Page 22 of The River of Hatred

I have an erection.

Their lascivious show aroused me.

How could I have allowed this?

Chapter 12 – Jessica

The Malebolge:The Trench of Flatterers

Ithink we broke Ithuriel. He hasn’t said a word in hours. He must have compartmentalized the whole dry-humping debacle, seeing as he pretended it never happened the very next day – possibly because he didn’t consent to it. Last night he had every chance to get up and leave, not sit there and witness Sariel getting me off like a motherfluffing pro.

And I don’t regret it; it was hot as, well, Hell, and what’s a little (or huge) orgasm among friends? The only problem – besides possibly breaking an angel I grew to care about – is that I can’t seem to look at Sariel the same way anymore. I always found him ridiculously sexy and as sinful as a chocolate lava cake. But now I keep looking at his beautiful hands. Thinking of them touching me. Wishing they were touching me some more. Every time his lips stretch into that devilish smile I feel them on the side of my neck again. He just gives me butterflies now. And those fuckers are dangerous.

“Penny for your thoughts,” the subject of my thoughts asks.

I raise an eyebrow. “Do you have a penny on you?”

He flicks the tip of my nose with his finger and my stomach vaults.

Damn it.

“That’s avoidance at a competitive level right there,” he says.

I grin. “You can thank my dad for that skill. He was always all up in my business. Texting me if I was five minutes late from coming home. Bugging me about boys at school. Worried I’d go off the rails and ruin his plans for me.” I glance at Itha to check if he’s paying attention to our conversation. Nope, still staring straight ahead.

Sariel frowns. “I thought only the Elioud with few social connections got taken. Wouldn’t your parents be looking for you?”

I shake my head. “Hard to look from prison.”

His eyes widen and even Ithuriel throws us a glance.

“Yeah…” I drawl. “Ponzi scheme. Big mess. Thankfully I wasn’t working for their company at the time; I had my own little photography studio.”

The fallen angel lets out a long, low whistle. “Why did I think descendants of angels would be goody-two-shoes?”

I smile at the thought. “I don’t think anyone’s ever inherently good or inherently bad. Or good all the time, bad all the time. Except maybe Belial. I’m sure he’s rotten all the time.”

He snorts at that. “I don’t think that scum sucker’s done a good thing for the right reasons in his entire, very long existence.”

“Was no one suspicious when he suggested we be brought here to keep Hell from overflowing?” I ask, thinking of how it was that archdemon who suggested to the Celestial Council that we, mortals with Celestial blood in our veins, would be the perfect soldiers in this endeavor.

Sariel shakes his head. “It was a game of attrition, poppet. Now that we know it was all to get Lana here, it’s easy to guess he was at it for almost thirty years. Moving a chess piece here, clicking a puzzle into place there. He took his time to be subtle about it.”

I purse my lips in thought, then scrunch my nose. “What’s that god awful smell?”

“That would be the Stygian River,” Ithuriel speaks for the first time. “A river of filth to drown the flatterers who spewed filth in life.”

I gag. “Wait, it’s not The Styx, is it? The River of Hatred? Isn’t that on the other side of Belial’s territory?”

“It’s an offshoot,” Sariel answers me. “Both waters are smelly, this one’s especially putrid, though. Like Itha said, it’s part of this bolgia’s punishment.”

The silver angel’s still not looking at either of us. I’m starting to feel guilty.

“We will have to swim through it,” he says, matter-of-fact.

I stop in my tracks. “What? Ew!”

“’Fraid he’s right, poppet. Since we can’t fly or use the ether to travel here, going through’s the only option.”

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