Armageddon (Angelbound) (18 page)

I press my palms onto my eyes, trying to force a plan out of my skull. My thoughts keep returning to one image: the eel Furor. Get that prisoner some water and she could cause serious damage, creating a diversion that would allow us to take Nefer. On the floor below, the Insectus Commander starts rounding up prisoners. Unlike the other demons, the Commander’s exoskeleton is all-black.

“Gather in the center, you lot!” he cries.

The eight prisoners move to stand in the center of the room, which I now notice has grillwork as a floor.

The Commander points to the Furor. “Not you!”

A trio of guards drags the Furor toward the wall. She struggles against their grasp. “This is Class 1 Solitary!” She cries. “You’re not allowed to torture me like this.”

“And you’re not allowed to attempt to escape,” says one of the nearby guards. “The Commander has ordered this punishment for you. Be thankful you weren’t sent to the torture pits.”

Once the Furor is restrained, another Insectus pulls on a wall-lever. A series of plastic pipes snake down from the ceiling, pointing toward the group of prisoners at different angles. The Insectus flips another lever and water blasts at the inmates.

The Furor shrieks in pain and want. Her skin is dry and scaly; she clearly craves water. However, giving her any will only recharge her strength. The guards can’t let that happen; no one wants an angry dragon on their hands. Still, making her stand so close to the water she so desperately needs is cruel.

“Now’s our chance,” I whisper. “You have plenty of water left in your pack, right?”

Lincoln’s eyes grow large with realization. “On it.” He rushes to the far wall of the prison, right above where the Furor is held. His movements are a blur as he pulls his water jug out from his pack, uncaps the top, and pours the contents through a gap in the pipes. The steam is directed right for the Furor.

The moment the first drops of water strike the Furor, she changes. Her muscles instantly plump; her skin takes on a glittering hue. The dragon prisoner leans back, her mouth open, and guzzles water in fast gulps.

The guards quickly notice. “There’s a break in a pipe,” cries one.

Another yanks the Furor away. “Let’s get her back to her cell.” His antennae-fingers bite into her arms. “Move it, you!”

But the Insectus are already too late.

The Furor’s body hisses and crackles as she transforms from a slender woman into a full-grown dragon the size of a pick-up truck. Her long tail whips around her, crushing Insectus demons with every swipe.

Lincoln ignites his baculum into a long-sword and hacks away at the pipes beneath us. “We have to get down there and grab Nefer.” He quickly creates a gap to the floor below. “You first, Myla.”

I secure Kiya onto my shoulder and leap down through the fresh hole in the pipeworks, landing on back of an unsuspecting Insectus demon. The creature’s body crumbles beneath me into a pile of exoskeleton and green goo. Lincoln lands beside me.

An ear-splitting alarm sounds in the air. More Insectus demons pour in through the main doorway to the prison block. I scan the sea of bodies, looking for Nefer.

Where is she?

A wall of Insectus guards close in on Lincoln and me. We both ignite our baculum and go to town, cutting them down as fast as they approach. They aren’t necessarily hard to kill, but there are so many of them! Soon, my muscles ache with effort.

The Furor smashes more of the Insectus as well, but they swarm all over her body, chattering angrily and slashing at her with their sharp antennae claws. Fortunately, those don’t make of a dent in dragon hide.

I look up at the network of tubes above our heads. “I hope she knows which one of those leads to water.” Beside me, a pair of Insectus slash at Lincoln’s pack, tearing it to ribbons.

Man, that’s a bummer. We could have used that pack.

Lincoln decapitates another Insectus with a swipe of his sword. “And if she does find the water pipe?”

I impale another demon and toss it aside. “Then, things are going to get nasty. In a good way.”

With a great roar, the Furor dragon leaps up onto her hind legs, her scaly body shimmering with power. Insectus demons tumble off her as the Furor grabs one of the larger ceiling-tubes with her claw-hands. Yanking down the tube with all her strength, she pulls the entire pipe out and tosses it aside.

A low rumble sounds. The floor begins to shimmy and buck.

I slice another Insectus in half, and then look up to the hole in the ceiling where the pipe once was.

Lincoln smiles. “I think she knows which one leads to water.”

Liquid blasts out of the ceiling. A familiar tang fills the air. Clean water. Leaning back, the Furor dragon sucks in more gulps of water. With each passing second, her muscles grow even stronger, her body larger. Her eyes glimmer with green light, the pupils thinning into reptilian slits.

She’s in full dragon mode now.

The Furor lets out a high-pitched howl and slams her tail into the wall where the room’s sole exit door can be found. The cement crumbles in on itself, turning the only escape route into a blocked pile of rubble.

Lowering her head, the Furor opens her jaws, releasing long bolts of electricity that blast forward, burning out anything in its path. Dozens of Insectus demons fall over, dead.

I watch the electric arcs in awe. I heard that eel dragons could kill their prey with a charge like their earthly counterparts, but I’d never seen it in action. It’s terrifying and beautiful, all at once.

The Furor twists her head from side to side, sending long arcs of electricity around the room, killing every demon in her way.

Once every last Insectus is dead, the Furor retakes her human form. She stands before us, once again a willowy figure with greenish-blue hair, eyes and tail. “Thank you for freeing me.”

My own tail waves at her frantically. “Same here.”

The Furor jogs over to the control panel. “Let’s share the love, eh?” She tilts her head back, and scales appear along her neck and face. Opening her mouth, the Furor sends another arc of electricity into the panel of levers, which begins to smoke and crackle. She sets her now claw-like hand on the red lever and pulls it down. With a series of clicks, the other prison doors swing open. A mix of angels, humans, quasis and demons rush around the prison, yelling with elation, fear or both. They frantically search for an exit that no longer exists.

“How do you expect everyone to escape?” I ask.

“I don’t.” Still in her hybrid dragon-human form, the Furor scales the walls to the network of tubes that hang from the ceiling. “I only expect them to buy me time so I can get out.” She grips one of the larger tubes and shimmies inside, feet-first. “Not you, of course. I expect to see you again, very soon. I’m Ka and you’re?”

“I’m Myla. He’s Lincoln.”

“Goodbye, Myla and Lincoln.” With that, she crawls into the tube and disappears.

A familiar voice sounds behind us. “And now, it’s my turn to say hello.”

Spinning about, I see a smiling Nefer standing before us. Joy warms my heart. With a happy screech, Kiya scrambles across the prison floor and into Nefer’s arms. She holds him close to her chest. “I missed you too, my friend.” She turns to us and smiles. “Thank you.”

“You’re most welcome,” says Lincoln. “Especially considering you just increased the size of our fighting force.”

The grating beneath our feet begins to vibrate and groan. Alarm zooms up my spine.

Something’s about to happen.

“That’s Anubis,” explains Nefer. “He’ll send for us in a moment.”

“I almost forgot,” I say. “He’s taking us to the secret passageway and the Veil of Fire.”

Nefer nods. “Too bad his vines can’t go straight into the throne room. Still, once we pass the Veil of Fire, he can deposit us there easily.”

I smile from ear to ear. We’re talking about the throne room. We’re getting closer to Maxon. “Nefer, I can’t thank you en—”

The entire left wall of the prison implodes. Rocks and debris fly everywhere. A horde of Insectus demons charge through the fresh opening, killing hysterical inmates as they wipe across the prison block.

Nefer reaches for my baculum. “May I?”

I stare at her, dumbfounded. “Sure.”

She takes the two silver rods, one in reach hand, and ignites them as short-swords. Her huge black wings extend over her shoulders and within seconds, she’s airborne and moving with a speed and grace I’d only seen my father wield. Her body’s a blur as she dives over the oncoming Insectus demons, leveling whole groups with one great swoop. Kiya rides on her shoulder, chittering happily.

“Nefer!” I call. “What are you doing?”

“Buying you both time,” she says as she glides through the air. “And enjoying myself immensely.” She takes down another half-dozen guards with one twisting dive. “I’ll stay here and fight them off.”

I can’t deny that she’s doing an ace job of keeping the new guards near the explosion-hole, but I can’t let her fight them all alone. Lincoln hands me one of his baculum rods and ignites his remaining weapon as a short-sword. He doesn’t even need to ask me about this; we’re already of the same mind.

“Myla and I are coming over to he—”

Lincoln never finishes his sentence. At that moment, the floor explodes. Great vines burst from under our feet, wrapping Lincoln and I from head to toe. From across the prison block, Kiya and Nefer watch the slithering cords drag the pair of us into the ground. On reflex, I fight the sensation of being confined, but it’s no use. The pull of the vines is too powerful.

Thick cords wrap around my face, blinding me. Darkness surrounds me as I’m dragged deeper into Hell. As Lincoln and I disappear from the prison block, Nefer calls to us in a loud voice.

“Tell Anubis to wait for me in the secret passage by the Veil of Fire. We’ll meet you in the throne room!”

A grim voice inside me head says ‘if we ever get to the throne room.’ Honestly, we barely made it out of Nefer’s prison block alive.

# # #

The vines deposit us into a dark and snug passageway made of black stone. Anubis stands above us, holding a lit torch in his right hand. “Where is she?” he asks through panting breaths. “Where is Nefer?”

I slowly rise to my feet. “We freed her from prison, but she decided to stay behind and fight off the Insectus demons.”

Anubis’s brown eyes grow wide with shock. “Why would she do that?”

Lincoln sets his hand on Anubis’s shoulder. “To give us a chance to escape. She said she’d meet you here, in the secret passage, and then we’d all reunite in the throne room.”

Anubis slams his fist into the wall, cracking the shiny black stone into a web-pattern at the impact point. “No!”

He’s not taking it well, but I wouldn’t either, if I were him. “I’m sorry, Anubis. She just took to the air and didn’t give us any choice. We wanted to stay back and help her, but then your vines appeared.”

Anubis avoids my gaze, his mouth set into an angry line. He points down the hallway. “The Veil of Fire is that way.”

I step closer to him. “Anubis, I’m so—”

“Just go,” he says in a low voice.

Lincoln takes my hand in his. “Come with me, Myla.” He’s ignited his remaining baculum into a small torch, which casts a flickering light on the shiny stone walls.

“We’ll see you in the throne room, Anubis.”

The demigod shakes his head. When he speaks again, his voice is barely a whisper. “Just leave me.”

I don’t need to be told another time; Lincoln and I have work to do. We rush down the darkened passageway until a curtain materializes before us. Like the name indicated, the shifting fabric is made from glimmering yellow flame.

The Veil of Fire. We’ve reached it. Satisfaction winds through my chest, charging my body with hope and adrenaline.

“Do you think we’ll remember what we’re doing?” I ask. “When our personal hells start, I mean.”

“As in, will we still know it’s a test?”

“Yes. It will be easier if we know we’re in a trial.””

Lincoln exhales a long sigh. “We could, if we’re lucky.”

“But we’re never lucky, are we?”

“Not lately, that’s for certain.”

He gives my hand a squeeze. Together, we walk forward and into the shifting fabric of yellow flame.

Please, let us be lucky.

The next thing I know, I’m seated in a cramped white office on a rickety wooden chair. Lincoln sits beside me. Before us, a Mantis she-demon is perched behind a rusted metal desk. She’s tall, lanky and bright green with a tiny head, large bulbous eyes, and long bony arms with an extra set of elbows. Her black hair is pulled back into a tight bun.

“You’re late, Myla Lewis,” she says, scribbling something on a sheet of paper.

I try to understand what’s happening and fail utterly. “My personal hell is this office?”

“Obviously, and you’re tardy in the extreme.” Her mouth is teensy and has long pointed teeth.

I exhale a long breath. At least, I know this is my personal hell.

Lincoln eyes the Mantis demon carefully. “Why is there a time schedule here?”

“There is and the ‘why’ is none of your business.” She points her pen in my direction. “And for the record, this is
her
personal hell.”

“No offense, but when I thought of my personal hell, I didn’t picture you.” I can kill a Mantis demon with one hand tied behind my back.

“That’s because you’re a fool.” She adjusts the lapels on her three-piece suit. “This isn’t a torture pit. This is a test. And since the two of you were stupid enough to try to pass the Veil of Fire, it’s a test you’ll take together. He screws up and you still hit the torture pits, understood?”

I really want to poke her in the eye with that pen. “Yeah, I got it.”

The Mantis picks up a stack of papers before her and straightens them carefully. “First, you must fill out some paperwork.”

I roll my eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I never kid.” The Mantis glances down at the top sheet. “First question. Why did you wish to pass the Veil of Fire?”

My eyes flare red with demon anger. “That’s none of your damned business.”