“Go. Make our Liege proud,” Shateel says, a gleam in her teeth that matches the flash in her serpentine eyes.
A small group of Abdicated breaks off and moves through the large space first, heading for the light that edges a door in the distance past several rows of shelves full of bottles and casks.
Dang, how much wine could one house consume?
This place is almost the size of a baseball field. It’s cool in here, which does help to remedy my clammy skin from the walk, and the tasty air seems to be sorting out any fatigue I was feeling, so there’s that. I’m feeling all spring chickenish, when ten minutes ago, I was more of a day-old bucket of extra crispy.
Light bleeds into the room when the Abdicated crack open the gargantuan door, checking to make sure the coast is clear. After a tense moment, they start to sneak through. One by one they quickly dart away, leaving the rest of us in the shadows. Several other groups of Abdicated repeat this slow process, and our crowd thins as each of Morax’s followers file out.
My eyes flick over to the group of over a dozen red demons guarding Toreon, and a few of them move, giving me a clear view of him. My heart picks up its pace, beating excitedly, before I can wrap my darkness around the muscle and calm it down. I feel like some lovesick girlfriend at an airport, waiting for my person to walk out and scoop me up in a hug and promise to never be away from each other again.
Only Toreon and I are in Hell, and the thing keeping us apart is a plan to destroy the realms and a snake-haired psycho with too much power. Not even TSA is as bad as this.
More light at the room’s entrance catches my attention, and my eyes dart over to see a handful of other demons leaving. They’re all dressed in the same attire that Delta is. More fake servants to infiltrate the party.
I try to discreetly scan the room again now that our numbers are so much smaller, looking to see if I can spot Morax, but all I do is gain a greater understanding of the “finding a needle in a haystack” analogy.
Another group splits from us and heads to the door, and I realize all that’s left in this massive room of alcohol is: me and my sisters, five of the black armor clad babysitters, Shateel, Vudu, Toreon, and the Brogue demons guarding him.
Is Morax hidden amongst us, or did he already leave?
Shateel watches and waits, while the guards continue to scan the room, alert for any noises. I contemplate for a beat if maybe we should put up a stand here. Would it be worth the risk to call our scythes now and end this small gathering of guards around us? Even if Morax is here, we could take him...right? Or maybe he’d just slip out, and we’d spend the rest of our lives being hunted by him. Again.
But before I can run through a full pros and cons list of how best to play this, Shateel nods to herself and then looks to our armored guards. “It’s time. Kill him.”
My head snaps in the direction of the sudden command, and confusion floods me. Kill who? I inwardly chastise myself for momentarily breaking the facade of the brain-dead character I’m supposed to be playing right now, but I’m too overcome with panic to stop the way my eyes swing to the Brogue demons she’s talking to. I’m bewildered, my mind trying to catch up to what’s going on.
What’s happening? Why did she just order them to kill Toreon? He’s supposed to build a portal!
It’s like time slows down, and I watch things as they move frame by frame. My panicked pulse pounds in my ears, but instead of turning on Toreon, the Brogue demons move to surround Vudu, and my heart drops so fast it falls out of the bottoms of my feet.
No!
24
Vudu stiffens beside the opening of the tunnel as the red-skinned demons stalk over to him. There’s a mix of confusion and accusation in his red eyes as he glares across at Shateel.
She bares her teeth at him in a sneer that poses as a smile. “Did you really think the Ophidian didn’t know what you were up to?” Shateel says in an annoying saccharine voice. “Did you think he’d let you get away with plotting against