“Then let’s go,” I said, raising my chin with a faux confidence I didn’t feel. I was absolutely terrified by the prospect of leaving the room that had started to feel relatively safe and wandering out into Hell. I very vividly remembered the way the demons and souls had fought to get to me, and that alone would have been enough to send me spiraling into a corner to hide under any normal circumstances. The threat of the lords was another thing entirely.
But Willow needed me. She needed the information that only I seemed capable of sharing, and when I needed her, she’d do whatever it took to be there.
I owed her the same.
Beelzebub studied me for a moment, trying to peer into the sudden determination on my face. I felt the way he read me like an open book, pausing briefly before he gave a stern nod and turned to the open bedroom door. He glided down the stairs at a smooth pace that I had to hurry to follow, accepting two canteens from the demon who waited at the bottom of the stairs.
He stopped suddenly as the doors opened, revealing the reddened, sandy earth of Purgatory. I crashed into his back, my cheek slamming into the center of his wings. My hand swung forward with the sudden loss of momentum, tapping against the back of his thigh as my forearm brushed the smooth fabric of his pants where they covered his ass.
I stared up at him, rooted to the spot as he twisted to look over his shoulder at me. I could barely meet his eye with the wayI felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment, scrambling back to put distance between us as he held out a canteen for me to take. I slid the strap around my waist, tying it into a tight knot in an attempt to ignore the satisfied grin on his face. Raum emerged from the room at the foot of the stairs, leaning into the doorway as he watched us.
“At least buy me dinner first, songbird. What kind of man do you take me for?” Beelzebub teased, the lightness in his voice so at odds with the nerves I felt. Beelzebub grabbed me by the hand, tugging me out the open door before I could change my mind.
I glanced back to find Raum waving a cheerful goodbye, his other arm crossed over his chest as he laughed.
The door closed behind us, and we were lost to the sands of Purgatory.
At least two hours passed before we so much as paused, and I was left to struggle to keep up with the pace Beelzebub had set with his legs that were much longer than mine. He didn’t seem to be aware of my struggles, and I didn’t care to voice them. If I was going to do this, if I was going to make this journey through Hell itself, then I knew I couldn’t allow anyone to see the barest hint of weakness.
I had learned enough, surrounded by the manipulations and politics of a corrupt Coven as I had been, to know that anything would be used against me.
The heat of the desert pressing down on us didn’t help matters, my entire body warming and growing slick with the distinct sheen of sweat. Sand clung to me when random bursts of wind tore through the desert, making my skin feel gritty. Beelzebub didn’t break a sweat as he trudged through the deep sands, and I found myself hating him for how little he was affected by something that exhausted me.
The sand beneath my feet was uneven, mounds of it having formed into little hills in the wind that we had to make our way over or through. Sharp, jagged rocks protruded from the ground in the distance, but there was nothing else around us.
I took another sip of water from my canteen, relishing in the moisture it provided to my dry throat and mouth that had begun to feel like sandpaper.
The only saving grace was the distinct lack of heat coming off what I supposed passed for a sun, so that I at the very least didn’t need to fear a sunburn on top of it all. I’d been born and raised in a tiny secret village in Massachusetts, descended from the English settlers who had claimed Salem centuries prior; the sun and I didnotget along well.
“How is there daylight?” I asked finally, peering up at the mass of dim light overhead. It wasn’t as bright as the sun, and wasn’t as solid. Whereas the sun was something very visible to pinpoint in the sky, this felt like looking up at it from underwater. It was blurry and not quite tangible.
The “sky” seemed to fade into nothing, to have both an end that came too soon and to be endless, a feat I knew was impossible. We had fallen through the portal into Hell below us, landing deep within the chasm of the earth, or at least it had felt like it. I had no knowledge of whether or not Hell was actually within the earth, or if the gateway had brought us to another realm entirely. I didn’t pretend to be the most dutiful student when it came to the legends of Heaven and Hell.
“Heaven and Hell are direct mirrors of the earthen plane,” Beelzebub answered. My ankle twisted suddenly, nearly collapsing as sand slid down the hill and nearly took me with it. Beelzebub moved to stabilize me but hesitated to touch me, and I nodded him off to communicate that I was fine. “Lucifer may not be able to make a sun the way His father could, but He can certainly mimic one here, in a place drowning in the Source,” Beelzebub continued, turning to keep walking. I scrambled to follow afterhim, hating that out here I was entirely dependent on him. Any objection I may have staged would have been an impossibility, a threat with no intention of following through. I wanted him to know that when I threatened him, I would make good on such promises, that they weren’t hollow and to be ignored.
We both knew I had no choice but to stick with him.
I followed him, finding the sandy ground beneath us increasingly difficult to walk on. I’d never been allowed to leave Crystal Hollow, only knowing the beach at the bottom of the cliff. So few people bothered to make their way down there, outside of the White witches who favored the crystals that grew from the cliffside, that I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’d touched sand before.
But this sand was different from the sand of the beach I knew; it was deeper and softer, allowing my feet to sink in up to my ankles like it could swallow me whole. It made it even more exhausting to trudge through.
My boots could only do so much to stop me from feeling the scorching heat of the red earth, acting as a barrier to prevent me from being burned, but the suffocating warmth drenched my socks in sweat as we walked.
“Is every circle like this?” I asked, wiping the sweat from my forehead.
“Not at all,” Beelzebub said, placing a hand on his forehead to block out the setting light in the sky as he looked toward the horizon. I followed his gaze, feeling like I’d suffered through the sight of a mirage intended to torment thirsty souls.
There.
Barely visible in the distance, an oasis of a garden existed. It was lush, with trees that hung over and shielded a pool of water tucked in between sand dunes. Flowers bloomed all around it, making the land seem fertile and teeming with life, such a stark contrast to the otherwise completely devoid First Circle that would haunt my dreams.
I raised my canteen to my lips once again, my mouth dry in spite of Beelzebub’s constant reminders for me to drink. He didn’t seem to need as much water as I did, but he took great care to make sure I didn’t dehydrate in the unfamiliar heat.
His deep chuckle was his only response as he took the canteen from me, strapping it around my waist once again. “You aren’t seeing things, songbird. The garden is really there.”
“How?” I asked, allowing him to slide his hand into mine in my rapt fascination with the oasis. The calluses of his fingers grated against my sensitive skin, touching every nerve ending and lighting me on fire where he touched me. I resisted the temptation to pull away, not wanting to allow him to know I was so bothered by his proximity. It didn’t make sense to be so affected by something so simple.
I was the Red witch, and yet sometimes it seemed like it was me who was trapped under his spell.
