Demon of Darkness (The Hellbound Hellion #2) - Tansey Morgan Page 0,11
out why it happened to me.” I paused, then shook my head. “I don’t have anyone else to talk to about this shit.”
“You can talk to me. You are talking to me.”
“Yeah, but you’re not… like me. You fell, but not because you did anything to deserve it. I was thrown out of Heaven and into the pit. We’re different. I don’t think you’d understand.”
“I feel like you’ve said this before… thing is, I’m not seeing that.”
“You aren’t?”
Arael shrugged. “No. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I realized I had been indoctrinated to see people, and beings, a certain way based on their… I’m not going to say race, because that doesn’t make sense, but you get what I mean, right?”
“You mean angels and demons as allies and enemies?”
“Right. Demons were bad, angels were good. I learned really fast that angels have just as much, if not more, capacity for evil in them than demons do. Like you said, demons are thrown into the pit because they commit a crime against Heaven. You make one subjectively bad choice, which can sometimes be justified—like Lucifer’s—and you’re eternally punished and stigmatized. Meanwhile, angels are turning into literal monsters because they won’t stop making bad choices. It’s all bullshit.”
“Wow…” I paused. “That was really deep.”
“Thought I was just a pretty face?”
Smirking, and lying through my teeth. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
Arael jabbed a finger at the door. “Get out.”
“No,” I whined. “Let me hang out with you. Let’s try and get that TV working or something. Seriously, this is the most normal I’ve felt in days.”
“What’s normal for a demon?”
I waggled my eyebrows and grinned, wickedly. “Murderous.”
Arael rolled his eyes and stood. “Grab the remote. Let’s see what we can do.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Dagon
The cavern roared and growled as it quaked. I could almost feel it falling apart at the seams, but as it started to come down around us, piece by piece, I felt less and less sure about what I was doing. Isla had crouched into a ball and was covering her head with her hands and her wings, screaming as debris fell on and around her.
A sharp pain stabbed the right side of my head, making me grimace, but I didn’t break my concentration. I had to summon the Light. I could feel it, just out of reach but flowing toward me like a rush of water being blocked by a door. If I could only manifest enough power, there was a chance I could make the door break under the pressure… and then see what happens.
“You have to stop!” Isla yelled.
“Just a little more,” I said, my muscles straining, my wings shivering.
The trembling continued, intensifying as the seconds passed. I could feel the ground itself starting to shake—and not just shake, but move. It was as if I was standing on a giant, fleshy, mechanical bull that was starting to stir and wanted to shake me the hell off its back. As pieces of the ceiling continued to fall, I pushed harder against the strain on my body, my muscles, and my very soul.
For an instant, I thought I could feel it. The Light. It wanted to reach me, but this thing, the Wretched, was stopping it from doing so. It wasn’t just blocking it from reaching me, it was eating the Light as I drew it out. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever, but I had committed, now.
If I stopped, I wasn’t sure I would get another shot.
“You’re going to get us both killed!” Isla screamed, “We’ll find another way out!”
“There is no other way out,” I said, “We’re going to wake up and bust out of this thing, or we’re going to give it indigestion. Either way, it’s going to regret having eaten us. Take my hand.”
I reached for her, and her glowing, silvery eyes turned up. She was unsure. I didn’t know how long she’d been in here, and even though I was sure she’d spent every second thinking about a way to get out, right now, this was the furthest away from what she wanted.
She was scared. Terrified, almost to the point of inaction. I couldn’t blame her. Angels weren’t immune to fear, not even the best of us were. But she had pulled me out of the dream I’d been having. A dream I never would’ve woken up from otherwise. She had saved my life, and now I was going to save hers.