As Darkness Falls by Riley Storm
Chapter Forty-Three
“Fred,” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth as the situation escalated far too rapidly for my comfort. “If you’re as fast as it sounds, then you know what you have to do.”
Fred looked over at me unhappily, and for a heart-stopping moment, I thought he was going to shake his head at me. But he nodded once, a tiny thing that I hoped went unnoticed thanks to the growing tension between Hades and Vir.
“Don’t call me that!” Aaron snapped at Hades as the god said something in a language I didn’t recognize. “I don’t go by that anymore.”
Hades threw back his head and laughed. Fire blossomed from a dozen previously unseen torches on the wall, a wave of heat washing over us.
“You cannot escape what you are,” he rumbled, standing.
“Is it just me?” I asked uneasily. “Or is he growing bigger?”
“Tell me, he who would call himself my friend. Did you come here in bad faith?”
Aaron inhaled. “Guys,” he said, staring straight at Hades but addressing the rest of us. “I think we should go.”
“You know what?” I said, taking a step back. “I’m inclined to agree with you on this. Leaving definitely sounds like the best of ideas. Fred?”
“Ah, fuck it,” Fred muttered. “I never liked this place anyway.”
Then Fred moved.
“Run for it!” I shouted, and the rest of us booked it for the exit, Vir leading the way, myself in the middle, with Aaron taking up the rear.
“Azazel!” Hades bellowed. “Stop them!”
The mini-Abaddon poofed into existence in front of us, blocking our way out. Vir snorted, and blue energy swirled in front of him. He charged right at Azazel and then backhanded him out of the way.
“Got it!” Fred shrieked in high-pitched terror as he went racing past me. “I think he’s mad!”
The roar that came from behind us sent the entire castle trembling. I whimpered as my ear drums threatened to rupture from the intensity of the noise. For some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to look behind us. In hindsight–ha–it wasn’t.
A wall of fire was rushing at us, the individual flames flickering and shaping themselves into a fiery representation of Hades’s ugly mug.
“Well, there’s some nightmare fuel,” I yelped and surged ahead as we raced down the hallway.
However, as fast as we were moving, we needed to be faster. The Hades fireball was catching up.
“Vir!” I shouted as the stairs came into view. “Carry me while I shift!”
I leaped into his arms without waiting for confirmation that he understood what it was I needed him to do. I just trusted him and threw myself into the air. Thick arms wrapped themselves around my torso as we started up the stairs.
I hulked out of my shirt, tearing the flimsy garment that Fred had given me in half and shrugging out of it. It had to be indicative of how insane my life was lately that I hadn’t given a second thought to walking into Hades’s lair without wearing any pants, my cooch fully visible to the god of the Underworld.
“You know,” Vir said, speaking in tones that would normally be reserved for times where a giant living wall of fire wasn’t chasing you up the stairs with the promise of eternal torture and pain if it caught you. “Any other time, I’d be entirely too happy if you jumped into my arms and got naked.”
“You’re a pervert,” I growled in irritation, my voice deeper and huskier–I was already shifting. There was no time to waste being chatty. “When I’m done, throw me!”
I howled, partially in pain, partially as my wolf came to join with me, the two of us merging into one. She was tired but knew that now wasn’t the time to hesitate. For so long, I’d kept her behind bars, only letting her out during the Wild Moon. Now, she was being set free on the regular, and she wasn’t used to it.
Before we were finished merging, Vir flung us up the steps with inhuman power. We yelped mid-flight, landing with a skittering of claws on stone before we found some purchase and raced up the stairs, passing Fred. There was no time to wait to ensure Vir knew what to do next.
“Get your hands off me!” I heard Aaron shout. “What are you–Ow!”
Baring our wolf teeth in a smile, we surged onward, confident now that Vir had done exactly what was necessary. It wasn’t Aaron’s fault that he was now the slowest, but we needed speed.
Up the stairs, we went. We had to hope that the farther we got from that chamber, from the heart of Hades’s power, the weaker he would become. Because we were going to need all of our strength to deal with Abaddon, who would surely be waiting for us up top.
The stairwell was growing rather uncomfortably warm by the time we burst out into the courtyard, the massive single spire towering over us. Twisting our head to look around, we found no sign of the giant Abaddon. The demon had gone and either hadn’t returned or, perhaps in his rage, Hades had forgotten to summon him. It didn’t matter which, but we had to make use of the time we were given.
Our journey to the Pits of Tartarus was supposed to have been a stealthy one. We knew all about stealth, the stalking of the hunt. Moving undetected. We were an expert in it. Only nothing had gone to plan.
“To the Pits!” Aaron barked as he and Vir emerged. “Put me down!”
Aaron got out of Vir’s grip and ran onward. It’s not that he was slow. Compared to our two-legged form, he was rather fast. But on all fours, we loped easily alongside Aaron, his pace not challenging us.
We followed him across the stone courtyard and out a gate onto hard-packed rocks. Aaron raced right up to the edge of one of the Pits. We slowed as we neared, whimpering. The wailing of souls from this close was inescapable. It reached into us and twisted something at our core, producing a discomfort we’d never known before, nor wanted to again. It was just wrong.
“Now what?” Vir snarled. “You’ve trapped us here.”
Out of the castle came Hades, the fire expanding now that it wasn’t trapped by the walls. He surged higher into the sky, blotting out everything with the fire. The souls below us seemed to react to his presence, because the wailing intensified.
“Down there,” Aaron said, pointing into the pit.
We snarled at him. Jumping into one of the Pits of Tartarus was not an escape. Our parents wouldn’t be freed from Lars if that’s what we did. They would stay there, just like we would stay here.
“There’s a ledge,” Aaron snapped furiously. “Look for yourselves, and then jump.”
Vir peered over the edge. “Shit,” he muttered, cursing for what we thought was the first time ever. “He’s right.”
“There’s a door on the ledge,” Aaron shouted, having to raise his voice over the roar of the flames as Hades towered above us, a living ball of rage and flame, gathering his strength to smite us.
We went to the edge, peering down, our sharp eyes easily picking out the ledge below. Far below.
“You’ll want to be in your other form for this jump,” Aaron said.
He was right. We shifted again, panting with the exertion.
My body wasn’t used to this. Too many changes in too short a time. I didn’t know how many more I could go through. But there was no way I was jumping to that ledge without having hands to try and grab on to something. It was going to be tough to time as it was.
So there I stood on the edge of the Pits of Tartarus, buck-ass naked and running from a god.
My grandkids–if I survived to have them–were never going to believe this story.
“Go!” Aaron shouted as Hades came at us, having gathered enough power.
Fred stepped up to the edge, glanced at me, and shrugged. I heard something that sounded suspiciously like “weeee” as he jumped.
Vir followed swiftly, leaving just Aaron and me. The air was growing unbearably hot.
“Go!” Aaron shouted, positioning himself between the oncoming ball of fire and me. “Go now!”
I turned, looked down at the ledge, and jumped.
“God fucking dammit!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, hurling every ounce of faith I might ever have had into the curse.
Behind me, Aaron turned and came running for the edge, but then I dropped out of sight.
Heat washed over me, and a terrible scream of pain followed, chilling me to my core. I fell toward the ledge, bracing for impact, then sticking my hands out as I realized I’d overshot my landing point.
“Shi–oof!” I grunted as Vir reached out and caught me in one arm.
He turned as he did, and his other arm darted out and caught Aaron with the other, hauling us onto the ledge.
I stared at Vir’s other arm, correcting myself.
He’d caught what was left of Aaron. Most of his body, aside from a small section of his face, was charred beyond recognition.
“He’ll be fine,” Vir snapped, setting me down roughly. “Now, go! Through the door, go-go-go!”
When I didn’t move, Vir kicked me into motion. Turning, I spied the doors set into the cliff-face, and without hesitation, I dove through them, with Vir following me. The doors closed behind us, and I stood up, looking around.
“Now what the hell do we do?” I asked nervously.
