LEIGHTON LEDGER: PRESENT DAY
SONG: YOU’RE GONNA GET WHAT’S COMING BY KLERGY, VG LUCAS
Ahowl echoes through the night as I stare openmouthed at the fissure in the rock. Night presses in around me as another howl joins the ominous call. My pulse skyrockets and a fine sweat breaks out on my forehead.
The six figures surrounding me shudder as if they’re all suddenly hit by the same sensation at once.
One of them collapses to his knees while three others, including my worthless son, run to the girl that produced the blinding white light.
“Are you okay?” I hear Lukas ask as he pulls her into his chest. I feel a sneer pull at my lips. His weakness is unacceptable. He’s always been such a disappointment. Just like his mother.
Another howl rips through the air, this time closer. The hair on the back of my neck prickles to attention. The boys are too busy to notice, but I scramble, grabbing at Lukas to get us out of there as fast as possible.
“Lukas, we need to leave.” Time isn’t on our side. I can feel the seconds closing in on us, but Lukas doesn’t know the consequences of staying here. I never told him the truth. Never disclosed the deal I made. I didn’t see the need to. He yanks his arm away from me, his eyes burning with anger as the light from the moon flits across his furrowed brow.
“Don’t fucking touch me.”
The ground rumbles beneath our feet as the hound rushes closer. “Lukas! We need to go!” I bellow.
Everything I’ve worked for is unraveling faster than I could have ever imagined. I needed to get Lukas away from the rift before he’s sucked into that veil by the demon in his chest.
Besidesthatthreat, we also need to get off this beach before it becomes a bloodbath from the hound that’s fast approaching. They made those things to rip demons that escaped the Underworld into pieces. Sending their souls flying back to their torture and leaving the poor soul it’s attached to for dead. I should have told my sons how dire the situation is that we’re in before sending them here. I should have warned them, but I was too caught up in my business. Assured that everything would go our way, like it always has.
I’d sold my soul to a devil for the life I’d wanted. My wealth, my success, my health, my looks. I was about to watch all of that go up in smoke if we didn’t leave. My reckoning is breathing down my neck and it smells like regret.
The hounds are almost upon us, and Lukas is still not listening to my warnings. Typical. Maybe if I’d tried to connect with him more, instead of demanding that he conforms to my vision for our life, he’d get off this fucking beach.
We have mere minutes before the moon reaches the highest peak, rendering the spell we’d set in motion all those years ago, useless. The girl failed to open the veil completely, and I know it will cast the demons back to hell because of that failure.
Anger coats my chest as I internally curse the council for not being here, and especially Hart for being so arrogant as to think his plans were fool proof.
“Lukas!” I try one last time before I feel jaws rip into my arm, puncturing my flesh. My body is airborne as I’m tossed to the side, smacking into the cliff side. A low buzzing fills my ears as my vision blurs.
Screams fill the air, mixing with the snarl of the beast that’s come to render justice to the demons inhabiting the boys on the beach.
I strain my body to lift myself off the ground, my arm unable to move, no matter how hard I attempt to lift it. Wetness seeps down my face as I watch the hound barrel into the boys, pushing several closer to the rift.
The moon rises higher, mocking me for my futile efforts. My vision blackens and I’m pulled into unconsciousness.
We’ve failed.
CHAPTER2
Chapter Two
WALKER
SONG: BORN TO DIE BY EUPHORIA
My body aches as the demon releases its hold on me reluctantly. I grab Emmet by the front of his shirt and slam my fist across his face before he can brace for the impact. My knuckles crunch into his cartilage with a loud snap. Blood spews onto the sand as his head whips to the side from the impact.
“You little fucker.” I scream, spit flying from my mouth as I watch blood gush from his busted nose as he struggles to take a breath. His hands are up in surrender, but I’m not feeling particularly merciful.
“It wasn’t me, man!” He screams, shoving at my chest knocking me back a few feet.
“How are we supposed to believe that?” Graham chimes in, pushing his sleeves up his forearms. Lukas drops Skye’s hand, stepping next to Graham, cracking his neck from side to side- never taking his eyes off Emmet.
I flick my eyes over to the tear in the veil, where Salem was just sucked in and make to jump through it and follow her ass into Hell. An arm pulls me back and I turn around to see Garrison’s hand around my bicep.
