“The booby traps,” Lilith said. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know what’s going to happen when we open that door, so be on your highestalert.”
We made it halfway across the courtyard before the bullets started flying. A storm of them pelted us from every direction, slamming into our bodies at a frightening speed. We all screamed and fell to the ground. Or rather, I screamed. The others just kind of gasped and dropped. My warrior training had gotten a littlerusty.
But, as it turned out, they weren’t bullets at all. Not human ones anyway. They were little balls of ice. Sharp and cold and seriously painful. I could already feel the welts forming on my skin. They wouldn’t last long, but they still hurt like hell. Luckily, they weren’tfatal.
Az grunted from his spot beside me and shook his head at the carpet of ice bullets that surrounded us. “This is embarrassing. We’re angelic warriors, for fuck’s sake. We can’t cower from some snowballs. Everyone, get on yourfeet!”
Ah, this was the Az I’d always known was lurking beneath the surface. The Az who yearned to fight and lead. He respected Ramiel, so he always deferred to him, but I knew deep down he wished he was the one incommand.
But it took Ramiel’s words to get the other Fallen moving. “You heard Az. Everyone on theirfeet.”
We all clambered to our feet, tense and waiting for the next round of bullets. Angelic warriors or not, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to getting stung in a dozen more places by thatice.
“Let’s move,” Ramiel said, and then our group began inching forward oncemore.
Another round of ice bullets shot through the sky. Ramiel shouted and broke out into a run. Gritting my teeth, I picked up my pace, wincing every time one of those demon ice things slammed right into my skin. We finally made it to the red door. Lilith threw it open and dove inside without a moment’s hesitation. We all flew in behind her, stopping short when we saw what rose high beforeus.
I gasped, choking on my ownbreath.
“You know…I think I’d rather be out there with the ice bullets,” Lizziewhispered.
“Holy forking shitoodles,” Ibreathed.
A massive red snake rose high before us. It was as tall as a four-story building, and so long that the end of its tail disappeared out an archway at the other end of the hall. Its long, slimy tongue darted out of its mouth as it hissed down at our open-mouthed group. I tightened my grip on my daggers, holding them high before me, like that would do any good if the snake decided to have any of us fordinner.
“Oh yeah,” Lilith breathed. “Now I remember. The booby trap is a giantsnake.”
“You don’t think you could have remembered that?” Uriel asked, his voice a tad more high-pitched thanusual.
“I told you everything was fuzzy,” she said. “I knew there was somethinghere.”
“Look,” I said, pointing at the podium that sat at the opposite end of the hall. There was a glass dome that perched on top of it. Inside, there was no mistaking the glittering green amulet that Berith had stolen from us. “It’s the Amulet of theInferno.”
“Right,” Ramiel said in a tight voice. “So, all we have to do is get past thesnake.”
“Get past it?” Az grunted and shoved past Sam to stand beside Ramiel. “Fuck that. Killing it would be fareasier.”
“You think that thing lookseasyto kill?” Iasked.
He twisted his head to glance over his shoulder at me. “No, but do you think it looks easy to sneak byit?”
The snake was now currently staring down at all of us, whipping its head from side to side. Obviously, it was contemplating the best way to strike, which meant we probably didn’t have a lot of time to stand around arguing about the best way to defeatit.
Still, I had a hard time believing that killing it was the answer. That seemed so straightforward, albeit difficult. Berith wasn’t the kind of demon to make anythingstraightforward.
“This is obviously a demon of some kind, right?” I asked. “A demoniccreature?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?” Azasked.
“Sam?” I turned toward the quiet Fallen. “Any ideas on how best to approach thissnake?”
Az furrowed his eyebrows. “Why would he have theanswers?”
Sam met my gaze, and his lips went tight. None of the others knew that he’d spoken to me about Arkas, and I didn’t want to reveal that unless he did. Still, he’d made it clear that Arkas had been a fan of all creatures great and small, angelic, human, or demonic. And he’d helped Arkas, had been by his side through it all. There was a chance he might have heard something important about demonic snakes. Hell, it was worth ashot.
“She’s asking me if Arkas studied demonic snakes,” he said quietly. “The answer is yes. I know he wanted to trap one. Could have been this one, in fact. These creatures tend to like shiny things, like that amulet. It’s probably why Berith chose him to guard this amulet in the firstplace.”
Az glared at Sam. “You told her about Arkas? For fuck’s sake, Sam. We all agreed that we’d do it on our own time, and when we were all ready, we’d tell hertogether.”
