Page 16 of Demanding Discord
They needed me, though. They needed me to survive Lucifer’s games and get the hell out of…well, to get the hell out of Hell.
“Hecate, please show me where you are.” I turned back to the mirror and froze. Sharp pain sliced into my temple, like an ice pick slowly sinking into my brain. Flashes of images pierced the otherwise total darkness, but I couldn’t make out anything.
The building shook. A loud crash sounded behind me, but my body wouldn’t move. The flashes grew brighter, flickering faster as if someone were fanning the pages of a book.
“Slow down.” I tensed, ignoring the stones falling around me and focusing only on the images the ether showed me. I reached with my mind, pushing through a gelatinous sludge and stopping the pages from turning. A path. A location. But Hecate wasn’t there.
“Why show me…?” The location pulsed, demanding attention, emphasizing its importance before another, absolutely horrifying vision entered my mind.
Hecate bound in chains.
6
DISCORD
“Cinder!” I pounded the sides of my fists against the wall as the temple crumbled around me. The magic flashed, wavering beneath what little strength I had left, yet the wall held. I pounded it again, slamming my shoulder against it three times, using more force with each succession.
What was left of Hecate’s statue split vertically behind me. One side crashed toward the temple entrance, stones shattering on the portico and rolling down the steps, the thunderous sound deafening. The other half remained upright, teetering on its pedestal.
I slammed my shoulder against the wall once more, but still it would not yield.
“Cinder, step away from the doorway.” I hoped to Hades she heard my command.
Dodging falling stones, I raced to the statue and braced my hands against the side, pushing with all my might. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I strained against its weight. I pressed my back against it, using my legs as leverage. It rocked. I pushed harder. More stone cracked. The statue fell, crashing into the wall and shredding the magical fibers I had created.
The ceiling buckled. A slab of stone the size of a tar pit plunged to the ground. I leaped over it and sprinted into the next room. Moonlight streamed in through the massive holes in the ceiling, and the walls groaned with the temple’s shifting weight.
Cinder stood near the center of the long, narrow room, oblivious to the destruction around her. She stared into a mirror, her eyes glazed as if she were in a trance, her jaw slack, her lips parted.
“Cinder, we must leave.” I paced toward her.
She didn’t respond, didn’t acknowledge my presence. A new fury boiled inside me. If Tumult had done something to her mind, I would… Damn it, I had already killed him, decimated his soul, so there wasn’t much else I could do.
I should have let him live so I could kill him with newfound fury.
“Cinder.” I stood behind her, clutching her shoulders and giving her a gentle shake. When she didn’t react, I scooped her into my arms and powered through the ruins toward the exit, my leg muscles burning with the exertion.
Cinder gasped, jerking her head up. “Wait! I wasn’t done.”
“The temple is done with us.” I leaped over a crumbled column, rolling my ankle as I hit the floor, my foot slicing open on a shard of obsidian.
Pain shot up my leg, making me bite my tongue, but still I plowed ahead. I made it to the portico and barreled down the steps as the columns supporting the pediment fell toward each other with a thunderous boom.
I ran halfway up the walk before lowering Cinder’s feet to the ground and turning to witness the rest of the destruction. What was left of the temple collapsed inward on itself, stone crumbling and obsidian shattering until only a pile of rubble remained.
Cinder raised her fingers to her lips. “Oh, my goddess, Discord. What did you do?”
I cared not for the accusation in her tone. “I saved your life and mine.”
“By destroying Hecate’s temple?” Her mouth hung agape.
“Had I not, we would both be dead.” I lowered onto a large stone and rested my ankle on my knee to examine the shard of obsidian embedded in the arch of my foot. I yanked out the offending object, and blood spurted from the wound.
Cinder snapped her mouth shut, finally coming to her full senses. “Ouch. Looks like you hit an artery.”
“Whatever makes you say that?” I squeezed the sides of the wound, holding them together to speed my healing. When I let go, more blood spouted, as if I’d created a fountain of my foot.
“Wait… Why are you naked?” She furrowed her brow and kneeled in front of me, opening her backpack and retrieving a strip of fabric before wrapping it tightly around my arch.
