THE SECONDBELIAL’S FOOT TOUCHED THE EDGE OF THEportal, it sucked him straight into its vortex. But this spell wasn’t like a hellgate. It wasn’t a rough ride. Instead, it felt like his body briefly vaporized into tiny particles, only to reform again on the other side.
This spell must have required untold sacrifices and magic to penetrate straight through Lucifer’s ironclad defenses and into the center of … wherever this was. Of course it didn’t function like a normal gate.
Bel looked around.
For the most part, everything was blackness. He was standing in a long tunnel, the purple glowing portal still swirling around him.
Ahead of him was a stone door. On that door was inscribed a seal. The lines had been drawn in blood, and at one time they would have glowed red with Sheolic magic. But thanks to Murmur, the magic had been broken. Now they were only faded and cracked lines, the old blood already flaking away.
All Bel had to do was walk forward and open that door. Then his task would be complete and he would be free to go. Judging by the absence of anyone in the library and the chaos reigning outside, Bel suspected that the Necromancer was indeed dead, though he didn’t know how or why. His second favor would never have to be fulfilled. He would be free of Murmur forever.
He would also have Lucifer after him and way bigger problems to deal with, but he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.
He stepped forward out of the portal, and paused for a moment to look behind it. A tunnel stretched before him, leading into darkness. His nape prickled. A suspicion arose, but it was too inconceivable to believe.
Curiosity got the best of him. He turned, careful to inch around the edge of the portal so he didn’t get sucked prematurely back to the library, and then he walked down the tunnel.
The faint purple glow of the portal was the only source of light, and as he moved farther past it, it faded to complete darkness. He guided himself by keeping one hand on the wall. A voice whispered in his head that he was fucking crazy for walking down a black tunnel with no idea where he was going, especially when his task was back in the opposite direction.
But he had to know.
With his next step, the ground dropped out beneath him.
His foot landed on empty space, and he was halfway into transferring his weight forward before he lurched back. He swayed briefly over the steep drop before correcting his balance, heart pounding.
A fall like that wouldn’t kill him—he was a demon with wings after all—but nobody liked the sensation of a sudden, unexpected plummet into an abyss.
Despite the impossibility of it, he suddenly knew exactly where he was.
He stepped back to the edge of the precipice, leaning out as far as he could, and looked down.
Sure enough, far below, he could make out a flickering orange glow. A lake of fire, filling the entire bottom of the chasm he was peering into. He twisted and looked up. The edges of the enormous pit rose for what looked like miles. High above, he could see the faintest smear of the red sky.
The longer he stared, the more his eyes adjusted, until he could discern faint smoke spiraling around the inner walls of the chasm.
Souls.
He knew how this place worked. After death, human souls were judged. Those who were unworthy were sent to Hell to face penance for their evil misdeeds. They were sorted into nine levels. Nine layers of suffering, worsening depending on the amount of evil staining the soul.
Belial was standing somewhere in the Nine Rings.
No one was supposed to come here. Not even Lucifer.
The giant chasm of the Nine Rings was in the center of Lucifer’s territory. No one dared even fly over it, lest they be sucked into the vortex of souls below. The Rings were guarded by reaper-like beings who oversaw the souls within. Those beings never left the pit, and no one who wasn’t supposed to be there entered. If they did, they never returned to tell the tale.
The High King’s lair surrounded the Rings, and it was his job to guard it, ensuring no one trespassed into the forbidden chasm, and that the souls who went in didn’t come out until they were ready for reincarnation.
All that Murmur’s letter had told him was that he was to take a portal to Lucifer’s territory and open a door. But he hadn’t mentioned anything about the Nine-fucking-Rings. Why would there be a door with the High King’s seal on it here of all places? And what was behind it?
Belial backed away from the edge.
He couldn’t answer the many questions he had, but he could get himself the fuck out of here. He wasn’t supposed to be here, and he feared that if he stayed too long, the guardians would find him.
His blood cold, he made his way back down the tunnel until the faint glow of the portal reappeared. He sidestepped it carefully once more and approached the forbidden door. The door that Murmur had evidently died trying to gain access to.
Why?He supposed he was about to find out.
The door had no handle and no hinges, and was in fact just a huge block of stone set in front of an opening. It would take impossible strength to move, but Lucifer had that in spades.
