Prologue
My lungs burned in my chest, crumbling to ash. My feet were two bleeding blocks of meat in too-tight shoes, jarring pain up my aching legs with every strike against the craggy, scorched earth. Hot, acrid, humid air clung to every part of me, making me feel like I was running through soup.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t stop. And all they did... was laugh.
Loud, raucous, poisonous laughter battered my eardrums. The other race contestants had all reached the finish line ages ago, leaving me in the last and most humiliating place.
Skins of all shades, colors, furs, and scales. Horns, pointed ears, fangs. A myriad of shining eyes from red to very pale white. Beings that shouldn’t exist. Creatures that were never meant to be real.
These vicious competitors all stood before me—united in one single goal—laughing their asses off at me as I stumbled over the finish line and collapsed at their feet.
“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” someone jeered.
A swift kick to my stomach shot the last traces of air screaming out of my lungs, cutting off any chance of me responding even if I wanted to.
“My five-hundred-year-old arthritic grandmother runs faster than you, and she’s got one eye and three legs.”
“Is this the true measure of a demon?” a cold, haughty voice slithered in my ear. “Pathetic creatures.”
“Enough.” A shadow fell over me—as large and intimidating as his booming voice. “Move to zone four. Your next trial starts now.”
The crowd jogged off, leaving their snickers and sneers in their wake.
I strained to get my hands and knees underneath me. “S-sir?” I croaked. I reached my hand up. “A little hel—”
He stomped on my hand, crushing it between his hoof and the heated earth.
My scream echoed through the Scorched Valley.
“Zero points for that sneak attack, boy. Your reflexes were too slow, and where the fuck’s your weapon?” He scoffed. “But two points for finally showing some balls. Putting on such a pathetic display just to draw me in and attack when you’re faking being down. Clever little demon.” Something akin to respect bled into the psychopath’s voice. “Very clever.”
Bending over me, he put his mouth to my ear as he grabbed me by the back of the uniform and hauled me to my feet. “I shall respond in kind.”
My eyes bugged. “What?! But I wasn’t—!”
He threw me none-too-gently in the direction of the retreating group. I landed face-first on the craggy rocks—my body folding in and crumpling on itself, every inch of me singing with pain.
Tears sprang to my eyes.
“Don’t you dare,” a feminine voice hissed from the depths of my clothes. “Don’t you dare shed a tear. Where do you think you are, girl? Happy Daisy Fairy Land?! This is hell! The slightest trace of weakness here will get you devoured, killed, or worse!”
What could fucking be worse than those two options?!I raised my head, latching on to half a dozen faces who were watching me with growing snarls.And why do I have a feeling that whatever worse is... they’re planning to do just that.
“Get up,” she hissed. “Now!”
I got up. Feet bleeding, face ground up, and two fingers assuredly broken, I got to my feet and crossed the short length of the valley to the waiting group of monsters.
The sky was different in hell. There wasn’t so much sunlight as there was glowing, flickering light from millions of fires burning across the realm. It filled the air with a heavy, acrid taste and smell that made every breath ache.
I looked around for a single living, green thing anywhere, but there was nothing. Nothing in the valley but hard, cracked, scorched earth, billowing smoke, and a hundred-foot-high cliff face that cleaved the flat valley in two, and denied us view or access to the other side.
We were a group of about fifty or so. I walked through the gates of Abaddon for what I thought was orientation, but before I could touch the steps leading to the main doors, Erlik barked at me to hurry the fuck up and join the rest of the fresh meat gathered around the statue of a half man, half goat.
He told us to follow him because our entrance trials began immediately. He also said there wasn’t any point in learning each other’s names until they were complete. He was right. Because before the trials started...
...there were a hundred of us.
Theclomp, clomp, clompof Master Erlik’s hooves echoed in our ears as loud as the faint screams carried in from every direction.
