There’s trust between us, a bond of some sort. Brought on from two broken people; a father without a child, and a child without a blood father. Maybe the thought is a betrayal to my adoptive dad. He’s given meeverything.But only Shade can give me this.
I place my hand in his.
“Ready.”
A moment later we are whisked away.
We land standing. His magic is an effortless thing, and it burns with the stench of both sulfur and cinnamon in a way that reminds me of Azazel and brings surprising warmth to my chest.
I never knew just how powerful Shade was. But he must be pretty powerful if he can transport us directly to the center ring, the seventh circle of hell with a mere thought. I’ve never really given a thought to his powers, or what he is, but I know now he’s a demon and something else, though I can’t be sure what.
My eyes search his face, as if I can somehow find the answer of his heritage on the sharp angles of his beautiful features. He must read all the questions in my features, because his lips twist up into a smile.
“I’m a demon communicator,” he explains softly. “It’s how I could speak to your Prod and help coax out your wings. I can speak to all things demonic and I…” He trails off and looks around at the dusty horizon. “I have a special connection to hell.” His black eye seems to pulse while the golden one… that one shines like sparks of magic, like the flickering embers of a golden fire as they take in the scene before him.
I turn as well and suck in a breath. This isn’t the hell I remember. Not exactly. It’s different in the sense that it’s more beautiful. There’s still something desolate about it, but instead of looking like a barren, ashy wasteland, it looks like I’ve stepped into an oasis. A hellish sort of paradise.
My eyes glue to the sand before me, as red as blood and wine, incredibly vast across miles and miles of empty land. But in the center of it all, there are cliffs of red and black rock, dark trees of black bark and leaves shading against the glare of the bleeding sun. Pools of white water spit from above the rocks and land in a little lake below.
I didn’t think hell could look beautiful, didn’t think it’d be anything but ash and dark, dead skies. This thrums with life. A broken life, a strange life, but life just the same.
Below I see the flickering movement of shadows and silhouettes of creatures stumbling through the sand to the cool lake of water that glitters like starlight from the cleft we stand on.
“What is this place?” My voice holds the tinge of awe.
“It’s hell. The center ring, the seventh circle.”
“But... but…” It can’t be. The seventh circle is bone buried beneath sand. It’s dark skies and destruction, a burning palace that emanates torturous screams. Notthis.
Shade bends in the sand; using his finger, he draws a small circle in it, then another around that, and another, and another until I’m staring at the image of seven circles, drawn within the other, each smaller than the last. Like a dart board hanging in a bar.
He presses his finger into the center circle, the first one he drew. “This is the center ring. The seventh circle. This is how maps are always drawn of hell and it’s seven dimensions. Each dimension is connected by doors.” He draws a single cutting line down the map. “One doorway for each circle, doorways that often change places and locations.” He pulls his fingers from the sand and dusts them off. “If there’s one solid rule here, it’s that you cannot open all doorways of hell at once. You can open them one at a time. While one is opened, another can not be, I’m sure you understand.”
I nod, my hair falling against my cheeks with the gesture. “I do.” What I don’t understand is why he’s telling me this.
“Hell, like all places, is vast. Every circle has many cities and territories with one king or queen to rule over it.”
My body fights back a shiver as I think of my father, of the other kings and queens I killed to escape this place. And now I’m right back where I started.
“My point is, you can’t think that whatever you witnessed was the limit of hell, can you?” His eyes twinkle with amusement that makes my face flame. “Hell has nice places just as it has darker places.”
That makes sense. I nod. “And the doorways?” I still don’t understand the point of that.
“They exist so demons cannot battle through each circle to get out. There’s containment magic here, placed on hell by the angels of heaven, to keep demons from invading earth in large numbers.” He stands up and I follow, my wings flaring against my back.
Already I can feel the invigorating change through my body, feel the soft purring of my Prod within me as if she’s woken up from a long nap.
“Occasionally, demons find a rip in the fabric of dimensions, or travel through the circles in an attempt to get out. Some succeed. That’s why so many half-demon Prods lurk at the Academy.” The hot wind ruffles his jacket, his hair, making him look ruggedly handsome in an old guy sort of way. “The doorways are controlled by the kings and queens, who are bound by their own containment magic to not open and close the doors at their leisure, so they scatter their locations about. Do you understand what I’m saying, Miss Castillo?”
“Not really.”
He’s being purposefully vague, I think.
“We cannot stay here long because of the containment in this place. We could find ourselves trapped in hell forever.”
A sliver of fear races down my spine. “I got out,” I remind him firmly.
“By pure luck, and because the kings and queens of the circles were lenient with you. They allowed you to trail a straight line from the center circle of hell all the way out and back to our dimension. They might not be so lenient a second time.”
