Celestials

A loud clatter rose up around me and I started running. They knew I was there and they were going to make sure I stayed. I started running along the rocky slope. I didn’t know where it led, but mistakenly, I started running down. I could see a group of demons running toward me at the bottom of the slope. I turned to run the other way, but another group of evertos flew up and blocked my path.

If only I knew whether Willa had gotten to Tanaka, I could wake up. But I highly doubted there was enough time for Willa to get him out. So I kept running.

There wasn’t much room on the path. It was only wide enough for one person and the way the rocky walls sloped up and overhead in this part of the wall, it was too hard for someone with wings to fly in and reach me. I was relatively safe, at least for the next minute. Both groups of people were gaining on me. I could try to jump down the ledge, but I didn’t know how things worked here. Would I get hurt? Could it kill me like it could on earth?

My heart pounded as I pumped my legs, hoping something would happen. Appollyon was still on his fiery platform but his eyes steadily followed my progress. I could almost feel his joy – you know, if demons even feel joy. He was going to capture me any moment.

All around me demons clamored and clattered. The chase was exciting them. Maybe it would excite them so much, they wouldn’t capture me right away and it would buy me some time. Through the noise and the heat I saw a crack in the wall. I slowed and looked back towards it. It was an opening!

I slid my body into the narrow opening, hoping it turned into something. Otherwise, I was effectively locking myself into a rocky tomb. Not that it mattered, the demons would have reached me momentarily anyway.

The opening widened and I continued running down it. The path curved downward and I slowed up. There were no hell fires to guide my way in here. I could hear voices farther behind me. They must have found where I disappeared through. I picked up my pace trying to blindly feel ahead of me in the dark. There were several times I crashed into the rocky walls, scraping up my arms and legs. My body screamed at me to stop and it felt like I might have opened a few spots where I was tearing. Warm liquid was running down my torso and back. I could only imagine it was my blood dripping.

I ignored the pain and kept running. How was I going to know if Willa found Tanaka? When would I know if I could leave? It was running down a pitch black slope that I realized this wasn’t the best thought out plan. I only hoped Jude and Jerrick would have the good sense to know when everyone was safe and it was time to wake me up. For all my bravery with Jude, I really did hope he could get me out. I wasn’t ready to die down here or to throw the humans of the world into a celestial war. And if I was being honest with myself, if I was going to turn into a demon anyway, I’d much rather do it having sex with Jude.

The inhuman screeching of demons behind me, spurned me to pump my already sore legs harder. They were getting closer. I could see a light ahead though. I wasn’t sure if it would lead to another cavern or if I would end up right in Appollyon’s hands. I sucked in another hot, humid breath and ran toward the flickering light. It grew brighter as I approached and I prayed fervently that it didn’t lead to a room full of demons.

When I slithered through the small crack that was the opening, I found myself in another room. This one was long but the rocky ceiling was lower – probably only ten feet high. It was narrow like a hallway and had doors made of bars running the length of it on both sides. Was it possible I stumbled into the place they kept Tanaka? With the number of doors, I had to wonder how often the demons needed to keep each other in cells.

I inched along the doors trying to peer in each one. The first few were empty and the next few lead to what looked like more passageways. I was halfway down the hallway and my heart was pounding out of my chest. I could hear the demons that had been chasing me and they were closing in on this room. I had to find a place to hide or run. Suddenly, a voice scratched out my name.

“Rory?”

Startled, I peered into one of the cells. A tall, lanky figure was folded against the back wall. It was hard to make out who it was in all the shadows.

“Hello?” I returned, afraid to give too much away.

“Angel’s lightning, Rory,” Tanaka’s Japanese accented voice admonished me. “What are you doing here?”

I smiled coming closer. “Prison break.” I moved so I was pressed against the bars. Tanaka moved forward slowly, clearly hurt. “Well, I was supposed to be the diversion. Willa’s supposed to break you out.”

He faintly smiled back and clasped my hand. When Tanaka reached the light I could see he was standing at an awkward angle, all his weight on his right side. His face was bruised and bloodied. His clothes were torn and there were rings of black and blue around one eye.

“What happened?” I demanded. Tanaka just rolled his eyes or at least the non-swollen one, at me.

“You two are idiots.” His voice was raspy, like he had been screaming a lot. I wanted to believe that he was just getting a cold, but celestial beings didn’t get sick. Then Tanaka’s head lifted up. “They’re coming.”

I nodded. “I know. They’re after me. Did Willa find you?”

Tanaka shook his head and looked me over. “Get out of here.” I pulled on the door but it didn’t budge. It was locked securely, but I couldn’t even fathom how. There were no locks holding it closed. “You can’t open it unless you’re one of them.”

I looked closer at the bars. They were fairly far apart. Tanaka or even Jude wouldn’t have been able to slip through, but I just might be able to squeeze. I stuck my leg through a pair of bars. One hip slid through easily, it was moving it over my hipbones and stomach that was harder.

“What are you doing?” Tanaka asked. “You can’t come in here! They’ll find you! You’ll be trapped.” The panic in his voice was apparent.

“Then hide me. I’m not leaving without you.” I had slid through up until my breasts. Stupid girl bits were making it harder to fit through. Not for the first time in my life did I wish my chest was a little smaller.

“I can’t leave,” Tanaka told me.

I pushed my breasts around the bars, wincing at the pain. More blood leaked from the tearing on my torso. I was starting to look like something from a horror movie. Finally, though, my body squeezed through the bar and I barreled into Tanaka. And with only seconds to spare. I could hear the screeching and shuffling of the evertos that were following me.

I slid my body behind Tanaka. Turning to face me, Tanaka grabbed my hands which were slick with my own blood. I couldn’t help but get them saturated with all the blood leaking from torso and back. Tanaka stared down at my bloodied shirt and pants.

“Jude is going to kill us,” he said angrily under his breath.

“Better him than those demons out there,” I whispered back.

With purpose, Tanaka rubbed my hands all over his shirt and then pushed me into the back corner of his cell.

“Stay quiet and don’t move,” he told me in a rushed whisper. Then he leaned against the door of his cell, making sure his body blocked mine from view.

Malthus’ hulking form rounded on the cell. He was shirtless and his green Mohawk towered over Tanaka.

“Where is she?” he hissed angrily at Tanaka.

Tanaka just shook his head.

“Don’t lie to me, turncoat. I smell her blood!” Malthus’ voice echoed in the cell and I closed my eyes trying not to breathe or make a sound.

“She was here,” Tanaka answered, trying a little too hard to be laid back. He just came across as anxious. He looked down at t-shirt, now covered in my blood. “She’s bleeding and grabbed me through the bars. You smell her blood from my shirt.”

More demons joined Malthus, hissing and sniffing the air. I could tell they smelled my blood because their wings sprouted and they got more excited by the minute. I couldn’t make out distinct features, just a shadowy crowd full of wings, impatient legs, and heaving chests. This was so bad. Not only was I going to die but Tanaka was going to be in more trouble for harboring me.

“She’s not here,” Tanaka told him, this time staring into his eyes with determination. I waited holding my breath. Malthus seemed to consider his words, peering wordlessly toward the back of the cell. Any second he would discover me. I felt like Malthus was staring right at me. The crowd behind him was getting more and more excitable. I was ready to tell them I was there, just to spare Tanaka from being torn limb-from-limb by the overeager demons.

“She’s not here,” Malthus echoed listlessly. With that, he turned on his heel and strode out of the doorway in a daze. The confused minions in the crowd followed behind him. It took several minutes for them to search the other cells and continue out of the long hallway. After several silent moments, Tanaka finally turned back toward me breathing a sigh of relief.

“That was close.”

I took a tentative step towards him. “How did you do that?”

“What?” He asked innocently.

“Don’t give me that crap, Tanaka,” I argued quietly with him. “Malthus was ready to tear you and this cell apart to look for me and then suddenly he says I’m not here. You did something. He didn’t look like himself. What happened?”

Tanaka sighed and leaned against the wall near me. “I wasn’t completely truthful in Japan. I can read some regnum’s minds, but I can also influence them. It’s like…I can see their thoughts in my head as pictures. So I just reflect slightly changed pictures back into their heads.”

“Still not mine though, right?” I demanded.

Tanaka smiled lightly. “No.”

I nodded. “Good.” Then I looked up at him. “So Malthus pictured me in here?”

“Something like that. In Malthus’ head I could see a picture of you cowering in my cell. I basically erased you from that picture and put a lot of shadows in your place,” he explained.

“And I thought your personality was your only superpower,” I joked.

He smiled faintly and then frowned. “Marco?”

“Is freaking out,” I answered him. “But he still didn’t want me to come down.”

Tanaka painfully pushed off the wall in anger. “He’s right, you shouldn’t have come. You’re lucky you were here when they found you. But you need to leave.”

“No. Willa and I will get you out,” I told him.

“How, Rory? Willa hasn’t found us yet and there’s no way to open the gate. Even if I could get out of this cell, I can’t leave here.”

“Why not?” Now he was just pissing me off. I risked my life and all of earthly existence to save his sorry ass and he was being pissy about escaping. What the hell?

“There’s a lockdown going on. They knew some of you would come for me, so they locked this place down. People can come in, but they can’t get out.” Tanaka sadly leaned back against the wall. “So get out while you can.”

“How can you lock down an entire celestial plane? That seems impossible!” I wanted to rage or pace, but the truth was, I was losing a lot of blood and my body was in a lot of pain. The exertion of the run had cost me. Instead, I slid down to the cell floor exhausted.

Tanaka followed me down to the floor and laughed without humor. “Rory, you are sitting in a cell in Hell where you’ve projected yourself against all odds and you’re telling me what is impossible?”

“Okay, so my life is a series of impossible at the moment…but still. There has to be a loophole or back door out of this place – something! Willa and I are getting you out of here!”

“Damn straight!” a small voice said from outside the cell. A small, pixie-like form slid in between the bars and sat down next to Tanaka and I. “We’re just going to have to be a little more creative than usual,” Willa smiled. Then she turned to me. “How did you find him before me? You weren’t even supposed to be here!”

I shrugged and thought better of it when some of my cuts started bleeding again. I winced against the pain. “I accidentally stumbled upon the quick and secret route here.” Then I cocked my head and looked at Willa, jabbing a thumb in Tanaka’s direction. “Did you know he can manipulate thoughts?”

Willa smiled widely. “My devilish rear has been saved a number of times by Tanaka’s thought changing. It’s fantastic.”

Tanaka frowned at Willa. “You shouldn’t have come down here. We’re on lockdown and won’t get out.”

Willa nodded. “I was afraid of that.” Then she smiled. “Luckily, I came prepared.”

“Prepared?” I asked. What could she possibly bring with her to get us out of this situation?

“Angel’s lightning, Rory, I’m a witch!” Willa’s voice held a note of exasperation. When she turned to look at me her eyes went wide. “Why do you look like a victim in a horror movie? What happened?’

I shook my head, trying hard to play it cool. “Just a little tearing. It looks worse than it is. It was from running and stuff,” I muttered.

Willa looked to Tanaka. “Jude is going to kill us.”

“That’s what I said.”

I sighed, wincing at the pain lancing through my torso and back muscles. “Stop worrying about Jude. The only person he wants to kill right now is me. Now, let’s get out of here before Malthus wises up and comes back.”

Willa nodded vigorously. “Who locked you in here?”

“What?” Tanaka wanted to know.

“Who locked you in here? The only person who can get you out is the person who locked you in here,” she explained like Tanaka and I were idiots.

“How do you know that?” he asked.

Willa rolled her eyes. “I was on guard detail down here in my early Hell dweller days. So who was it?”

“Belial,” Tanaka answered. “Do you think he’ll let me out if we ask nicely?” His sarcasm wasn’t lost on us.

“What if we trade me for letting Tanaka go? Then you guys swoosh out of here and Jude wakes me up?” I suggested.

“What is it with you and wanting to trade yourself for us? The trade isn’t worth it and we can’t just ‘swoosh’ out of here anyway,” Willa told me, her annoyance ringing clear in her voice. “Besides if something happens to you while we’re down here, I don’t even want to think about facing Jude.”

I looked at her, done with any pleasantries I may have had left. “Then what is it you suggest?”

This time Willa smiled. “Magic.” She started pulling things out of the small satchel she was wearing at her waist. “You’re going to stir the potion while I find Belial.”

“Can’t you just change your appearance to look like him. Wouldn’t that work?” I asked.

Willa started to laugh. “If that were true, there would be no reason for locks. We all can change the way we look. Tanaka would have gotten himself out of here already. I need to steal some of his energy, so the lock on the door energetically thinks I am Belial. We can change our appearances, Rory, but we can’t change our energy pattern.”

Tanaka nodded along with Willa’s explanation. I, however, wasn’t satisfied. “And how does one go about stealing another person’s energy?”

“Blood will do,” Tanaka piped up.

“A tear or two when they cry,” Willa added. Then she held up a piece of crystal that was four inches long. It was the shape of rectangular box, almost like a French fry if someone had squared of the ends. However, it was made of clear yellow-brown crystal that had designs carved into it that I couldn’t make out in the dim light. “When people get angry or some other strong emotion, they release energy. This amber absorbs negative ones. Then with a spell I’ll release that and take on Belial’s energy. It won’t last long, but it should be long enough to fool the lock mechanism.”

“No,” Tanaka said. “It’s too dangerous.”

Willa sighed. “It’s perfectly safe.”

Tanaka shook his head. “Marco had a friend that could do the same thing. Antonio was a warlock and when he tried to get an angel out of danger by stealing someone’s energy…it ended badly. Antonio never recovered from the angel’s energy and went insane. He’s on constant heavenly lock down because Antonio can’t even control his own actions. He wreaked havoc across Italy. The whole Mussolini debacle was his fault.”

Willa cocked her head to the side. Putting herbs and other things I couldn’t name into a bowl. “Mussolini, really? Had no idea.”

“Mussolini’s dictatorship was an insane angel’s fault?” I asked in disbelief.

Tanaka shrugged. “Not all of it. Humans have free will, but Antonio played a part.”

I shook my head. Right now all of this was too much to absorb. “Look, we need to get you out of here. Willa’s magic will help. If I die…well, it’s going to happen soon. I’d much rather turn into a demon doing naughty things to Jude than blowing up, but if it’s going to save you Tanaka then at least it’s for a good cause.”

“I knew you had it bad for him!” Willa accused me. I just shrugged. “Let’s do this.” She handed me the bowl and pestle. “Grind this together until it’s powder.”

Tanaka turned to Willa. “If we kill Rory, Jude will kill us.”

Willa nodded. “I know and I’m not really happy about having Jude’s wrath turned towards us. But she’ll be a demon like him or like he was…so that will make things easier for him.”

Tanaka shook his head. “Nothing is easy for him now. Word has gotten around that he can move between here and the angelus. No one is going to accept him now.”

“I know.”

“Just do it, you two,” I ordered them. I was tired and bleeding a lot. If we kept arguing, I may just bleed to death down here. I started grinding the herbs with the pestle. “I came here to help save you Tanaka, no matter what happened to me. We all agreed –“

“Not really,” Willa interrupted. “You and I agreed and Jerrick said to do what you wanted. Marco and Jude were forced to agree because you locked them out of the room.”

“Angel’s lightning, he’s really going to kill us now,” Tanaka lamented.

“You really need to get over this fear of Jude thing,” I told him. “It’s getting old.” I turned to Willa. “Go get what you need from Belial and come back so we can get Tanaka the hell out of here.”

Willa giggled. When I looked at her disapprovingly she gave me a small smile. “Sorry. Get the hell out of Hell, that’s funny. I’m going.”

She slipped back through the bars and ran away like a small sprite. I kept grinding, getting more exhausted by the moment. Tanaka watched, his face etched with worry. Finally, he sighed and took the mortar and pestle from me. “You are hardly in the shape to do this.”

I shrugged, wincing at the pain. “Blood loss. I’ll be fine.” I watched him grind the herbs for a few moments. “Why are you so scared of upsetting Jude?”

Tanaka ground quietly for a few moments, trying to gather his thoughts. “I’ve known Jude for a few hundred years and he’s always been…efficient. He never got too close to anyone. Even though we have all been hunting sanguine occupant together for a long time, he wasn’t close like the rest of us. He did his work and kept to himself.”

I nodded. “When I asked him his favorite time period, he seemed confused by the question. He told me he was focused on fixing whatever horrible thing he did in the past. It was like he couldn’t see anything else.”

Tanaka gave me a half smile. “Something like that. He couldn’t see anything else. Jim and Sandy’s family were the first to break down his walls and even with them he holds back a little. With you it’s different. You broke down his walls when you were just a little kid who didn’t even know she was doing it.”

I sighed. “But he’s not open with me. He withholds things and does what he thinks is best without ever consulting me.”

Tanaka laughed lightly. “Yes. Because he’s scared. He’s so scared that he won’t be able to help you, that whatever happened in his past will happen again.”

“So I’m the project that is going to make up for all his past transgressions?” My heart sunk. Jude didn’t love me. He just thought he did because he was trying to make up for whatever haunted his past.

Tanaka stopped grinding long enough to lift my chin with his finger. His eyes held mine. “No. I think it started off that way, the way it does with every certus. But it was different this time. You were the girl he always had a soft spot for. I saw him watch you grow into the woman he loves. He was different every time he came back from checking on you.”

“What do you mean?”

“He would leave us now and again to go check on you. He never told us who you were or where you lived. Jude just told us it was a friend’s kid he was checking up on. That was strange to begin with, because as far as we knew he didn’t have any friends,” Tanaka explained. “But as you got older it was more frequently. Once you hit high school, he would check on you once a year. Then it became a few times a year. In the past four or five years, it’s been every month.”

I inched closer to Tanaka. Now we were getting somewhere. “But how was he different when he came back?”

Tanaka smiled. “First he would be especially…buoyant – at least, for Jude. Then after a few days he would be low, almost depressed. After a few weeks, he would become increasingly agitated…until finally, he would go check on you again.”

“He was worried. He knew I would be the certus.”

Tanaka rolled his eyes. “No, he didn’t. In fact, you were the least likely person to be the certus.” I knew that. Jude had told me that. But that didn’t explain why he was moody after seeing me. Tanaka must have noticed my confusion because sighed heavily. “Angel’s lightning, Rory, the man was in love with you before you ever uttered a single word to him. He would just never admit it to anyone, most of all himself.”

Involuntarily, I smiled. “But that still doesn’t explain why you’re so afraid of him?”

“If you haven’t noticed the man is loyal to a fault. He’s also hard on himself. He hasn’t forgiven himself for something that happened over a thousand years ago from what I gather. So if something happens to you, the one person he’s ever let himself love in two thousand years, he’s going to blame himself. Then he’s going to blame Willa and I. Have you heard about how ferociously a mama bear protects her cubs?”

I nodded. The grinding of the mortar and pestle the only sound in his little cell.

“Think that, times a thousand years of guilt, two thousand years of waiting for a love, and the one or two groups of people that you don’t have any faith in taking that love away.” My eyes must have widened because Tanaka nodded. “That is why we’re afraid.”

We were both quiet as he ground the herbs. The noise ricocheted in my brain. When I died, it wasn’t just going to be about me. It never was about me. It was about all the humans who would suffer in the celestial war. And now, it was about what would happen to Jude. I kept trying to convince myself that when I died, whether I became an angel or demon, I would be myself. I would keep on loving Jude and we would be together. The frightening truth was, I had no idea what was going to happen. Jude was right to be scared. I might turn into the very thing he hated, the very thing that would spur on a war at humans’ expenses.

I looked at Tanaka. “You’re going to get out of here,” I told him solemnly.

“Right,” he agreed warily.

“You have to because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.” I took a deep breath and started to explain. “Even if I survive this, I’m going to die at some point and I don’t know what’s going to happen to me or what I’ll be like and I need you and Marco, Willa, and Jerrick to do me a favor and make sure that Jude is okay and the only way that I can think will help that is if he goes to be with Sandy and Jim for a while because whether he realizes it or not, he needs them and they help center him, so you have to promise me that you will make sure he gets there and that he knows that none of this is his fault and that all of this was my own decision and that I feel really, really heavy things about him which he’ll understand because he knows that I’m just saying it because I can’t say the other thing. Okay?” I was on the verge of tears thinking about Jude being miserable.

Tanaka put a hand on my shoulder in comfort. “Unfortunately, I understood every word of what you just said. We’ll take care of him, Rory, and so will Sandy and Jim. He’ll be okay. And hey, maybe we won’t need it. Maybe once we get out of here, he will have a great plan cooked up.” Tanaka smiled sadly at me.

I made a half-hearted attempt at a laugh. “Sure. That is after he’s done killing me himself.”

Tanaka shrugged. “Maybe he’ll think the best way to kill you is to have sex. It would do the same thing and be a lot more fun.”

I giggled at Tanaka. “Thanks. For everything.”

“Did I hear someone mention sex?” Willa asked as she slid deftly between the bars. “Because you better not be having it without me!” She stood proudly before us and winked.

Tanaka rolled his eyes. “As if I would have sex with either of you. Disgusting. No offense.”

“Since you don’t play for our team, I’m not offended at all,” Willa retorted. Then she pulled the crystal out of her pocket. It was pulsing red. “I have Belial’s energy. But we have to hurry because I supremely pissed him off to get it and he’s after me.”

Tanaka and I nodded, standing up, ready for action. Willa brought the crystal over to Tanaka’s bowl. She proceeded to take the crushed herbs and scoop them up in her hands. Then she rubbed the mixture around both palms. When they were both coated and she still had a small mound left in her right hand, she tapped the crystal on it three times. The pulsing red oozed from the crystal onto the mound of herbs.

“Put this in the bag around your neck that has the protection herbs in it,” she instructed, handing me the crystal. I did as Willa told me, as she rubbed her hands again. The pulsing red spread around her palms and mixed in with the herbs. Then she took the extra mound in her right hand, brought it to her mouth, and swallowed it. She bent over and started coughing. I went to help her out but Tanaka stopped me with his hand.

“Don’t get too close,” he whispered. “We don’t know what she’ll be like.”

I nodded but it didn’t make sense. I thought this would just change her energy, not anything about her.

Just at that moment Willa stood up. Her brown eyes became wide and dilated. They turned a murky green color and her face widened a bit, her jaw becoming squared off. Her hands grew large and manly, looking like enormous paws on an underdeveloped puppy. Willa’s dark pixie cut grew a few inches and the tips lightened to blond. The strands floated in mid-air as if unsure whether they would remain permanently on her head. She shook her head and looked at both of us.

“Let’s do this,” Willa said, her voice that of a boy going through puberty. It was sometimes deep and sometimes high and sometimes squeaked. She took a tendril of my hair and played with it longingly between her fingers. I looked to Tanaka.

He nodded at me, trying to reassure me with his eyes, but I could see he was worried.

Willa traced her palms from floor-to-ceiling on the outside of the metal bar door and then back down from ceiling-to-floor on the other side of the door. She then held both her hands over the center of the door. Tanaka and I held our breath, hoping this worked.

With a metallic click, the bar in the center of the door split. The two pieces separated as if pulled by an unseen force and opened the two halves of the door outward. Willa cocked her head at us to follow her.

“Nice job, Willa,” Tanaka complimented her.

Willa just grunted and moved slowly out of the door, looking suspiciously around.

“What do we do now? You two can’t get out of here,” I whispered to Tanaka. Then I lowered my voice even further. “And Willa is acting strange.”

“It’s having Belial’s energy in her. It’s changed her body and her personality a bit. Once we get it out of her, she’ll be fine,” Tanaka assured me.

“And how do we do that?” I asked.

Tanaka sighed. “I thought it would disperse after she opened the lock.” He looked at me pointedly; his message of worry reading loud and clear. “I’m not sure what to do after that.”

“One problem at a time,” I told him. “Let’s get out of here.”

We followed Willa down the hallway that housed the other prison cells. Her small, usually lithe body, skirted awkwardly down a small cavern to our right. We continued to follow her hoping Willa knew what she was doing and it wasn’t Belial’s energy leading us to our demise. At this point, I had no idea who was controlling the show.

Willa kept on moving swiftly, but awkwardly from one pathway to the next. They were all dark, with very little firelight from outside sources lighting the way. I stumbled behind her, Tanaka keeping a hand on my elbow to keep me from falling. My body was already abused, I was thankful he kept it from getting worse.

Suddenly, Willa stopped and I crashed into her back.

“Satan’s light,” Willa hissed at me, mixing up her phrases. “Relax. We’ll get you…out of here.” I didn’t like the way she paused in the middle of her sentence. It was like Belial’s energy was fighting her.

“Willa, what’s going on?” Tanaka demanded. I could tell he didn’t like the way Willa was acting any better than I did.

“I’m getting us out of here,” she answered through tightly grit teeth. Willa peered out of an opening in the wall. Behind her, I could see roaring fire where Appollyon usually held court. She had led us right to them! When Willa turned around again, she grazed a finger down my cheek and I swear that greedy look was back in her eye.

“We’re in trouble,” I hissed to Tanaka, nodding toward the fiery cavern.

“Trust me,” Willa said, fighting internally again to get words out. Her eyes swam with murkiness and I couldn’t tell what was happening with her emotions.

“They’re going to find us here, Will,” Tanaka told her.

She sighed. “I know.” For a moment, her voice sounded almost gleeful. Then she coughed and looked at us. “It’s the only way out. Only the chosen can leave and all others will be properly punished.” She didn’t look all that upset at handing us over. In fact, I felt like she was salivating over it.

“Tanaka,” I hissed apprehensively at him.

“There’s nothing else we can do,” he told me. Then he gently took my face between his hands. “Now would be a good time for Jude to wake you up.”

I nodded. Not that I actually knew how to get that message to him. I started thinking ‘Wake up’ to myself. “What about you and Willa?”

“She has a plan,” he told me.

I swallowed. “Can you trust her?”

Tanaka nodded. “I have to.”

“Okay.”

“We’ll be fine,” Willa told us, the struggle in her voice worse this time. Then she grabbed Tanaka’s hand. “On three we run toward the fire.”

“WHAT?” I asked. “That’s demon suicide. They’ll kill both of you! Or whatever happens when you sort of die!”

“Stop being dramatic little one!” She yelled at me. Then Willa coughed again and straightened up. “I know what I’m doing.”

“You need to wake up,” Tanaka told me hurriedly.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up,” I chanted, keeping my eye on Willa and Tanaka.

“One,” Willa said.

“Wake up, wake up, wakeup,” I whispered.

“Two.”

“C’mon, Jude. Wake me up. Wake me up. Wakeup, wakeup, wakeupme.”

“Three!”

“Wakeup wakeup wakeup wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup!” I chanted louder as my two friends ran toward the burning inferno in the middle of the room.

Suddenly, the whole cavern erupted into shouts and shrieks. Winged figures rushed toward Willa and Tanaka. I lost sight of them in the mass of people.

“Wake up,” I chanted again, my breath hitching. What happened to them? Did they make it? Would I make it?

Suddenly, a hand grabbed me from behind. I felt something stab into the tearing at my back and sadistic laugh met my ears. I curled over myself, the pain too much. This was it. I turned to see my attacker.

Appollyon held me with his massive hand. I stared at his hulking form in horror. He knew where we were all along and was just playing with us. Appollyon laughed again, the sound grating against my ears.

“You are finally mine,” he roared, sounding a little bit too much like an evil villain for my liking.

“I’ll never be yours,” I squeezed out. But we both knew the truth. I was dying. I could feel my life seeping out of my body. My heart might belong to Jude now, but I was going to belong to the demons at any moment. “Jude,” I mumbled.

Appollyon had the nerve to laugh. “He can’t help you.”

My vision started blurring and I started falling. My wrist crashed into the hard ground, but it did nothing to break my fall.

“Jude,” I muttered again. My voice was barely audible. Stars appeared in my vision and the edges started darkening. The next time I opened my eyes, I would be a demon. I wanted to yell or scream or run – something to express the terror and rage that filled me at the thought. But the only thing my body could muster was another faint, “Jude,” before my vision went dark.