Page 52 of Falling for Famine
Something nagged at me. A thought. A theory. It was so impulsive that I couldn’t stop myself. I reached out and touched the fluttering wisp, and an icy sensation sliced down my arm. In a breath, there were multiple flickering blue flames moving across the walls and table. Ice buried the fire, the table, and the bodies posed around it.
Lucifer chased the ice developing across the room with a shocked gaze, his expression giving him away. The now frozen fallen angels made even the King of Hell pause in confusion and wonder.
Glacies and all its replicas shot around the room, before crawling up my captor’s body. Flames burned around him, his fully engulfed fiery wings bursting out in offense. But it was too late. The fire didn’t burn hot enough to melt the ice. He was soon encapsulated in it like the others.
My little cutie returned to me, rubbing gently on my face. The emotion beaming through told me I needed to run. The ice wouldn’t last forever. They’d melt eventually. I searched for the weird portal area. Glacies danced over to it, bouncing around the black liquid.
“You’re a goddamn genius, little cutie,” I squawked before running into it as fast as I could in this tight-ass dress.
I absolutely despised the fear-seizing sensation of falling. It made me scream into nothing, panic holding me hostage fornearly a minute before I landed on solid ground. Black shadows surrounded me, and Glacies flickered closer.
Intuitively, I touched the blue wisp, and it multiplied into thousands. I watched in awe as it swept the area and froze every demon surrounding me. Then it bounced as if to beckon me forward. I took a step, but fell into nothing again.
Again and again, we did this. I had no idea where I was going. Each step took me to more demons. Each area I froze with my little cutie. It felt endless, but I didn’t doubt my cutie’s intuition. Glacies had my back. It’d known it could help me. It’d saved me from someone as powerful as Lucifer.
There had to be a way out.
My feet hit the ground again and massive spires of fire reaching toward the sky and forming what almost appeared to be a massive doorway met my first glance. Around me, thousands of demons.
“Shit,” I breathed, not sure even Glacies was strong enough to take on thousands.
The shadowy figures pivoted, but then they were distracted by something coming through the huge blanket of fire. The doors, if you could call them that, opened to a bright glow. So bright I’d been convinced whatever it was moving across the ground was the sun itself.
But it wasn’t.
Flashes of feathered wings and the glint of swords caught my eye.
“Holy moly,” I mumbled.
It was a group of…angels? In Hell?
Chapter Twenty-One
Limos
Heaven had made one demand for their assistance—we deliver one of the Counter Souls for the apocalypse.Thanatos had agreed too readily, and I’d nearly cracked under the fury exploding inside my chest.
He’d sent one warning glare at both Zelus and I the second we took a step in his direction, unwilling to negotiate such a price. And I’d swallowed my anger.
Barely.
It wouldn’t be Nomi, I’d planned to argue as soon as we left to prepare for a breach of Hell.
When we were finally alone, Thanatos had stared at both of us, his expression nearly as unreadable as mine.“We will not honor their terms,”came his surprising vow.“Even if it comes to a fight with Heaven.”
Zelus had insisted Thanatos had changed, but I hadn’t believed it until he said those words. The one they called Death didn’t break the rules, but yet again he was. He was the first to rebel against our duty as Horsemen, and now he actively rebelled against a vow he made to the archangels of Heaven.
But I didn’t have any qualms with deceiving Heaven or going back on our vow. I’d do whatever it took to get my little wisp back.
Our angel companions flanked ahead of us, destroying any demon within reach, their powerful light near-blinding. Demons both attacked and retreated at the sight of them. Soon, the fight would call attention to bigger foes. Which was our hope. Enough deaths at his doorstep and even Lucifer couldn’t turn a blind eye. He’d be forced to show himself.
But as we made our way into the crowd, a warm sensation I’d recognize anywhere struck me. I hadn’t believed it at first. She couldn’t be here. Lucifer would never allow it. He’d keep her under lock and key. She wouldn’t have any way of escaping even should she get away.
Yet, Nomi stood just outside the collecting mass, her eyes wide and searching. Glacies flickered next to her and joyfully swayedin greeting at the sight of me. I was immediately in front of my Counter Soul, the terrible void in my chest filling with the mere closeness of her.
“Little wisp,” I breathed, taking hold of her.
“Oh god, Ghost. I thought for sure…” her voice croaked. She touched my face, smiling, and the mere feel of her soothed the burn that had raged inside me since finding her dead. “We need to leave before those bastards melt. I hope you know the way out of here, because I did nothing but fall for the last hour.”
