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Chapter 14

Anaya

I couldn’t believe I was about to do this—cross over to the one place I’d vowed never to go. Hell was only a fall away, and fear swam inside my chest at the thought that I might not make it back. But I had to go. I needed answers. I had to do this for Cash.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

I let my gaze drop to the puddle of swirling screams that opened up in front of us, then looked back up to Easton. He looked worried. Like I should have been. The underworld wasn’t a place for someone like me. To them I’d be a shiny new toy. Or even worse, dessert. I pushed the thoughts away.

“Yes,” I said. “I need to see what I’m dealing with.”

Easton hesitated, as if he were waiting for me to change my mind. I shut my eyes, still able to feel

Cash’s face buried in the hollow of my neck. His breath against my lips. If Balthazar wasn’t going to give me answers, I’d go after them myself. I refused to deliver Cash into his hands not knowing what he would be used for.

I grabbed Easton by the hand and stepped up to the gateway to the underworld. He squeezed my fingers in his. They felt impossibly hot.

“You don’t have to do this,” he whispered one last time. “It’s not too late to let him go.”

“Just don’t let me go,” I said. Easton linked his arm through mine to get a better hold.

“I won’t.” Easton stepped forward, pulling me with him, and the world fell out from underneath us.

I was swallowed by screams. Awful, gut-wrenching screams that rattled my insides. The blackness was so dark it ate up my light, so I squeezed my eyes shut. Easton’s arm remained twined with mine.

He tightened his hold a little when he realized I was trembling, and suddenly heat exploded beneath me.

“Anaya,” he said, shaking me. “We’re here.”

I opened my eyes and realized there was solid ground beneath my feet. Letting my arm fall away from his, I tested the rocks. They weren’t very sturdy, toppling and tumbling around under the soles of my sandals. I tried to focus and change back into elemental form but nothing happened. I was solid.

Easton must have seen the terror in my eyes.

“You can’t do that here,” he said. “Once you cross into this place, you’re flesh.”

“Why?”

Easton raised a brow. “Do you really have to ask?”

No, I didn’t. This was a place fueled by torture. It would be a little hard to torture a soul in elemental form. I shuddered at the thought.

Easton strode forward and I followed, overwhelmed by the smell of ash and sulfur and Almighty only knows what else. Dark gray clouds that looked more like smoke than part of the sky rumbled with thunder overhead, but no rain fell. Easton stopped at the edge of a stony cliff. Rocks crumbled where the toes of his boots pressed against the ledge.

“That’s it,” he said and pointed ahead. “Umbria. Shadow demon central.”

I placed my hand over my mouth to hold in the sound. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Unlike anything I’d ever wanted to see. Black frothy waves battered the cliff side. Enormous, hollow stones carved into skulls lined the places where the cliffs met the sea. And then there were the shadow demons. Everywhere. Scouring the cliffs. Diving into the sea only to emerge searing in flames.

Screaming and writhing in agony as they scrambled up onto the thick ice around the base of each skull. I flinched when a swarm of crimson-colored butterflies fluttered between Easton and me before disappearing into one of the skull-eye caverns. I touched my shoulder where one of their wings had brushed my skin. Blood.

“Blooderflies.” Easton grinned.

I gaped. “You find this funny?”

He shrugged. “You become numb to it all after a while.”

I shook my head and wrapped my arms around myself. A bitter-tasting wind that burned my skin whipped my braids into my face.

“This must be Hell,” I whispered.

Easton laughed. “This?” He folded his arms across his chest and looked out over the sea. “No. This is paradise compared to what’s past those gates.”

“Gates?”

Easton clasped his hand over my shoulder and turned me around. A mountain towered over the barren land of stone and ash. At the base were two blazing gates of fire. They stood open as a steady stream of souls marched in between them, each disappearing into the black billowing smoke inside.

There were so many. My heart ached for each of them. They’d never know peace. All that awaited them was pain. I wrapped my arms around my waist. The wind carried screams and moans that swirled around me, tugging me toward the flames.

Easton’s attention was elsewhere. He pointed to a boy standing at the edge of the cliff a few yards down from us.

“I’ve been doing some digging,” Easton said. “There are only a few in existence. Balthazar has one of them. Your human will be another. And him.”

“A shadow walker?” I breathed, staring at the boy on the cliff, whose blond hair blew in the heated breeze.

He pressed his lips into a tight line and nodded. “Balthazar never got his hands on that one. He never even had a chance. I’m not sure how, but the shadow demons caught him early.”

I looked at the shadow walker. The turned-up collar of his gray coat framed a face made of angry angles and a furrowed brow. A group of at least ten screaming souls trailed behind him. He gripped the wrist of a girl, shimmering and brilliant against the darkness, and pulled her away from the rest.

Her red hair looked like a flame waiting to be snuffed out. She wailed and tried to jerk away, but he held on to her as if it were as easy as breathing. He stared down into the waves where shadow demons crawled up the cliff. Across the water they began to melt out of the gaping eyes and nostrils of the skull caverns, moaning, screaming, hissing with the need to feed.

I stepped forward and reached for my scythe. Easton squeezed my shoulder to stop me.

“Don’t,” he said. “We’re not here for that.”

“We’re just supposed to stand by and watch while that innocent soul is fed to the scum of the underworld?”

“Yes.” Easton slid me a sideways glance. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do. Do you honestly think we could take on all of them?”

My gaze drifted beyond Easton to the shadow demons clambering up the cliff. There were thousands. They looked like a single entity, moving as one, all with the same goal in mind. Feed. I flinched when the blond boy shoved the girl over the cliff edge and released her wrist. She flailed for a heart-stopping moment, her pretty blue dress plastered against her like a second skin as the wind enveloped her. The shimmer around her exploded with panic as she disappeared into a sea of writhing black shadows, her screams blotted out by the hungry hisses and growls. The boy jumped out of the way as shadows clawed their way over the edge and pulled the wailing souls in one by one. The shadow walker watched for a moment, as if to make sure the deed was done, then turned to walk away.

He stopped and met my gaze, his eyes cold and gray. Deluded by madness. He grimaced and looked to the sky.

“Stop!” I shouted taking a step forward, reaching out. Pleading. “You don’t have to do this.”

He hesitated, only for a moment, then whirled, his long gray coat spinning out around him, and disappeared.

My hands were shaking. My legs felt weak. I stumbled back and Easton’s warm chest stopped me.

His hands settled on my shoulders.

“Why?” I whispered. “Why would anyone agree to do that?”

“They got their claws in him before he knew any better. Now it’s him or them. Feed or be eaten,” he said. “What do you think Cash will choose?”

I shook my head, feeling sick inside. Sick and helpless and cornered.

“Balthazar will be using him, too, you know?” Easton offered. “Maybe not to this extent, but that kid is never going to have the peace you want him to have.”

Peace didn’t seem to matter in that moment. I couldn’t let this be an option. Yes, Balthazar would use him. But it had to be better than this. Anything had to be better than this.

I shook off Easton’s hold on me and stared up into the sky. Drops of fire began to fall like rain from the billowing gray clouds above. Somewhere in the distance screams created a staccato rhythm that rang of pain and death. I closed my eyes, unable to look at this place another second.

“I’m going to make sure he doesn’t have that choice.”