He moved toward the door and pushed it open. The sharp creak reverberated through the courtyard, making every hair on my body stand on end. The door opened to a grimy set of stone stairs that led into nothing but darkness. Dried blood painted the top step. Anyone else would take all of these things as signs to turn around and get the hell away as fast as possible. Instead, we continued movingforward.
Down we went, into the darkness. The light became nothing but a rectangle of steel gray as we went further and further into the dungeons. The tunnels stretched on. One after another after another. In each one, we passed more bodies. Stench clung to the walls, filling our nose. It was hard not to gag from the intensity ofit.
When we reached the end of the fifth tunnel, we turned the corner, and there it was. The portal to hell. My skin buzzed, the fire brewing within me. I had the sudden urge to step toward it, to disappear into its depths. It was almost as though it was singing to me, tempting me, yearning me to walk closer. Begging me to step myfoot—
Sam’s arm shot out, “Erela.”
I shook my head, my mind going clear. I didn’t know what the hell was going on with that portal, or if anyone could feel the pull of it the way I did, but it was pretty freakingterrifying.
“There’s someone here,” Ramiel said in a low growl. “Humans, show yourselves. We’re angels. We aren’t here to harmyou.”
A figure stepped out of the shadows. Lizzie and I both gasped in unison. This was no human, even though he wore the unassuming skin of a man who might have worked for a technology company before the apocalypse, complete with a thick-rimmed pair of glasses that perched on his thin nose.Shit.
Shit, shit,shit.
It was the demon. The one from the bar. The one who had been trying to eat Mr.Whiskerson.
The one who had cast me and Lizzie out ofCelestia.
“You,” I said, my eyes widening. Immediately, I dropped the bow and grabbed for my daggers, but he pulled another figure out of the darkness before my fingers could curl around the goldenhilts.
This one wasn’t a humaneither.
“Isaac!” Lizzie yelled and took a step forward, but the demon put a sharp blade against Isaac’s neck. Awarning.
I grabbed Lizzie’s arm, pulling her back to my side, my heart pounding so hard that it was next to impossible to hear over the roar ofit.
“Fantastic,” the Archdemon said with a brilliant smile. “Now, let’s all calm down so we can have a littlechat.”
Chapter Seventeen
Erela
“Asmodeus,”Uriel muttered underneath hisbreath.
“Wait, what?” My heart thumped hard, and I had the urge to glance Uriel’s way, but I kept my gaze locked on the demon. “This is the demon who sent me down here. No way in hell is heAsmodeus.”
“I’m afraid your fallen angel friend is correct, Erela.” The Archdemon from the Halfway Zone pub dug the blade a bit deeper into Isaac’s neck. My old friend’s face was pale, his dark eyes wild with fear and anger. “You didn’t just steal a random Archdemon’s dinner. You stolemine.”
Huh. Well, shit. Obviously, I’d never met Asmodeus, so I’d had no way of knowing who the hell he was or what he actually looked like these days. He tended to cycle through a variety of appearances, ranging from scary-as-hell to harmless, like this one. I’d seen a couple of portraits of him in books, donning the scary-as-hell options. If I’d known it washim...
“Why the hell were you out having drinks in the Halfway Zone? Aren’t you supposed to be Lucifer’s second-in-command or something?” I blurted out the words before I could stopthem.
Because yeah. The demon I’d pissed off? Let’s just say that if Lucifer had been a human president, then Asmodeus would be his vice president. Rumors had even circled for years that he was the one behind every decision, and Lucifer was just the face of the ruling demonic world. Needless to say, if this Archdemon trulywasAsmodeus, then I really had messed with the wrongdemon.
Whoops.
He narrowed his eyes. “You presume to question me when I have your friend at knife point? Perhaps this realm has corrupted you far more than I expected.” He shot me a glittering smile and pierced the skin on Isaac’s neck. Isaac being Isaac didn’t make a sound, though I saw the flash of pain in hiseyes.
“I think what Erela is trying to say,” Uriel said through gritted teeth, “is that she obviously did not know from whom she wasstealing.”
“If shehadknown, would she have still stolen my dinner?” Asmodeus arched a brow towardme.
You’re damn straight I wouldhave.
I figured I’d probably just keep the answer to that question to myself. No way in hell I’d have done a damn thing differently. Mr. Whiskerson was no one’s dinner, not even the ruler of theUnderworld.
“That’s what I thought.” The blade sunk in deeper; blood streamed down Isaac’s pale neck. “Where is my rat? Give him tome.”
