Magic - Chapter 60
There was only one person who I knew had hired the Firestarter before, and I’d sworn the next time I saw that smarmy rat, I’d kill him.
This is the second book in The Godsverse Chronicles, a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.
Ollie wasn't looking for trouble, but after she saved the Antichrist from being slaughtered, it came for her.
Ollie lived by one rule. Never get involved with anyone for any reason; humans, demons, fae folk, it didn't matter. They were all trouble. Keeping her distance was how she survived in the criminal underworld for so long.
Keep your head down and don't piss anyone off. That was her motto, especially since her clients all had access to powerful dark magic.
She thought she had a flawless system for keeping her nose clean, so how did she wind up in a stolen car, with a demon spawn in her back seat, driving away from her ex-lover and a gang of demons ready to skin her alive?
That's a good question.
And why did she agree to help save the demon's life so she didn't get sacrificed to open the gates of Hell?
An even better question.
She had one rule. One stupid rule. And tonight...it goes right down the toilet.
Now, the only way for Ollie to get her life back is to save the girl, prevent the Apocalypse, and track down the people who betrayed her.
They will pay. Oh yes, they will all pay.
We were lost, and no closer to getting out of the god-forsaken ant farm that was the confusing labyrinth of tunnels and corridors deep underneath the pit annexes.
“Everywhere looks the same!” I screamed, popping out of a corridor inside another pit that spewed the same disgusting black smog into the air. “I have no idea where we are.”
“Four hundred this time, though,” Blezor said, looking at the numbers above the cell. He was right. Somehow, we had made our way from the 600s in the original pit to the 400s in this new one, which was something, though there was still a long way to go if we wanted to escape.
I looked down at the demons climbing the ramp below. By this point, every demon in Hell knew we had broken out of our cell and were on the lookout for us. I turned to the cell nearest us and grabbed the key ring. I opened the cell and pushed Blezor and Aimee inside before locking the door behind me.
“Everybody, look pathetic,” I said.
“Done and done,” Aimee said, sliding to the ground next to me. I heard the clatter of demons outside the cell. They stopped for a moment before grumbling to themselves and moving on.
“Who are you?” a voice said from the cot in the back of the cell. The sheet moved, and an ancient demon emerged. He had long, brittle white hair and was shaking. “New roommates?”
“Quiet,” I hissed, watching the demons through the bars.
“Hrm,” the demon said. “No, not new roommates. Prisoners?”
“Please be quiet, old man,” Aimee grumbled. “I didn’t even know demons could get old.”
He smacked his lips. “Usually, they can’t, but this is my punishment for defying Et’atal. There is not much we fear but losing our faculties—that is a fear across all sentient beings, I think, even demons.”
“Wait,” I said, absorbing the old demon’s words. “Did you say you defied Et’atal?”
He nodded. “Screw that guy. He doesn’t own me or Hell, no matter what he would try to have you believe. I am loyal to the true ruler of Hell.”
“Lucifer,” Blezor said.
“Oh, you’re sweet. No, Velaska.”
“What’s a Velaska?” Aimee asked.
“She was beautiful, magnanimous, and would never have let any of this unpleasantness happen.” He smacked his lips again. “No, no. I will never worship Et’atal—or his father—and I certainly don’t approve of these annex pits. Complete travesty, and poorly constructed. Of course, maybe I shouldn’t belittle my own design.”
“You designed this pit?” Blezor asked.
“I did. I mean, it wasn’t all my design—kind of design by committee, but I was on the committee, for sure.”
I said, moving toward him, “Do you know how to escape this pit, then?”
He pointed to the ceiling. “By going up, of course.”
I looked outside again. Another pair of demons walked past. “That’s not an option. We were told there was a back entrance. Somewhere that led back to the plains of Hell. Do you know of it?”
“Of course I know of it. How do you think we bring in supplies, carrying them down a million flights? Don’t be stupid. You just have to turn out of here and go left, left, left, straight, straight, right, left, left, right, left, straight, left, right...or was that right left straight? I would know it if I saw it.” He tapped his forehead. “The old noggin ain’t what it used to be.”
“If we helped you escape, could you find your way out of this place the back way?”
He nodded. “I thought you would never ask.” He pushed himself to stand on rickety legs, wobbling as he moved to the door. “These old bones.”
“Jesus Christ, this is going to take forever,” Blezor said.
“Would you carry him, please?” I asked.
“I’m not an invalid!”
“You actually are,” Aimee touched his shin lightly with her foot, and he collapsed against the wall. “See?”
“All right.” He grabbed onto Blezor’s back. “I suppose I am an invalid. I used to be the greatest demon in Hell, and now…and now I’m nothing—”
I opened the cell door. “I’ll listen to all your prattle if you get us out of here, but first, let’s get out of here.”
“You got it, missy. First, turn left, and then another left.” I led them out of the cell when the coast was clear, and we ducked inside the corridor again. “This is the better way to go, after all, since demons don’t use the corridors much.”
“Why?” Blezor asked.
“They’re mostly for moving supplies from one place to another, which is one job demons won’t do. Imps, sure. Monsters, of course, but not demons. They think menial labor is beneath them. They were built for torture, and that’s the only job they’ll accept.” He sighed. “I was like them, once.”
“Not anymore?” Aimee asked.
“Monsters and imps have been kind to me. They’ve brought me food and talked to me when I was convalescing. Demons abandoned me. I am nothing but a worm to them, unworthy of a second thought. Turn right.”
We turned the corner and came face to face with a penitent ogre. She was kind-faced, for a monster, and she looked at the demon with wide eyes.
“Shi’lo,” she said. “You are out of your cell. Does that mean—”
“I’m breaking free, gorgeous,” he said. “You won’t tell on an old demon, will you?”
She shook her head. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Thank you, doll face.” Shi’lo smiled at her as we walked past. When we were free, he turned to me. “See, a demon would have ripped us apart. I was such a fool.”
I let Shi’lo take the lead since he was the one who knew the way. Every time we passed someone in the hall, he greeted them like an old friend, and they waved us by, content to keep his secret.
“How long have you been in here?” Aimee eventually asked.
“I don’t know. I was a lord of Hell until I spoke ill of Et’atal. They moved me here then, and I’ve been here since. First, they forced me to help construct these same corridors that I designed, and then, when they were done, I was brought to the cell to rot.”
“Is that where you met all of these people?” I asked.
“Yes,” Shi’lo said. “We worked the land together and built a bond. They took pity on me since I was left here.”
When we turned down the next hallway, light blinded me. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but I was sure it was a way out. I ran forward, and as I neared the end of the tunnel, a shadow overcame the light.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” a demon growled. Two more demons rushed toward us.
“Run!” I shouted, turning in the other direction. A half dozen guards entered the hallway. “Not good.”
“Let me down!” Shi’lo shouted from Blezor’s back. “I’ll take them all on.”
“Ummm…I appreciate your enthusiasm but—”
“You don’t understand. I’ve been gaining strength since we left the cell. Let me down!”
Blezor knelt, and Shi’lo hopped off his back. His knees were less wobbly than before, though he still looked quite pathetic.
“Bonzai!” Shi’lo said, rushing toward the demons. Before he reached them, he leaped into the air at the top of the hallway and smashed into it with full speed, only to be bounced back to Blezor, who caught him in his arms. “Well, you get the point. Smash the walls so they crumble!”
“Okay!” Blezor said.
He slammed his hands against the edges of the hallway so hard that they started to quake and shudder around us. He spun with Shi’lo and rushed toward us as the corridor collapsed, separating us from the demons.
“Great idea,” I said. “Got anything left for these demons blocking the exit?”
Shi’lo held out his hands and grabbed dirt from the edges of the wall. “Duck and close your eyes!” He blew the dirt into the eyes of the demons. They swiped, blinded, as we slid under them to the other side of the cavern. When we were past them, Blezor destroyed the corridor, and they collapsed under its weight.
“That was fun!” Shi’lo said. “What’s next?”
“What’s next is you get to go back to whatever you want to do, and we go on without you.”
“I don’t like that story,” he said. “Come on, I can be helpful to you! Let me come with you.”
“You can’t even stand!” I said. “How can you be helpful?”
“Hello!” Shi’lo said, pointing to the cavern. “You never would have gotten out of there without me. I know this place better than you.”
“He’s got a point,” Aimee said. “We need a guide.”
“What about Igor and the others?” Blezor asked.
“We barely got out of there with our lives,” Aimee said. “They’re on their own for the time being. We have to look out for ourselves, and the mission, I guess, too.”
“Fine,” I said. “How do we get to Et’atal’s castle?”
Shi’lo smiled. “Oh, I know that place well. It used to be mine, you know.”
“Right, because you were a duke or something?” Blezor asked.
“Oh no, nothing like that, just a lord of Hell, with a little plot of land. When I refused to bend the knee to Et’atal, all of that was taken from me.”
“He took something from me, too, and I aim to get it back,” I said.
This is the second book in The Godsverse Chronicles, a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.