34. Lexa

Chapter 34

Lexa

S tanding 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.

"Remir?"

This way, he mouthed, his ability to speak apparently gone.

I didn't want to go with the Darkling who had collaborated with Sin Garu, but knowing what I did of my brother, I could well believe the Djinn had been ensorcelled. The Remir I remembered had been loyal to a fault, in love with me — a woman who had, at the time, no love to give anyone.

Pity filled me once more, and I angrily blamed Arim again for allowing me to feel when numbness right now would have been most welcome.

Not having anywhere else to go but up, I followed Remir into the ball of light and flew with him through a void into Mount Malinta.

Once in the demon world, we stopped on a craggy black rock and looked down into hell.

"I'm so sorry," Remir said in a husky voice. "I was powerless to refuse the Dark Lord. And now I pay the price."

I wished I could have predicted his future and saved him from his downfall. "I should have protected you."

"You couldn't have." Remir's once dark brown eyes were now a shimmery blue-green and full of regret. "I joined Sin Garu, thinking he was you. I could never deny you anything."

I remembered a time back in Foreia when I'd been trying to amass the Djinn and deal with unruly Storm Lords. I'd seen my image on a treetop — an image I now knew to be Sin Garu. But I hadn't been sure it had been Remir with my likeness. I could only imagine the horrors the poor Djinn had suffered, and all because he'd loved me.

"I know where they keep your soul, Dark Mistress. Let me help you retrieve it. Here, in this plane, I've the strength to aid you as I couldn't in life. Allow me this gift."

I blinked back angry tears and nodded, not knowing what to say. I followed him, flying in a weightless body no more substantial than air. Here, in the demon plane, energy existed in thought, not physical presence. I could only hope I'd soon escape back via the bridge.

The last time I'd left, only hatred for the place and a love for Arim had given me the strength to leave. After suffering that toll on my energy, I didn't think I had the power to do so again under my own steam.

Perhaps with my soul intact, I could manage it. I had no other choice, really. Not with Sava working so hard to distract the demons for me.

Remir led me to a section of Mount Malinta guarded by three towering demons. These three were red and tall, shaped like men but with horns protruding from various parts of their bodies. The differences in their size and color presumably meant they guarded demonic treasures — souls.

Crouched behind slabs of sharp rock, Remir and I watched the demons pacing below in the dark crater that surrounded green bars of sickly light.

"It's in there, with the other souls they've stolen." The intensity with which Remir stared made me wonder.

"Do they have a piece of you as well?"

"Yes. A large piece," he said with a scowl before smoothing his expression. "I'll divert their attention while you hurry in and take back what's yours. You'll have to be quick —"

Sava's sudden appearance by the demons startled us into silence. That Sava didn't look well was a gross understatement. Dark matter covered the once pristine Aellein king, his hair tangled and matted, his skin blistered and oozing. But his eyes scared me the most. The Sava I knew didn't exist in that gaze.

He approached the red demons without glancing at our hiding place, yet I knew he was aware of us.

"Lord Sava?" Remir whispered, a frown on his face. "What's he doing here?"

"Come brothers. It's been a while, and I want to play." Sava winked at the demons and flicked a finger at one of them.

The creature blew up, energy exploding into a tightly confined field, a blast of filth hanging suspended over the other two demons.

"What have you done?" one of them screeched.

"I'm hungry, Feor." Sava grinned, his teeth alarmingly like Sin Garu's. He opened his mouth and inhaled the suspended energy of the dead demon in one long drag, as if sucking through a straw.

Feor snarled and left his post. "You'll pay for that, white one."

"Feor," the other demon said. "We must guard the treasures."

"Come, Vrak. This one needs a reminder about life in the Pit." Feor tilted his head. "Sava, you've changed. Why, are those Monitors inside your eyes?" Feor chortled with glee. "Possessed are you?"

Damn. Even the demons can tell Sava isn't right. Why did he allow himself to become possessed? Does he really expect me to save myself at his expense? He's as dim-witted as Arim. I fumed as I compared the two males, neither of which came out favorably. I glanced at Remir and realized I was surrounded by people who sacrificed themselves for me. And I didn't like it one bit.

"Come on," I snarled at Remir as soon as Vrak joined Feor out of sight. We quickly floated down the rocky slope and stared at the barred cage. Not sure how to open it, I reached for the nearest bar, only to have Remir grab my hand.

"It hurts. Let me."

Fine. You do it. Then I'll save your ass too. No more sacrifices for me.

I felt less and less worthy of so much forfeit. I didn't like being in anyone's debt. Especially not when I already felt horrible that I hadn't been there when Remir needed me most.