Page 36 of When Monsters Fight
He’d confessed to wanting to fuck me. I should be disgusted, but I wasn’t. Kabiel fought his devolution at every step. He fought every dark urge, every debased thought, and there was nobility in that. There was honor and strength in it. How could I be disgusted by that? It wasn’t fair to press temptation on him by accepting his offer, but turning it down would be like a slap.
He might think that Iwasdisgusted by him. I didn’t want that, so I looked to Gabriel, expecting him to protest and save me from the conundrum, but Gabriel simply shrugged as if he didn’t care.
He didn’t want to fly me?
Why did I care? I didn’t. “That’s fine, Kabiel. Thanks.”
Kabiel blinked sharply. He’d obviously expected me to put up a fight.
“Jilyana, I can carry you,” Asbeel said to the djinn.
Jilyana’s eyes lit up for a moment but then dimmed. “Thank you.” She adjusted the pack so that it hung in front of her, the handle of my bat poking out of one side.
Kabiel had the same build as Shem, so he’d be able to carry me like Shem had, and it would be less intimate, thank goodness. I stood with my back to him, and he wrapped his arms around my torso.
“You ready?”
“Yes.”
We took to the air, and below us, the cart rattled into motion.
“About what I said in the valley…I’m sorry if I offended you.”
“Offended me by telling me I was fuckable? Hardly.”
He let out a surprised laugh. “You’re not disgusted by me?”
“Admittedly, I’m not a fan of spiders, but you’re more than your devolved form, Kabiel. I’m not disgusted. I’m not afraid, and truth be told, I trust you. I know that you’ll never willingly hurt me.”
He was silent for several seconds, the only sound the beat of his wings and the whoosh of air around us. When he finally spoke, his tone was thick with emotion.
“Thank you.”
The rest of the journey passed in companiable silence. Whereas the seventh circle had been all but barren, the sixth was a lush landscape of forests and green grasses. I spotted a settlement in the distance—a sprawling area of small buildings with farmland beyond—and to our left was a field of yellow and red flowers swaying in the breeze. These hardy blooms didn’t seem to mind the chill.
The skies might be gray, but the world seemed filledwith sunshine, until it wasn’t. At least not in the distance where the sky churned with dark clouds.
The Gehennans called out to us and drew their cart to a halt.
Asbeel, who was flying ahead of us, swooped down with Jilyana and landed beside the cart.
“It looks like we may have reached the angry skies,” Kabiel said, easing into a hover, wings beating periodically to keep us airborne. Gabriel and the other watchers joined us above the cart trail a moment later.
Asbeel finished speaking to the civilians, then joined us with Jilyana. “They’re turning back. They said to follow the trail and we’ll come to a road. They called it the glass road, if I’m understanding correctly. We must stay on it. They suggested to go on foot.”
“On foot will take longer,” Kokabel said. “I say we stay airborne for as long as possible.”
“Agreed,” Kabiel said.
“They must have a reason for warning against it,” Matarel said.
“I agree with Matarel,” Gabriel said. “But I also agree we should remain airborne until we know more about these angry skies.”
As the Gehennans’ cart retreated, we flew on, staying above the trail, closer and closer to a sky that looked as if it was raging with dark emotions. The temperature dropped, and a strange crackle filled the air, along with the scent of a storm.
“It’s getting windy!” Gabriel called out.
“We can manage,” Kokabel called out, picking up speed toward the forbidden elements ahead.
