The crow demon blinked. He did so by sliding a whitish membrane horizontally across his eyeball. She suppressed a shudder.
“Okay. Here I go.”
She climbed onto the low windowsill, pushing down all thoughts about the insanity of this, and then leapt into space. She plummeted for only a second before she felt sharp talons closing around her torso.
Accustomed to flight, she once again managed to contain her scream, but it was perilously close to slipping out. Especially because they fell another couple seconds before he adjusted her in his claws, tucking her against his feathered body, and pumped his powerful wings—four wings!—to gain altitude.
And then they were flying.
And it was…wonderful.
She knew Raum’s demon form was unique to him, and therefore recognizable. If someone spent too long studying the sky, they might realize who it was flying up there. And god forbid they run into another flying demon.
But instead of worrying about that, after ensuring she was hidden beneath her cloak, she relaxed into his hold and turned her face up to study him.
He was quite impressive in this form. Magnificent, really. His feathers were sleek and shiny, outrageously soft against her. The way his head swiveled as he flew, scanning the ground beneath them, was even more majestic than the powerful birds of prey on Earth.
Skirting around the edge of the battle grounds, he flew them toward the sharp-tipped mountain range that bordered the territory. From there, he maintained a higher elevation and followed the rocky landscape.
They flew for hours. The air was hot and musty, but this high up and traveling at this speed, the wind made it cold. The red sky wasn’t bright, but somehow, it provided ample light to navigate by.
Another angel might have found it humiliating to be carried by a winged creature when they could fly themselves, but Sunshine didn’t mind. She had nothing to prove, and her desire to avoid detection in Hell was far greater than her need for independence. She would do almost anything to avoid a repeat of her past.
Eventually, Raum banked right, and they left the mountains behind, following the twisting path of a blood-red river as it wound through rocky foothills. Foothills that were scattered with bone fragments as numerous as rocks.How lovely.
They continued on for a while until, in the distance, the tips of tall towers became visible.
“Is that…?” she called into the rushing wind.
Raum’s great bird head nodded.
She peered into the gloom, trying to see the structure better. The castle was black stone and so lifeless, it seemed to suck what little color there was into its perpetual gloom. The towers leaned every which way and seemed to ooze misery and despair.
The tops were so sharp, they were like spears, and indeed, as they approached, she could just distinguish shapes stacked along them, and she realized they were demons impaled through their midsections, left to rot in the sky. They wouldn’t die like that either, which was somehow worse.
Just as she began to get chills from the foreboding surrounding the lair like a fog, Raum banked sharply and steered them back toward the foothills and the blood-red river.
They flew a short ways before he took a sharp dive, and she braced herself for impact, closing her eyes instinctively, so she missed where exactly they landed.
He released one foot from around her in preparation, and his great feathered body made a softwhumpas it landed, but she wasn’t jostled much. She opened her eyes as he set her down, and they widened in surprise.
They stood on the edge of a rocky incline outside a small dwelling built into the side of the mountain, like a wall covering the mouth of a cave. Scrambling to her feet, she looked down and saw the red river running below, bordered by barren trees with banks of white stones. She had a feeling those stones were actually bones, polished smooth by erosion.
Besides that, the view was…nice.
If not for the fact that they were in Hell and everything in their scenery reminded her of that, she might have enjoyed herself. It was quite chilling and a little bit terrible, but compared to that castle, it was quaint and homey.
“What is this place?” she asked the giant feathered demon beside her.
He shifted back to human form in a graceful motion, wings folding and vanishing, feathers disappearing, limbs morphing back to human shape.
She was momentarily transfixed by the sight and forgot what she’d asked until he said, “Somewhere to stash loot.”
She blinked in question.
Being Raum, he offered no further explanation, turning and heading over to the front door of the cave house. It was rounded at the top and reinforced with spiked flat bars of steel. Similar bars were placed over the two windows on either side of the door.
A ward was painted on the wood in what she assumed was old blood, darkened to a near black with time. The magic would have prevented it from disintegration.
