That in mind, I swallowed around the lump of fear in my throat — a fear I molded into a useable anger — and broke from his grip, flying right into the maw of the demon stronghold.
Though the demons reigned in Mount Malinta on my homeworld of Malern, to affect Tanselm the way they had, they would have had to move closer.
Orfel, situated in the Between, was an ingenious hideaway. A crossroads for those moving from magic to the mundane, or from Light to Dark, Orfel provided the perfect sanctuary for a Dark Lord bent on domination. Or a demon world wanting to control life itself.
Chapter 34
Lexa
Standing at the edge of the cavernous room, I absorbed the familiar laughter and cries of delight from the glowing beasts lurching in the hideaway. Bloody bodies covered the floor. Many of the demons continued to feed on human entrails, disregarding my presence.
They showed no preference for Light or Dark as they devoured Light Bringers and their own allies: wraiths, Nocumat, and the occasional Djinn as well. Evil and pain saturated the Darkness of the place until I felt so full of destructive energy I wanted to vomit.
Darkness was a source of power, but this malignance corrupted everything it touched. If the stench of death and rot weren’t enough to sour my stomach and soul, the sight of the demon’s bridge did the trick.
To my right, a writhing, living ladder nearly twelve feet wide rose from the floor several stories high into a glowing, greenish-blue ball of energy hanging from the ceiling like a demonic disco ball. I wanted to laugh hysterically at the analogy but couldn’t see anything that could describe the unnatural sight better.
Nearly three times my size, the ball of light flickered as it rotated, illuminating everything with a hazardous, sickly green glow.
Demons feasted on flesh and writhed with ecstasy as they raped the living sexually and spiritually. They lay over one another by the hundreds. Small of stature, most demons stood no more than three or four feet in height, their wiry bodies always hungry, always thirsting as if to fill up that emptiness that made them so disagreeable.
But it was the sight of so many innocents that made me bleed inside. The Netharat I could handle being tormented. To my shock, I saw several Light Bringers and fallen Djinn, Ethim’s men who had died in previous battles, now weaved helplessly into the living ladder as the demons feasted on their eternal suffering.
And there, toward that bright ball of light, Remir screamed in agony as the demons leeched off him, filled with his energy for as long as they let his soul survive. Though demons relished appeasement, they craved despair even more. They would allow Remir to hold on to his life long enough to drive him insane with pain.
I glanced at Sava, wishing he’d tell me this was just an illusion. Instead, he chanted in demonic tongues, laughing at the antics of his demon kin — rather, the kin of those possessing him.
I fucking knew I’d recognized that stone from somewhere, the one he’d swallowed. It allowed him to shield himself from other entities while coexisting inside the same physical form.
Damn you, Sava. This wasn’t the plan.
He shoved me hard, away from him. And I fell into the living ladder as he leapt straight up into the air, shooting into the greenish-blue ball of light with so much force that he nearly caused the living steps to fold in on themselves.
Hurrying to disentangle myself from the filth under me, I ignored the sucking sounds and slippery, giving tissue under my hands as I fought to regain my feet. Except I would need to use the ladder to reach the demon bridge.
By the Dark, I hated this cesspool of misery.
“We’ve been waiting.”
I recognized the demon closest to me and forced myself not to shudder.
The creature stared and licked its lips in hunger. “Come to fulfill the bargain?”
“No.” I couldn’t help noticing what it was eating, a fallen Sarqua Djinn who’d served under Ethim. With a furious wave of my hand, I set the Djinn at peace.
The demon cried out in anger, having been robbed of its meal, but soon turned to another dying soul pleading for help. This one a broken wraith. As the demon began sucking on the wraith’s bones, I forced myself not to feel what was under my hands and hurried up the ladder to reach the bridge.
I climbed higher. None of the demons in the ladder seemed to care about me, at least not yet, so I moved as fast as my limbs would carry me.
When I reached Remir, a surge of pity swelled. Tears streamed down his ethereal face though he made no sound. The golden tint of his form showed that he wasn’t beyond saving, not yet. Remembrances of how much he’d once helped me urged me to return the favor.
I asked in a low voice, “Is that the way to the bridge?” I pointed toward the light where Sava had disappeared.
Remir nodded.
I forced my energy between the demons holding him to the ladder and killed as many as I could. Their screeching hurt my ears, and I knew I’d need to move before someone figured out their misery, though welcome in this place, should not have come from me.
Once freed, Remir motioned for me to follow him up the ladder.
