Angelus (9 page)

She's speaking in the past tense. How could she know I would set anything right if we never knew each other back then?

Angela shook her head. She didn't want to just drop the topic, but the time to escape was slipping by quickly. Without another word, she squeezed Sophia's hand and looked back at the dreadful hole in the floor.

“Are you ready?” she said.

The heavy incense in the room smelled as sacrificial and ominous as Sophia had suggested. It was starting to choke off air as much as it screened light.

“I'm not fond of entering potentially bottomless pits.”
Sophia sighed. “Unfortunately, I know my answer has to be yes.”

Angela commiserated with a frown. She knelt down and felt along the inside rim of the hole. Her fingers brushed metal rungs. “There's some kind of ladder. Thank God.” She took a deep breath. “I'll go first,” she said, trying to be noble and brave, but feeling less courageous the more she pondered what might be waiting at the bottom.

Carefully, she maneuvered herself onto the first set of shockingly cold rungs. Angela had to force herself to hold on to them as her palms began to numb. Slowly, she used the sole of her shoes to feel below for the next rungs, one at a time. A dank breeze wafted beneath her black nightgown. Of course she was stuck wearing the worst possible outfit for whatever happened next.

Angela was already in utter darkness when she heard the rustle of Sophia's dress as she followed, both of them plunging deep into the shadows to survive.

Angela couldn't imagine how Troy, despite being a Jinn adapted to darkness and tunnels, could live like this for so many centuries. The thought of her made a cold knife of guilt twist in Angela's soul.

Is Troy even alive? She saved my life when we first entered Hell, but I never found out if she and her niece Juno escaped. And then I lost my memories. I wonder if she thinks I betrayed her? I wonder where she could be? More than ever, we could use her
help.

Angela knew that last thought was foolish.

Certainly, wherever Troy was, she was far, far away.

“Sophia,” Angela dared to whisper. Her voice echoed against the stone walls of the hole anyway. “Do you know what happened to Troy? Is she alive?”

Sophia paused suddenly on the rungs above Angela. She stayed silent for a while, as if she didn't quite know how to respond. “She's alive,” Sophia finally said.

“How do you know?” Angela pressed.

Another long pause. Angela could sense that Sophia's mind was working. When Sophia spoke again, her voice sounded almost frantic, as if she'd forgotten something crucial. “Quickly,” she whispered. “We need to keep moving. There isn't much time.”

Angela knew that already. So Sophia must have been referring to something else that might happen soon. Without trying to pry any further, Angela forced herself to descend faster.

She remembered that Sophia didn't know where Kim had been taken.

Maybe we can find him down here.

Or perhaps someone else will find him first.

Troy squeezed her eyes shut. The lights of the room, however dim for her, cut into her brain like claws. After weeks of being forced to fight for her life in Python's noisy Arena, the sudden silence stifled her, and her eyes throbbed painfully.

The demon hadn't been kind enough to blindfold her this time, but he'd of course remembered to muzzle her. She licked her lips, wishing for a way to chew out of her prison. Manacles had also been clamped around her wrists, and a collar with a leaden chain attached her to her iron cage. She'd stopped trying to slip her wrists out of the manacles hours ago, but remained saturated in the stench of her own blood.

She was certain she'd heard Sariel—her half-Jinn cousin known to others as Kim—and the Book of Raziel speaking to Python. She'd even dared to hiss at the sound of his voice.

Now, she knew that perhaps it had all been a dream.

She was too hungry and so confined that the world was escaping her. If only she could see through the velvet drapery thrown over her cage. For months she'd been jailed like this, forced to fight for her life for the demons' amusement, the
thought of her niece Juno traveling alone through the plain near Babylon torturing her at every other moment.

Footsteps paused nearby. Python's distinctive scent wafted through the drapery to her like a poison.

Troy couldn't stop a growl of rage from bubbling inside of her. The fabric lifted from her cage and she narrowed her eyes to slits. The demon stood right next to her, leaning over the upper bars.

She turned on him, glaring from the darkest corner of her little prison. Python was decadently dressed in a black overcoat studded with red gems. A serpent brooch glittered below his neck. He paused, probably alarmed by the predatory hatred shining behind Troy's eyes. But Python's fascination soon overcame his fear. He knelt down to what they both knew was a dangerously close position. Behind him, the dull haze of the chamber cast a reddish glow onto his hair and back.

“The High Assassin of the Jinn,” he whispered proudly. “But thanks to me, no better than a flightless bird in a cage. Do you think you can keep winning your battles with only one wing? I'll admit it's certainly entertaining to watch. I see that the wound has healed over nicely—” His hand reached for a few feathers sticking out between the bars.

Troy lunged.

Python snatched his fingers away, but he smacked them accidentally against the bars, cursing.

“It will heal even better,” Troy hissed, “when I medicate it with your blood.”

“Always so feisty,” Python said, winking at her. He examined her fearlessly, shaking the pain from his hand. Troy stared right back at him, wishing he could see her teeth more clearly and feel her nails ripping into him all over again.
The scar over his left eye always sent a thrill of satisfaction through her. That deserved wound had been Troy's handiwork, after all. “It makes me wonder how you'll behave,” he continued, “when you see who your next opponent will be—and how much you'll owe me the satisfaction of making him suffer.”

“It will be another Jinn,” Troy snapped at him. “You're too boring to try anything else. And once again, I refuse to kill one of my own race.”

“I just love your confidence,” Python whispered. He gritted his teeth. “The simple fact that you're wrong makes me so warm and tingly inside.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Tell me, Troy, what's it like to be little more than a mangy beast? Of course you're more attractive than most of your race—dare I say it, even beautiful. I could have made a lovely scarf for myself with those feathers of yours. Oh, and those piercing golden eyes. So enchanting. I can see how you hypnotize your prey so easily. Everything about you is dainty, and elegant, and lethal. I almost admire it. Almost, because—”

He dared to lean in close and whisper into her flicking ear.

“—because, of course, you're in the cage and I'm not. Tell me, then, who is the better hunter? All those little victory bones and teeth tied into your ragged mess of hair, but you've only ended up another rat in a trap, haven't you? Well, it's high time I added to my own trophy collection.” His voice lowered meaningfully. “I expect you'll go on doing your best to continue entertaining me. It's your duty to enthrall on demand. It's because of me that you're the new Jinn Queen, after all.”

He pounded the bars and laughed.

Troy's head rang. She would have grabbed his wrist in that
split second and broken it, but her own hands were manacled and so she could only lurk, and wait, and continue to nurture the deadly promise of utter destruction she'd made to Python those few months ago when he first captured her.

“Don't worry,” he said. “Just a few more minutes and you'll be free for the short time I grant to you. But if you'll excuse me, I'm going to release you from a safe location. I just can't trust that bloodthirsty instinct of yours.”

A purplish mist rose from the ground and covered his body until Python disappeared.

Now, if you'll be sweet enough to give me a moment.
Python's voice remained, echoing in the dank, musty room that was more a dungeon than any actual kind of chamber. Embers flickered on the onyx walls. Grotesque creatures had been carved in the stone. Troy recognized only a few of them. She tended to concentrate more on the wards written in demonic Theban meant to help cage her if she ever escaped from these iron bars.

Even as she watched, they began to fade from the walls.

What was Python doing? He wasn't dragging her to the Arena this time?

I'm sure you heard your half-breed cousin conversing with me not so long ago,
Python said. His voice seemed to echo from everywhere at once.
He's alive, Troy. I have him in a prison here. The game is that you need only to find which one.

Troy stiffened. Her hair stood on end as sparks of crimson light broke the muzzle on her face and snapped the manacles on her wrist and neck. Slowly, the gate of her cage opened.

See how kind of a master I am, pet? I'm allowing you to have your revenge on him at last. Now you can make him suffer for murdering your uncle. Pay close attention
here—he can
suffer
. But you can't kill him. I won't allow that. And be sure to stay within the boundaries because I will know if you overreach them.

Surely, Python was lying. But Troy knew Sariel was indeed in Hell. Whether or not he'd ever contacted Angela had been open to guesses.

Either way, Troy was free to scamper through Python's dungeon. At the very least, she could probably find a way to free herself. Tentatively, she crawled out of the cage, smarting at the feel of chill stone against her palms. Her nails scraped the rock as she stood, examining the heavy door blocking her exit from the jail.

It was now wide open.

Through the acidic fog, a familiar, though very faint scent, worked its way to Troy.

As if in a trance, she began to follow it. For once, this demon hadn't lied.

The second Angela's feet finally brushed the ground, she froze. Sophia paused, still stuck in the tunnel above her. They'd ended their descent in a long stone tunnel dripping with water that steamed as it met the stone. To their right, in the direction of a strange reddish glow, strange animalistic noises drifted toward them. But they were only audible because of the echoing effect of the stone.

Other odd noises resounded from above. Angela couldn't tell if she was hearing voices or a constant roar. It almost sounded like an enormous crowd hid nearby, just out of sight.

Slowly, Sophia set her dainty slippers on the stone floor beside Angela as she dropped at last from their hole.

Her face blanched.

“What is that roaring sound?” Angela whispered to her. “It sounds almost like chanting voices.”

Sophia looked up at the ceiling worriedly. Angela felt the same. The hole in the room where they'd been trapped had dropped them into another tunnel, which forced them to walk east or west. Angela had chosen east and then they'd
been forced to enter the hole from which they'd just emerged. Perhaps they weren't underneath Python's mansion anymore. Certainly they might be underneath the portion of Babylon directly outside it.

“Do you know what this noise is?” Angela said, unable to stop listening to it.

Sophia shook her head. “We should keep moving.”

Angela nodded and grabbed her hand. She turned to the right and then the left. Neither choice was the best. They still had no clue where they were going. “There's light in this direction,” Angela said, facing the reddish glow. The animalistic noises sounded slightly familiar. Then a long braying screech echoed back to them.

Angela gasped. Kirin had been stabled down there. These must have been the underground paddocks where Python kept his beasts.

“All right, hurry,” Angela said. She grabbed Sophia and forced her to run behind her.

Sophia had already caught on. “They're Python's animals, Angela. They might not let us ride without his permission.”

“Oh, they'll let us ride,” Angela said. She glanced back at Sophia meaningfully, finding it more and more difficult to speak as they ran. “Trust me.”

Hieroglyphs on the walls pulsed with red light. They quickly encroached upon a huge gate with two serpents twined above, their necks hooked together in a reciprocal
S
shape. Cautiously, Angela and Sophia crept close enough to the gate to see inside. Angela could make out the long rows of individual paddocks. Troughs carved with dragons and serpents held colorless vegetation from the plains surrounding Babylon, and a smooth wall of rock displayed silver pegs,
each holding a bridle studded with gems. There were no signs of saddles anywhere.

Angela reached out to shove the gates open.

The twin snakes instantly lunged and hissed at her. Their jaws snapped for her hands.

Sophia screamed.

Angela backed away. The Kirin began snorting in alarm. They'd probably been spooked by her unfamiliar smell. Angela had certainly ridden enough Kirin now in Hell to understand their behavior. But even though she had her own stables as Hell's Prince, Angela had never found any Kirin willing to bond with her. It was as if they could sense she was from another world.

Think, Angela. Think! This is the perfect way to escape, especially if there are other creatures down in these tunnels. But these snakes—this gate—

If only she could summon the Glaive. But doing so would mean that she'd suffer great pain, maybe even go temporarily blind. The Glaive was a pole-arm of crystallized blue blood from Lucifel's Grail. To summon the weapon, she'd need to stab her new green Eye to make it bleed. The very thought worked shivers through her entire body.

She'd have to take her chances with the snakes for now.

“
Angela, wait
—” Sophia shouted.

Angela grasped the lock on the gate, fumbled with it, and refused to let go, even as the serpents twined down the iron bars and sank their fangs deep into the flesh of her hands.

Sophia latched on to them, shouting as she tried to pull them off.

“Sophia, let go,” Angela gasped through the pain. “
Let—go—
”

Sophia only pulled harder.

Angela groaned, biting her lip hard to hold back screams. The reptiles chewed deeper into her skin. Blue blood trickled down her wrists.

Sophia froze, her hands still locked around the serpents' necks. Angela ignored her pain for a moment, watching with her mind turning in panicked circles as the blue blood dripped, and dripped, and dripped.

I bleed this color now? Just like the Grail? WHY?

Sophia staggered, letting go abruptly. She must have been able to sense what Angela was about to do. Almost instinctively, Angela willed the blood in her palms to pool together and crystallize. Radiant light illuminated the inside of the stables and the tunnel behind Angela and Sophia as the Glaive materialized in Angela's hands. As the haft took shape, the snakes hissed madly and crumbled to black ash. The blade appeared in a wicked scimitar of blue.

“Stand back!” Angela shouted.

She swiped at the bars of the gate.

They smashed like glass, chunks of metal sprinkling to the ground around them. Angela's hands throbbed painfully, but she held on to the weapon tightly. She ducked through the hole in the gate, turned back to offer a free hand and help Sophia step inside, and then motioned for her to stay still as Angela glanced around for danger. The Kirin continued to bray and screech. They'd been pushed to panic by the Glaive's light.

Which paddock do I open? I guess it doesn't matter. Any Kirin will do.

A terrible
WHUMP
sounded throughout the stable, echoing off the walls. Instantly, the other Kirin hushed. They nickered in their paddocks, their large paws scuffing at the stone floor. The sound had come from the largest paddock,
directly across from Angela. She turned to look up at the barred hole set in its door. From inside, a great yellow eye gleamed back at her. A snort of hot breath left the nostrils of the Kirin inside. Angela had never seen one so large.

“It's enormous,” Sophia whispered by her side. “It must be a male.”

Angela took a step forward. She and the beast gazed at each other steadily. Time slowed. The creature's intelligent eyes locked on Angela's green eye, the Grail, and the power within it ignited like a fire between them and held the animal fast.

Angela walked up to the door of the paddock. As quietly as possible, she snapped the lock open with the Glaive. She then willed the weapon to collapse.

Blue blood splashed to the ground. The Kirin inside neighed and tensed.

Angela stared a second longer. Then she grabbed Sophia and ran with her to the other side of the room.

They'd dashed out of the way just in time.

The winged Kirin exploded from its stable and galloped directly in front of Angela and Sophia, rearing above them with its horn nearly scraping the cavern ceiling. It returned to the earth with a resounding crash of its paws against the ground. The vibration shuddered powerfully up through Angela's legs and chest. The other Kirin surrounding them had now gone completely still and silent.

Sophia gripped Angela by the shoulder. They sat on the ground with the beast looming over them.

The Kirin's entire body gleamed dark ebony, and beautiful bluish-green stripes of light rippled up and down its flanks. Its eyes fixed on Angela and pierced her. Enormous reptilian wings flapped powerfully against its sides, throwing out
gusts of air. It was completely different from any Kirin she'd ever seen in Hell. Three times larger, winged, and with a noble bearing. No wonder Python had shut it up underneath his mansion, away from prying eyes.

“Angela,” Sophia whispered in warning.

The Kirin lowered its neck invitingly and then went still.

Had the power of the Eye subdued it like Angela had planned? Yet even as she reached out as if in a dream to stroke the animal's long muzzle, she couldn't help feeling that this creature was somehow hers. It allowed itself to be petted for a minute, then arched its neck again and began to nicker nervously. Now was their chance.

“Come on! Hurry!” Angela said, hoisting Sophia up with her from the ground. Sophia panted for breath but didn't protest as Angela helped her carefully climb onto the Kirin's broad back. Angela followed, ducking as the Kirin's leathery wings tested the air again. She held fast to the Kirin's mane, tightening her grip as Sophia locked her arms around Angela's waist.

Swiftly, she tugged so that the Kirin turned back toward the gate.

“All right,” she said to Sophia. “Whatever you do—don't let go.”

The winged Kirin reared before sprinting, and its long screech set its fellow herd members into a frenzy again. Angela winced as the beast jumped over the pieces of the gate blocking its way. The impact shuddered up through her bones and chattered her teeth as it landed again.

Then they galloped fast, with nothing to stop them.

They had no choice except to travel in the opposite direction from which they'd come.

Angela gritted her teeth. She dared to shut her eyes, relishing the sensation of the chilly air working its way through her hair. Sophia pressed against her back, head buried in her shoulder. The odd noise they'd heard in the tunnel became louder the more they galloped. There could have been a waterfall nearby, though Angela knew that was impossible. They were miles from the Styx River right now.

A deeper chill worked its way through her. It was the same one she'd felt when she and Sophia rode after Lucifel before her escape from Hell—and before Angela was trapped in it forever.

Without warning the winged Kirin slowed its pace.

Soon, they were down to a trot. Sophia's weight lifted from against Angela's back. “What's going on?” she said, shouting above the roar surrounding them on all sides.

“I don't know,” Angela shouted back.

Worry lanced through her like a shard of ice. She could have sworn the roar was actually the sound of a million voices. But they had to continue forward. There was no other exit.

A dull light had appeared ahead of them. Mysterious furrows had been etched through the rock walls, slicing the hieroglyphs there into halves. They looked like claw marks.

Angela kicked the Kirin's sides with her heels, forcing the creature to speed up again. Reluctantly, it began to move. This time, its wings beat with its movements, propelling it forward even faster, as if the beast glided on ice. The light and the sound grew both brighter and noisier.

They could have been entering a thundercloud. The noise shivered through Angela's entire body and set her bones aching.

Angela felt Sophia's fingers tighten painfully into her waist. “
It can't be,
” Sophia shouted.

But it was too late to stop. The Kirin burst out of the tunnel.

Light blinded them. Innumerable voices chanted in the native language of the demons. Angela didn't have the time to concentrate on what was being said. She was too busy trying to keep her and Sophia alive. The Kirin reared higher than before, threatening to dump them both onto the ground. Angela and Sophia screamed together.

As the Kirin returned to the earth again, Angela looked around wildly, trying to understand.

They were now outside, standing in the bottom center of a great arena swarming with chanting excited demons of every age and rank. Angela's mouth opened, but no sound came out of it. Her eyes watered from the brilliance of far too many braziers and lights.

Ice crystals drifted slowly to the ground from the heavy clouds, dusting the bare skin of her arms.

It was beyond Angela's imagination how Python disguised this place and hid it from the general view of Hell, but she suspected more than one of his dark mischievous powers behind it all. The Arena was too large not to be seen from the ground unless it was deliberately hidden somehow. It was bigger than more than a few of Babylon's city blocks put together and constructed entirely of black onyx with cruel-looking obsidian spires. Pennants with an orange snake fluttered from intimidating turrets.

The chanting grew louder, signifying that something was about to happen. The demons grew even more excited, hundreds of them standing to get a better view of what was taking place.

Angela could barely breathe.

“The Arena . . .” Sophia shouted behind her fearfully.

Angela clasped the pendant at her chest, tightening her hand around it into a fist.

“I thought it no longer existed,” Sophia stammered.

“What do you mean?” Angela shouted back.

“Millennia ago, the Great Demons would host games here in Lucifel's name. Usually, captured angels were pitted against a demon who'd committed a crime against Lucifel's law, or worse, Jinn would be pitted against one another. Finally, Lucifel demanded the Arena be shut down and destroyed. No one knows why. But no one had the courage to say no to her, and it was slowly, piece by piece, dismantled. Or so most demons thought.” Sophia took in a shaky breath. “Python must have either had it rebuilt or salvaged enough to commission repairs for what remained. I'd guess that now only demons of his choosing have any idea it exists. And I imagine that he makes them keep the secret on pain of death.”

“How would he know if they talked about it?” Angela said. Dizziness began to overtake her as the winged Kirin turned in panicked circles.

“He has ways,” Sophia said. “You of all people should know that by now.”

A sudden breeze whipped out of nowhere, throwing up Angela's hair like a blood-red curtain.

Suddenly, most of the demons stood and looked directly at her, cheering wildly.

“They know it's you,” Sophia said with horror.

Angela scanned the crowds, at last focusing on a great balcony where most of the pennants fluttered. Python was there, sitting on an enormous chair. Somehow, the Eye's gaze tightened the space between them so that Angela could examine every last detail. He wore an extravagant coat of
black velvet and purple thread, and blood-red gems glittered against his brow. He'd been looking down at a mirror held between his hands. Now he set it aside and leaned forward, staring back at her. His snake's gaze lingered on Angela's.