Descent - Tara Fuller Page 0,72

day, I’d find you in Hell and start your torment all over again,” he whispered. “Today is that day, Easton.”

Chapter 26

Gwen

I stared out the bleary, soot-coated window, watching the streets of Hell. I felt empty and wrong, like someone had ripped me open, scooped out the important parts, and sewn me back together again. Without Easton, there were no important parts. He had been the one to bring them to life. And now…he was out there. He was out there enduring horrific things, and he was doing it for me.

I turned when I heard Scout riffling through the room behind me, frantically searching for anything he could use as a weapon. The demons had taken his blade. He acted as if they’d taken a limb. My gaze drifted to the bed where Tyler lay curled up into a ball. Memories came crashing over me one after another. Easton’s hands, his lips, his body healing beneath my touch. I couldn’t stay in this room where I’d told Easton I loved him only a day ago.

“I can’t believe you left him,” I finally said. My voice was scratchy and my throat raw from screaming. He slammed a dresser drawer shut and braced his hands on the edge as he glared at me through the reflection of the broken mirror.

“Easton is a big boy. He can take care of himself,” he said. “He knew what he was doing when he made that deal.”

“They cheated!”

“You think he didn’t see that as a possibility going in?” he scoffed. “He had one goal in mind when he went into that game. Keeping you safe. Getting you out of here. He made sure that was going to be the outcome whether he won or lost. He got what he wanted. As soon as I can barter for some protection, I’m getting you and the kid the hell out of here and putting the worst mistake of my afterlife behind me.”

He jerked another drawer open, pulling it from its melted hinges and tossed it across the room. Angry tears burned my cheeks. He didn’t care about Easton. And if he did, he was too wrapped up in his own fear to do something about it. I wiped the palm of my hand over my eyes to clear them.

“You’re a coward,” I said.

Scout weighed the shard of metal in his hand before shoving it into his back pants pocket. “I’m a reaper.”

“No. You’re Father’s puppet,” I said. “And he’s pulled your strings, hasn’t he? You’d leave behind a brother just to please him.”

He turned on me, eyes burning, nostrils flared. Anger and guilt thundered around him, clouding my thoughts. “And what about you? What do you think Daddy is going to do when you get home, Gwen? Welcome you with open arms? No. He’s going to rip those pretty metaphorical wings out of your back and toss you down into the pit with the rest of us.”

“He would never do that.”

Scout smirked. “We’ll see.”

He turned for the door and jerked it open, stopping to glance over his shoulder at me. “Don’t even think about going anywhere.”

The door slammed shut and I flinched, my feet cemented to the floor beneath me, while my mind attempted to work out a plan. If Scout wouldn’t help me, I’d have to go after Easton on my own. I turned back to the crowded streets of the city. Fear burned within me, steady and bright. I felt incredibly small looking down at it all. Without Easton beside me, I felt like a toy ship lost at sea, bobbing helplessly among the waves. Easton thought I was brave. I didn’t feel very brave. I felt afraid.

“I know you,” Tyler’s voice croaked from the bed behind me. “I don’t know how, but…I do.”

I turned and watched him ease up into a sitting position, wincing with pain. “Yes.”

“How?”

“I’m an angel of joy,” I said. “I found you in the hospital two years ago. I’ve been with you ever since. Healing you. Helping you find the light.”

“The light, huh?” He raised a brow. “You sound like the old ladies who knock on my mom’s door at the ass crack of dawn on Saturday mornings handing out salvation on printed pamphlets.”

“I helped you find April.” I didn’t say that he’d be alive if it weren’t for me. I should have. The fact that I hadn’t felt like a lie.

At the sound of her name, pain flashed across his face like a whip. He clutched the exposed bedsprings on either