mouth to continue to argue, but Jerif intercedes by grabbing Crux’s arm and spinning him to face the opposite direction, just like Iceman was trying to get him to do. “There,” Jerif says with a huff. “Still look like fucking Minnesota to you?”
Now that we’ve done a one-eighty, I start laughing. Hard. Because this is definitely not Minnefuckinsota.
A gleaming, almost glass-like castle is smack dab in the middle of the forest. It’s the kind of thing Disney would dream up. Surrounding it are long, white, shiny buildings. It’s like the castle itself is the sun and the long white buildings are the lines of rays extending out from the sun’s center.
I spot what I think is an obstacle course of some sort in the distance, and the size of it is massive and daunting. Several packed dirt rings are off to the left where trees have obviously been cleared away. I can see people moving around, but when I squint, I realize that there are white wings attached to their backs.
“Does Minnesota have castles like this?” Echo teases. Crux just narrows his eyes and tries to reach forward and punch him on the shoulder. Before his fist can make contact, Echo’s shadows branch out and shove Crux’s hand away.
“Fucking cheater,” Crux grumbles. Echo snickers.
“I know where we are,” Taz admits as his gray-gold eyes scan the landscape. “But I have no clue why,” he adds, his blond brows hiked up in either surprise or awe. “This is Purgatory. And those,” he says, pointing toward the white-winged beings. “are fucking angels.”
Well, shit.
“The scythe took us to a castle full of angels?” I ask with shock. I look down at the Hell weapon with a glare. Is this thing trying to get me killed?
“Not just angels. This is the Legion’s headquarters,” he says, though I have no fucking clue what that means.
“Alright, and just for curiosity’s sake, how do angels feel about demons?” I ask, rocking back on my heels. “Is this a run for our lives kind of scenario, or are you at secret handshake, followed by pats on the back level of friendship with these guys?”
“Well…” Tazreel starts, his tone not exactly bolstering confidence.
He doesn’t get the chance to say another word though, because in less time than it takes to say holy shit, that’s an angel, we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by a fuck ton of them. And as if that weren’t scary enough, they have very shiny swords pointed at our necks.
We all freeze.
“What business do Hell Spawn have in these parts?” a stunning angel with ebony skin, dark eyes, and cropped short hair demands. Her eyes fix on Iceman’s horns like they’re personally offending her, and then she moves her flickering gaze over to Jerif and Echo.
Tazreel looks the least worried by our current situation, and I wonder for a moment if he knows something I don’t about angel swords, because they look perfectly stabby to me. Then again, he is Pride. Maybe he’s just too damn proud to feel worried about any of this. We could all get our heads cut off, and he’d still be arrogant about it.
He crosses his arms and spreads his legs, giving the head angel an arrogant look as his blond wings lift slightly. “I am Tazreel, Abdicated of Hell, and administrator of Pride. We are here on a Hell-blessed mission that is none of your fucking business,” he concludes, and I bite back a groan.
Sure, why not piss off the Heavenly Host currently holding murder sticks to our throats? That sounds like a perfectly logical plan. Why didn’t I think of leading with that?
I throw a glare at Tazreel before stepping in. “I think there’s been some kind of mistake,” I announce, and I feel the weight of all the angelic eyes as they land on me. “We didn’t mean to cause alarm, and we’ll happily fuck off back to where we came from if you’ll just sheathe the weapons.”
One of the angels scoffs, like my request is ridiculous. My brow furrows as I try to come up with plan C.
“We demand to see your ranking officer,” Tazreel orders, like he’s some disgruntled customer at a clothing store asking to talk to a supervisor. I roll my eyes at his take us to your leader request, because he is not making our lives any easier. But then my eyes have to widen with surprise, because the swords lift up from our necks, and the angels surrounding us move to form