Phoenix Academy - Lucy Auburn Page 0,14

the back of the empty school, shoving his hands in his pocket and shaking his head. "Maybe we shouldn't have gone off the path and towards an empty building."

"Looking back, it does have an air of obviousness to it." David sighs and scratches the back of his neck. "Maybe we should've listened to Ari's magic and gone to that lake thing. For all we know it was a way out. What do you think, Ari?"

"I don't know the rules." I find myself looking over at Xavier, who is unexpectedly quiet instead of full of ideas. "We're in Hell, so it seems like anything could happen. I'm just glad we haven't been set upon by hordes of demons."

"Don't say that," Reggie hisses. "You've probably jinxed us. We'll wind up having to face a thousand demons now."

"Sorry." I elbow him in the side and smile in his direction. "I'm not that worried, though. I have you guys at my side. If demons attack we'll just show them who's boss—right Xavier?"

He doesn't answer. I frown at him, and so does David, his blue eyes studying his best friend's face. "X, you okay? You look a little... lost."

"Huh? What?" Blinking behind his glasses, Xavier stops and looks over at us. "I was just thinking. Off in my own world. Sorry."

I'm worried about him. Whatever he saw while we were in the school, it clearly rattled him. And I don't know him well enough to help.

"Let's go find somewhere safer to regroup and plan out next steps," I tell the guys, reaching out and letting my magic spill in front of us and form a wild path of its own making. "I'm sure we can find a way out of here. Demons get out all the time. It shouldn't take more than a few days at most."

That's what I tell them.

But I'm worried that the further we walk into Hell, the more it'll lay claim to our souls.

We walk for what feels like hours. It's hard to tell; I never get thirsty or hungry, don't find myself needing to use the bathroom or even really getting that tired.

It feels like time itself has no meaning.

As if eternity is stretching out in front of us.

I wonder how many days or hours or seconds have passed on Earth, and find that I can't guess. I can't feel the passage of time around me. All I know is this breath in, the next breath out, a step forward, and another.

Into the darkness.

Further through the unknown.

Uncertain if this is how I die, or if I'm already dead and fooling myself about it.

More than once I hear sounds in the distance: screaming, crying, terrible roars and the ripping of flesh from bones. But my magic steers us around it, finding the abandoned corners of Hell and creating safe passage with flames that lick around demonic creatures to force them away from us.

I can feel my magic withering, though. It won't last forever. If we don't rest, regroup, and recharge, we'll find ourselves abandoned in Hell without any defenses.

For a moment I consider telling the guys, then decide against it. In the past hours or days or minutes of journeying through Hell, they've started to relax and are finally having a normal conversation. If I tell them we're about to be shit out of luck, that might ruin their happiness.

Besides, I love the sound of David laughing.

"You can't be serious." He guffaws and shoves Xavier in the side, shaking his head. "You actually said that? How did I not know this?"

Xavier sighs and glares at his twin brother, who has apparently shared some egregious secret of his with his best friend. "I was only eight. I had no idea what it meant."

"You should've seen Mom's face." Reggie flashes his white teeth in a grin that pushes his cheeks up and wrinkles his eyes on the outside corners. "She turned white. Which is pretty amazing considering that she's a Black woman. I almost thought I was going to find out we were mixed race. Then she called Dad into the room, and he had to explain why he was listening to a song with the word 'cunt' in it somewhere her kids could overhear."

"It wasn't Dad's fault," Xavier interjects. "I mean, it kind of was, because he's the one who let me go over to the Reynolds' house. But he didn't know their teenage son was going through a bit of a... phase."

"How'd your dad get out of it?" David asks, sounding