Did he just say,Ew, a weenie?
A massive surge like lightning erupts in the air, and I can see it distinctly even through my closed lids. I feel a force push at my front, and I would’ve gone flying back if it weren’t for Echo’s and Crux’s hands holding tightly onto mine. A blast of orange light surrounds me, making me squeeze my eyes shut even tighter, and then I’m pitching forward, like a rollercoaster ride suddenly tipping me on the downward plunge. I scream, and my hands—still holding onto Crux and Echo—try to come straight up like I’m actually riding a rollercoaster or some shit.
Before I can get them even half way up, the sensation of zooming downward suddenly stops, giving me such horrible vertigo that I tip the other way and land hard on my ass. “Motherfucking ow!”
Just like that, we’re in Hell.
I open my eyes and look up at Crux. “Why’d you let go of my hands?” I ask accusingly.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize you’d be so unstable,” he says with some contrition on his face.
I get up and turn my head to yell at Echo next, only to stutter to a stop.
Echo’s pale skin and hair stood out before, but he looks like he’s practically glowing now. That, however, is not what has me gaping like a suffocating fish. It’s the dark black tattoos wrapped around his arms and peeking out of his neck. I watch, fascinated, as the lines shift and slither over his skin like writhing inky shadows.
“Whoa.”
I want to ask if that happens a lot, but then I’m distracted by Iceman. He’s still blue with large horns jutting out of his head, but there’s something so much more captivating about him in the light of Hell. It’s like someone turned on a black light and everything about him came to life in a stunning and completely mesmerizing kind of way.
Looking over at Jerif, I see that he also has the extra Hell hotness about him too. The way his hair and eyes flicker down here is stunning. They looked like fire before, but now I can feel the intense heat coming off of him. He is the epitome of dangerous, kill you in a millisecond, scorching hot lava.
I take in the sight of all three of them, and then I frown at Crux. Tanned skin, muscles, long blond hair and bright green eyes. He still looks like the ultimate hot surfer dude. “You...didn’t change,” I remark. “In fact, you look about as demon as I do.”
The other guys chuckle, and Crux narrows his eyes at them. “Oh, fuck off!”
“Crux is sensitive about how Diluted he looks,” Iceman says with a smirk.
Crux shoots him a look and a hand gesture that I’ve never seen, but seems definitively rude. Ignoring the heckling that ensues, I take a moment to look around, but it’s hard to see much of anything. It looks like we’re still in the same mausoleum as before, except it’s about a hundred times bigger. “Where are we?”
“We’re in Hell’s Embrace. You passed through,” Iceman declares excitedly, like I just accomplished something incredible. “Told you that you were a demon,” he adds eagerly, but my insides don’t match the elation I see in his blue eyes.
Holy fuck, I really am a demon.
Don’t puke, Delta.
11
Itake a step back and try to swallow the acid I can suddenly taste crawling up the back of my throat. I know I agreed to this, but right now, as horror drops down on me like a weighted blanket, I realize that a large part of me expected them to be wrong.
I thought Hell would be like,Nice try, human peasant. Away with you, and that would be that. But as I look around at the gray stone and columns surrounding us, I can’t deny what just happened. This is definitely not a prank, because I can tell that I’m somewhere else. There’s something in the air here, some otherworldliness that I can’t quite explain.
I’m really not a human. I’m a fuckingdemon.
“See? You can be our fifth!” Crux exclaims, a massive smile on his face.
I cringe.
Iceman reads the panic clear on my face and offers me a reassuring grin. “This is good news. It means we can finally stabilize the Gate and maybe even close it,” he explains, like any of that matters to me.
Jerif nods. “Yeah, don’t worry. You belong down here, otherwise you would have disintegrated already,” he announces casually, and I can’t tell if he’s trying to push me over the edge or if he’s that bad at being nice.
I round on him. “What did you say?” I demand, closing the distance between us with furious strides.
If he weren’t so fucking gargantuan, I’d be giving him a very intimidating chest bump right now. But the fucker is massive, so it looks more like I’m trying to motorboat his pecs. That’s probably why I hear someone snort behind me.
Jerif looks pissed and confused at the same time. “I said don’t worry.”
“No, after that.”
