Demon of Darkness (The Hellbound Hellion #2) - Tansey Morgan Page 0,2

the angels again. “None of you said anything?”

A mumble of no and it wasn’t me moved through the recruits. That was when I felt the sharp stab of pain against the side of my head. It was enough to make me wince, my hand moving unconsciously to my temple. Something definitely wasn’t right, though I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what.

“Can you hear me?” came the voice again, only it sounded like it was right next to my ear.

I spun around sharply. “Who said that?!” I repeated, my voice rising.

“No one is speaking, sir,” Avahi said, “We should continue training the recruits. They are waiting for you.”

I stared at him, and then at the gathered angels waiting to be instructed. Their eyes were on me, watching, waiting, but there was something different about them. Their eyes were wide, their mouths slightly curled into twisted grins. It wasn’t the look of expectance or eagerness, but… hunger.

They were staring at me like they were hungry, like jackals eyeing up their dinner from a distance.

And I was the main course.

Arcs of whipping lightning split the sky apart, thunder grumbling soon after. “What’s happening?” I said, staggering back a few paces with a hand still pressed against my head.

“You need to fight!” someone yelled, only none of the angels slowly advancing on me had spoken. The voice belonged to someone else. Someone hiding on the balconies surrounding me, maybe, or maybe it was someone using magic to hide themselves from me.

“Who are you?!” I roared, teeth gritting now as the pain slowly intensified.

“There is only us here,” Avahi said, “Sir.”

When he spoke, now, it was through his teeth, like he was steadily getting angrier, or hungrier. Looking closely at some of the other angels, I noticed several mouths hanging slack and open, saliva gently dribbling down their chins.

I backed up again, only this time I hit a low wall. Behind it was a sharp drop into nothingness, and while normally I wouldn’t have been turned off by a steep fall, my wings were gone. I could no longer feel them behind me; it was as if they’d never been there.

“Am I dreaming?” I asked, sweat popping across my brow. “I must be dreaming. How can any of this be real?”

“You aren’t dreaming,” came the echoing voice again. “But you have to throw yourself off the edge.”

“Throw myself… what?! I don’t have wings!”

“You don’t need them. Trust me.”

“How can I trust you? I don’t know who you are.”

The angels ahead of me continued to advance, only now they’d lost all semblance of grace, or poise. Some of them were hunching over, their mouths slack and open, their eyes glazed over. Avahi was on all fours, licking his lips and crawling toward me like an animal, while the girl I had helped jumped around, hooting and howling, her wings fluttering.

“They’re going to eat you,” the voice said, “You’re already being eaten! You need to trust me and jump!”

“Eaten?” I yelled, looking around for signs of the person speaking. “By what?”

“I don’t have the time to explain it right now.”

I turned around and stared at the chasm before me. Where once Heaven had been—Heaven, shining, gorgeous, glittering Heaven—now there was only oblivion, swirling, black, and endless. I had never with my own eyes beheld the mouth of the pit of Hell, but I had to believe it looked something like this, if not exactly like this.

The sight of it made my heart hammer inside of my chest. The thought of what might happen if I allowed myself to fall made it almost stop entirely.

“Is this a trick?” I yelled into the roaring, thunderous sky.

“Stop asking so many fucking questions and just jump, asshole!”

I jabbed a finger up. “Okay, first off, I don’t know who you are, but I don’t let anyone speak to me like that, and second—”

“—jump!”

Avahi lunged at me, hissing and snarling like he had gone feral. Without hesitating further, I grabbed the ledge and hurled myself over it and into the dark. I watched the sky fall away, saw the color drain from the world, listened to the howl of the wind as it slowly faded away to nothing. I could tell I was still falling, falling, endlessly and unstoppably.

A lesser being would’ve screamed, but I kept a tight seal on the panic in my throat even as I raced toward an inevitable, abrupt, and painful stop.

CHAPTER TWO

I couldn’t let him beat me again. Once had been embarrassing, twice was humiliating, but to