Page 11 of Wicked Ties
I turned to Maze and dislodged the gripping claw from his forearm. He grit his teeth as I pulled it free. I tossed the arm over to the waiting demons, and they descended upon it like a pack of wild dogs fighting over a bone. The demon leapt to his feet and stared at the small stump he had left. A roar escaped his mouth, and he charged toward us.
“Stupid move.” Maze moved to the side, clearing a path from the demon to me.
I chuckled, and when the demon got close enough, I grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him up off the ground then slammed him on his back. The other half-dozen demons surrounding us flooded in, like flies to shit. Maze grabbed one of his cards and pressed it to his chest. Instantly, his body got bigger, his fists turned meaty, and his eyes grew sharper. In the back of my mind, I knew he pulled the strength card on himself.
The demon in my hand squirmed and scratched at me with his one remaining arm. I laughed and began to squeeze. His eyes bulged out of his head, and with my other hand I grabbed his chin and ripped his head off his neck. I held it out toward another demon like bait, and the stupid snake-like creature went for it. I twisted my body and slammed my fist into his face, shattering his skull completely. From the corner of my eye, I saw another spider-like demon run at me. Maze grabbed one of its huge hairy legs, lifted it off the ground and slammed it on its back repeatedly. The hard-packed dirt crumbled under the onslaught of the impact, and the demon wailed. When its body finally broke in half, the others grabbed it and began to scurry away.
He turned with a giant spider leg in his hand and swung it like a bat, connecting with another humanoid demon running at full speed toward him. He went flying off into the distance. I reached out and grabbed another one and followed suit, chucking a demon across the desert like a javelin. The others saw their poor likelihood of survival and began to scurry back into the shadows.
Maze stood next to me covered in black slimy blood, his chest heaving with exertion. “Hell demons . . .” He sucked in a breath. “Didn’t know they existed for real.”
I shook my hand, sending slime flying from my fingers to the ground. “Yeah, they’re just not our responsibility. The Fallen have that privilege.”
“We better keep moving before they come back.” Maze nodded in the direction we’d just begun to walk in. But was it wise to keep going?
“We have to move fast.”
Maze gave me a single nod and pulled a card from his pocked. He threw it at the ground, and it exploded with magic. Bright green ghostly horses leapt from the card and lined up in three separate pairs. They moved forward, and a large Roman-style chariot emerged from the card. It too, was a ghostly glowing green.
He motioned to it. “Your chariot awaits.”
“I didn’t know you could do that!”
“No one knows what I’m capable of . . . until it’s too late.” He offered me his hand and when I took it, he guided me to stand in front of him on the chariot.
The moment his chest brushed against my back and his arms surrounded me, the chariot lurched forward. There wasn’t a clomping of hooves or the sound of horses. Instead, it was silent. Like the dead, we drifted along, and the harsh terrain flew by in a blur. In that moment, all I felt was the beating of his heart, along with the steady rise and fall of his chest with each breath he took.
Before long, we were out of the hell lands and just on the edge of Hades’s territory. We drifted to a stop on a hilltop that overlooked all the underworld. The chariot came to a stop, and I held still for a long moment, just enjoying the surround of his arms. Did he feel the light thrill? Or was he wishing I was the girl he first met, not the one I was now? Was he still obsessed with her? Desperate for her and not me?
Those harsh thoughts had me disentangling myself from him and stumbling from the chariot. Maze caught my arm before I tipped over. “You good?”
“Yep, fine.” But the traitor thoughts that he’d rather have a girl I wasn’t, stung ever so slightly. I didn’t understand why it did.
I didn’t make eye contact, just walked over and gazed out across the golden Elysian fields, the lava pits of Tartarus, and the flowing rivers that surrounded it all. When I turned back to him, he frowned in confusion at the chariot. He held his hand up, and the card appeared there in his fingers. The chariot and horses were sucked back into it like a vortex pulling at the magic. They all blurred together in a whirlwind of neon magic. When it was done, he flicked the card away, and it flew back into the pocket of his pants.
“You sure?”
“Yep.” I bent down low, and with my finger, I drew a circle on the ground with a half circle under it.
“What are you doing?”
“Summoning trouble.” I continued my drawing, adding a single line that had an X laying over it. “Doesn’t sound positive.” Maze lingered closer. I couldn’t tell if I felt him from my left-over demon instincts or something more. Whatever it was, it was damn distracting.
I rolled my eyes. “Never is.”
The symbol glowed bright white and opened a hole in the ground. A head began to emerge from the hole, and I took a step back. He was tall like Maze. Yet he was built sturdier. His shoulders were filled out, and his waist was slim and trim. Dark black hair fell in wild loose waves down to his chin. His lips were full, and when his sharp purple eyes met mine, he snickered.
Maze groaned. “No, not this guy.”
“You got a better idea to get to who we want without pissing off Hades? Because last I remembered, he’d be ready to kill us if he found us down here.”
“Good point.”
“Nice to see you, too.” Liesin walked over to a large boulder and leaned against it so causally, like it didn’t matter if his pressed black pants or plum sweater got dirty. He motioned to where we stood on the border between Hades’s land and Lucifer’s. “Interesting choice of venue.”
I didn’t have time for this. “Where’s my soul?”
Liesin shrugged, studying his nails. “Why should I tell you?”
