing just feet from me is Osiris.
ChapterTwenty-Three
“Forgive me,” Osiris says and steps back, giving me a slight bow. “For we have not been properly introduced. I am—”
“I know who you are,” I interrupt. The large stone door behind me starts to slowly close, creaking loudly against the silence of the rest of this place. “Where is Lucas?” My eyes close in a long blink as I remember the last time I saw him and want nothing more than to go back in time and keep him from swinging himself up on that damn horse. “The…the Horsemen.”
“You’re here for the vampire.” Osiris curiously looks me over. “We’ve been expecting you.”
“We? You mean Lucas? Where is he? Is he okay?” I can’t help the tears that fill my eyes. “Please, he’s my husband and I love him. Just let me know if he’s okay.”
“He’s a Horseman.”
“What does that mean?” I shoot back, lowering the torch just a bit. Osiris looks just as he did when he appeared in a whirlwind of sand only days ago, though now he’s not wearing anything on his head and his thick, wavy hair hangs only an inch or two from his shoulders. He has deep brown eyes and full lips and appears to be only a bit older than me. I know the lore is that his own brother hacked him to pieces. I can see mummy wrappings on his arms and legs, as if they’re covering the marks of being stitched back together. I bring my eyes back to his. “Is he okay or not?”
Osiris takes a step closer, and the aura around him is both oppressive and welcoming at the same time. It gives off the same odd familiar feeling I get when I’m around other angels, and Julian’s words echo through my head.Divinity seeks divinity. But Osiris isn’t an angel…right?
“His mind has remained sound.” Osiris goes on and I watch him closely, seeing his chest rise up and down as he breathes. “It’s a curious thing, perhaps the most curious thing I’ve witnessed in quite a while.” He strides forward, closing the distance between us. “You are curious as well.” Gently, he reaches out and touches my hair. “Curious enough I almost couldn’t place you. Not human, yet not quite something else.” He tips his head, looking me up and down, and then locks eyes with me. “You have both light and dark in you. It’s…it’s fascinating.”
“I’m a nephilim. You get thebest of both worldswith me and if you don’t take me to Lucas in the next three seconds I swear to god I will just—just I’ll start singing the Hannah Montana theme song!” I finish. I’d laugh at myself if I weren’t feeling so frazzled.
Osiris steps back, amusement on his face. “Such threats! That theme song does have a way of getting stuck in your head. Very well then.”
“That’s it?” I blurt out, expecting him to put up some sort of fight. “You’re just going to take me to him?”
He looks at me curiously again. “Isn’t that what you want?”
“Yeah, I thought you’d say no.”
“I have no reason to keep you from him. Though, I do want to warn you,” he starts and my stomach drops. “He is in a suspended state, as all the Horsemen are.”
“Oh.” I slowly take in a breath, trying to keep it together. “Makes sense.”
Osiris sweeps his hand out, motioning for me to walk with him. My heart skips a beat and I focus on each and every step I’m taking. “The deal Julian made with you,” I start, turning to look at Osiris as we walk. “What were the terms?”
“He would deliver the Horsemen to a secure location on earth where I could procure them and then bring them here. His terms were to hold them for three hundred years and then I can use them as I see fit.”
That sounds like something Julian would do. Three hundred years isn’t long when it comes to immortal beings, but it could possibly be my lifetime. I’m still not sure how the whole aging thing is going to work since I’m technically half human.
“And what will you do with them when the three hundred years are up?” We’re going back the way I came, yet this time, more hallways appear off the one we’re walking down. I can tell now that we’re underground, and I can feel a river of hellfire below me. I hear the flesh crackling and melting and can smell the burning of souls damned for eternity.
“I’d like to destroy them.”
His words make me stop dead in my tracks. “Destroy?” I echo, wanting to make sure I heard him right. “Like kill them?”
