Descent (Kissed by Death) - Tara Fuller Page 0,32
in his bonds alone. He wanted me to run. I stood on shaky legs and looked over my shoulder to the dark corridor that led to home. Then returned my gaze to the boy venturing into the depths of Hell ahead.
I should have heeded his warnings, should have listened to my father’s ever-present voice in my head, telling me to turn back. But I didn’t. I did the only thing I could. The only thing the newly beating heart in my chest would allow me to do.
I followed.
Chapter 12
Easton
“Stop looking at me like that, Red.”
My irritation spiked as I stopped walking and my boots sank into black sand. Beside me, Gwen wrapped her arms around her middle and looked out into the vast darkness ahead. Thanks to the nightmare caverns, she’d seen inside my head. Witnessed the pain and anguish that lived there. And she was still…here. Trusting me to lead her into the worst parts of Hell, to keep her safe. I didn’t know what to do with that. I knew what I wanted to do—run like hell from the acceptance in her eyes, the way she made me feel.
She’d seen more of me than anyone ever had. And now she was itching to work her happy magic on me to make it all better. I could see it in the sad, hopeful way she looked at me with those big bottomless blue eyes that didn’t know a lost cause when they saw one. There was no happily ever after for me. No redemption. Only Hell. The sooner she realized that, the better.
“Where else would you like me to look,” she said, sullenly. “Everything else is so…”
“Ugly? Terrifying? Against God’s plan?” I raised a brow. “I have a slew of other adjectives if none of those apply.”
“No. I think those work just fine,” she said, rubbing her arms. “What’s that sound?”
In the distance, a symphony of moans blew in on a foul-smelling breeze. It was impossible to decipher the words. It was one unending sorrowful song of a thousand souls, forever trapped in the restless grey waves of regret.
“It’s the Sea of the Dead.” I tossed the handful of black sand into the dark to gauge how close the water was. A second later a surge of fresh screams rose from the waves. We were close. Closer than I normally liked to be to this place, but we didn’t have another option. “We need to cross it to get to the city.”
Gwen stepped forward to peer across the sea, and I watched a bit of her wonder wither away. A breeze blew in and stirred the loose hair that tickled the side of her face, and despite everything…I couldn’t stop wondering what it might feel like to reach out and smooth those threads of fiery satin back behind her ear.
This. This was why she didn’t need to be here with me. I didn’t need to be fantasizing about finding excuses to touch her. I needed to focus on finding this soul. She was Balthazar’s daughter, for Christ’s sake! I ripped my gaze from her and stalked down the beach, searching for the little two-person boat I’d paid Cyril three souls to get me. I’d had to keep those souls in one piece all the way to the city just to get them to him, but it had been worth it. When I’d been new at this, long before my alliance with the imp, there had been only one way to cross the Sea of the Dead. To dive in and fight the current of tortured bodies. It took days to cross that way. Not my favorite method of travel.
I spotted a glint of silver down the beach and made a mental note to let Cyril win one next go-around.
“Over here!” I called to Gwen as I dragged the rusted metal boat to the edge of the water.
“We have to go in there?” Her voice held a slight tremor that she quickly covered up, but I’d heard it. She’d never had to be afraid of anything before she met me. Well, she’d have plenty to keep her up at night after this. If there was anything Gwen would regret at the end of her existence, it would be meeting me. I gripped the side of the boat and looked up at her through the hair hanging into my eyes.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Gwen.”
She smiled, and the sight of it, here, in this place, did unforgivable