Inferno of Darkness (Divisa Huntress #2) - J.L. Weil Page 0,43
key. “Where do you think this goes?” she asked.
“Do we want to know?” Travis retorted with a nervous chuckle.
“Isn’t that the whole reason we are inside this creepy-ass tomb?” Emma reminded us.
“There is something about this place…,” Angel began, her eyes roaming around the chamber.
I shuddered. “Anyone else freezing to death?” I asked, rubbing my hands over my arms. All the summer heat was gone, leaving me suddenly trembling, as if a ghost had crossed through my body.
“It did get cold in here,” Emma agreed, but she was human and more susceptible to temperature changes. I normally wasn’t, but that had all changed after my stint at the Court of Darkness.
Kira stepped forward, shaking her head. “Amateurs. Give me the key,” she said, holding out her hand.
Angel’s eyes narrowed, and she waited for a beat before passing over the key. The compact room was tense, not a single one of us trusting my mother, but I had struck a deal, I reminded myself. It bound her to her oath just as it bound me.
Kira crouched in front of the statue, staring at the dust-covered ground.
“How did you—?”
Angel looked at me, and my words faltered. My friend’s eyes were almost wholly red in a way that was freaking me out and only happened when a demon from her court was near or she was about to lose control. Chase noticed as well, and concern clouded his silver irises. “Angel eyes,” he murmured, stroking a finger over his wife’s cheek.
She blinked, focusing on his face, but the crimson of her irises remained. “I’m okay,” she assured. “I just need to…” Angel’s focus shifted to Kira as my mother ran her fingers over the ground, smearing away a layer of dirt and other gunk I didn’t want to think about. The things scuttling in the dark made my skin crawl. “Those markings,” Angel whispered.
It took another moment or two for Kira to clear the floor enough that I could see what Angel was referring to. There were, in fact, ancient runes, symbols, or whatever cryptic script inscribed into the ground.
“What does it say?” Travis asked, hunkering down beside Kira for a closer look.
“It’s a message, a warning,” Angel whispered as we all looked at her with similar expressions of disbelief and gaping mouths.
I glanced at my cousin, who only shook his head, befuddled like the rest of us.
Kira traced her fingers over the marks. “It mentions fallen angels—those first to inhabit the underworld and form the five sectors of Hell. And warns that he who turns the key will be judged before entering Hecate’s Grove. From there, the path of your destiny is decided.”
There was a time when Chase’s father, a higher demon, had referred to Angel as the “Key.” A lump formed in my throat.
“It has to be me,” she whispered.
Chase and I exchanged uneasy glances. This could be bad.
“Angel, perhaps we should just let Kira open the door,” I suggested.
“She’s right,” Kira mumbled, so quiet, I wasn’t sure I heard her. “Any of us could open the door, but only Angel can’t be judged. Her status as a queen grants her immunity. She can’t be judged by any god or magic.”
My teeth ground together. “I thought you said this entrance would get us in undetected?”
Mom shrugged as if it was no sweat off her back if we got caught. “I was pretty sure.”
Was this why she had called my brother, because she needed Angel to open the portal? If there was any truth in my hunch, she and I were going to have words.
Angel took the key back from Kira and knelt down to the marks. There was a small hole in the center of the symbols, where she inserted the key. Everyone in the chamber held their breath, waiting to see what happened next. Chase put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. After a few more long seconds, I began to think Kira was sending us on a wild goose chase.
I turned on my heels, facing my mother with a scowl, when the doorway behind the statue trembled with enough force to shake the tomb. Rocks and debris rained over the chamber as the wall split and opened just wide enough to make an entrance.
“Holy shit,” Travis said.
“I can’t believe it,” Emma echoed. “It actually worked.” I don’t think anyone was more surprised than her.
“So, who’s going first?” I inquired, raising a brow.