Page 63 of Broken Shadows

It’s far too quiet and still. There’s not a breath of wind or a hoot from an owl. It’s as if we’ve stumbled into hallowed ground, except it’s anything but that.

Aiden whistles out a breath. “I’m not going first.”

Rosa steps back. “Yeah, me neither.”

Lorcan and Gideon stomp toward the long, twisted bars, and I flex my fingers at my side.

“Gomey, hold on tight to me, okay?” My little fruit bat nestles closer, his body trembling against my neck. “You can stay here. Until I get back.”

He flaps his wings, his fangs grazing my skin in warning.

I whisper. “Okay, but Hell is dangerous.”

His claws grip into my skin in a way that tells me he’s not leaving my side, and my stomach dips, knowing I must protect him at all costs.

His wings tangle in my hair, knotting into a mess which is going to be impossible to brush out, but I don’t care, not now when we’re about to be dragged through the mud and into Hell.

My voice comes out a hair above a whisper. “Let’s get this over and done with.”

Rosa looks at me, her brown eyes glossy, and nods. We both know she’s seeing this through to the end too. Poor Aiden looks as if he’s going to pass out.

Lorcan and Ezra smile while Gideon looks completely unbothered, as if this is a regular Tuesday.

I grab Rosa and Aiden’s hands, and we walk through the gate together—slowly at first, then into a run before we lose our nerve.

Then everything changes.

I struggle to hold on to them as the ground quakes and splits with a roar. Vines and phantom fingers snakes from the clammy mud that gurgles as if it’s alive and intends to devour us, gripping my ankles.

Aiden’s scream tears from his throat, as he’s pulled waist deep, his fingers clawing at the ground.

Adrenaline floods my veins, and the more I struggle, the faster I sink.

A low rumble resonates through the Earth as smoke spirals from the gate in illusory waves, and I watch Lorcan and Ezra smiling as they’re dragged to Hell, their arms crossed upwards, palms flat against their chests.

“Stay calm,” I shout as we’re dragged deeper. “No matter what happens, we must stick together.”

The sticky, wet mud clings tighter, enveloping us from a soft embrace to something far more sinister. The vines and fingers tug harder until I can’t breathe. I’m holding onto Gomez with every ounce of strength I have, but he’s torn from me the moment he hits the soil.

The soil is in my nose now, my mouth gasping for one more lungful of air before I’m pulled underneath, mud muffling my call to Gomez.

Then I’m falling through a void, grasping at the black air for something tangible to hold on to. The landscape transforms around me into fog and smoke and darkness. My descent slows, and I’m spiraling through shadow creatures twisting in the corner of my eye, just out of sight. Demons lurk on the fringes of the darkness, their occasional red eyes flashing as the air is mercilessly pulled from my lungs.

“Fuck!” I scream as my body slams onto cool, stone slabs. Slowly, I look around, taking in the fog and what appears to be an eerie graveyard.

Every sound is an echo in the void.

“Rosa?” I croak. “Gomey? Lorcan?”

Lorcan?

Our bond is broken, at least temporarily, and I look around. I’m completely alone.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Lorcan

Evie’s gone. They’re all fucking gone.

---