Page 43 of The River of Fire

“This will be brief,” he clips, grumpy again.

Naturally, there’s only one possible response: “That’s what she said.”

???

My nose doesn’t bleed this time, which is good. What isn’t good is me retching out my breakfast into the red dust under me. Lovely start. I straighten up and Ash offers me a canteen and a linen cloth. Wonder if his all-powerful magic can conjure up a breath mint.

“Thanks,” I murmur after rinsing my mouth, and take a look around. We’re standing in the desert under a twilight sky. There’s no sign of life anywhere. “This is cozy,” I remark, and he smirks at my dry words.

“This way.” He turns towards the red cliffs behind us. There’s a large cave opening in the direction he’s heading. I ask him about the areas in Hell that were clearly shaped by erosion, a process that should have taken far longer than the realm’s existence,but he’s not as forthcoming as before – he’s focused on the cave opening. There’s a red glow coming out, I imagine from underground lava flows or vents.

We enter the cave and the sand under our feet turns to stone. The arid desert heat turns to cold dampness instantaneously, but pockets of lava still illuminate the cave. “How is this possible?”

“You’re in Hell, lamb.” He unsheathes the greatsword strapped to his back in one elegant move. Like everything else with him, it’s a thing of dark beauty, and I can’t help the primal tingle I feel at the way he looks with it. He can probably destroy any threat found here with a thought, yet he plans to use that sword. There’s something so masculine about that. Judging by the look he throws me, he knows the sword in his hands is not the only one I’m thinking about.

“Do you think you can manage to keep your eyes ahead?” he asks in that self-assured mocking way he has, and I unstrap my swords, looking anywhere but at his grinning face. He moves closer and murmurs in my ear, “I’ll take care of your aching little pussy when we get home.” I moan and, predictably, he chuckles, but I couldn’t hold it in. It’s the first time I’ve heard him use the word pussy and it just does something to me. I’m on a serious mission and my panties are soaked.

At that moment a screech comes from my other side and a leathery form, a blur of claws and fangs, launches itself towards me. Before I can lift my weapons, the creature stops with a wet sound of steel slicing through flesh, and the only thing in front of me is Ash’s now bloody sword. The creature lies in two spreading puddles of blood at my feet, cleaved in half.

He flicks the blood off. “Let’s go,” he orders calmly, while my heart is still trying to beat its way out of my chest cavity.

We walk in silence, with me now carefully observing the dark corners of the cave. Stalactites and stalagmites cut the orange glow from the lava vents making the shadows flicker around us. Our steps and thedrip, drip, dripof moisture are the only sounds I hear. There’s a giant cobweb in the corner, dew glistening onthe strings. I shudder to think of what a spider in Hell might look like.

“Are you afraid?” Ash asks tauntingly, his voice lilting.

“How could I be afraid? The most dangerous thing here is walking right beside me,” I tease lightly. But it’s the truth.

“Hmm. Perhaps I need to instill fear in you again. You’ve been taking far too many liberties in the way you speak to me. Maybe it’s time you start addressing me as Master at all times, and not just when you beg to be fucked.”

I flush in embarrassment at being reminded of the instances I did so. “I will kill you in your sleep,” I mutter.

He scoffs. “Not only do I rest infrequently, but I am also virtually indestructible.”

“Indestructible?” I mean, I knew he couldn’t be easy to kill, but I figured there must be a way; even Superman has his kryptonite.

“There is one being that could end me. But Father is not a murderous god. He merely sent us here for all our transgressions, after all.”

That doesn’t jibe with all I’ve been taught. “How about the Old Testament then, divine judgment? Noah’s Ark and The Great Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah?”

“The Bible was written by humans, sweetness,” he answers, slicing through a cobweb in our way, none of the strands sticking to his sword. “Not a lot of it is accurate. I was there, after all. Humans like to exaggerate, and history changes to fit the current narrative.”

Right. “How about Evolution versus Creation then? The Earth can’t be both six thousand and five billion years old at the same time. So which one is it?” I could be the first historian to answer the age-old question! Not that I could share it with anyone back home.

“Can both not be true?” he smirks over his shoulder.

“What do you mean?” I jog up to catch up with him. “What do you mean?” I ask again, but he just smiles beatifically. “Wait, is the answer one of those things that would melt my brain?”

“You may take care of those.” He points ahead with his chininstead of answering. Two soul amalgamations are floating ahead of us. Guess the subject is closed.

“Such a gentleman,” I sigh, rotating my wrists to loosen them. I dart forward and lower myself to my knees as I land between them, a sword out to the side in each hand. They disintegrate, and I hear a snort behind me. He even makes snorts sound majestic. “What? I can show off, too.”

“The difference is,” he says, passing me and walking on, “that I do not need to try to show off. I am simply innately superior to all others.”

This time I snort. “That’s the kind of arrogance that got you kicked down to Hell, you know.” I’m walking beside him again and see no change in expression from my statement. “Do you regret it?” I ask carefully.

“Regret is not an emotion I practice,” he answers coolly.

Hmm. “How old are you?” I ask, innocently. Maybe I’ll glean the answer to my previous question that way.

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