Page 47 of Falling for the Devil

The winds buffeted her backward, along with her voice carrying his name. Something else whipped by too fast for her to catch it, then another one smacked her right in the face. She grabbed it. Without being able to see, her fingers caressed the object... soft, incredibly soft; light, as if it weighed nothing at all; and thin, with a flexible rod running up the middle.

A sliver of foreboding shot through her veins. She really didn’t want to see what lay ahead. Maybe she should retreat to safety. Well, if being trapped in an underground cave for eternity with no other way out than this tunnel could be considered safe.

Another gust of dry wind blasted her face. The heat swelled under her bare feet. How could everything be so cool a few steps back, but here turn boiling hot?

“Lucifer!” The terror rising inside Diana laced through her scream.

A struggle warred inside her heart—continue forward to find Lucifer, or run back to the cavern where she’d never be found and would eventually starve to death. She was a goddess, so it’d take a long time, but it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.

“Dammit!” With the mysterious object clutched in her hand like some talisman against the evil that lay in wait, Diana shuffled one foot forward, then the other.

The wind gained momentum, pushing her back a step for every two she took forward. Every breath scorched her throat and nostrils. The heat radiating off the rock walls and the ground burned the delicate skin of her palms and feet. Blindly, she pushed herself to continue. Groans carried on the hurricane-force gusts mixed with higher-pitched shrieks that grew louder with each step.

She couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but every moment seemed to take an eternity in and of itself. Still, Diana knew she couldn’t stop, nor could she return to the sanctuary of the cavern. For better or worse—suspecting much worse—she had to see this through. Lucifer had to be here somewhere. Finding him was her sole objective. After that, they could either find an escape or roast for eternity here... At least they’d be together.

Her eyes screwed shut against the violent onslaught of wind. It didn’t matter anyway if her eyes were open or closed. There was no light. And a part of her didn’t want to see what horror lay before her.

A sudden—and welcome—stillness in the air had Diana’s eyelids flying open.

There... just a few short steps away the darkness fell away to a dull, burnt orange glow, like a sun setting over a desert landscape. She rushed forward despite the insufferable heat emanating from every surface.

“Lucifer,” her parched throat and mouth struggled to get the single word past her lips.

The light grew brighter, momentarily blinding her. Forcing her eyelids to open, bright spots seared into her vision. Diana could make out a vast desert landscape with raging winds that battered every dead tree and rock along the barren surface. But that was no sun lighting up the sky... or if it was, it was no sun or star she’d ever witnessed, for it blazed like a raging inferno in a blackened sky.

Undeterred, she quickened her pace. Here, the ground was both rocky and sandy in spots. She could just make out deep footprints that led up a steep hill. Halfway up, the wind began its brutal assault again. With one giant gust, the prints vanished.

Diana stumbled forward but was knocked back by the wind, then blasted sideways. She fell, but sheer will had her climbing back to her feet until her legs could no longer withstand the battering gales.

Well, if she couldn’t walk, she could crawl.

Sand was so deep in some places that she sank down several yards and had to shovel herself out with her hands. In other places, the sand was so shallow—just enough to disguise the jagged rocks that dug into her knees. A layer of the fine particles crusted over her eyelashes. Even on her trips to visit her uncle, Hades, she’d never seen such horrific conditions.

If Lucifer is safe back in the cavern, and I’m stuck here, I only have myself to blame. Damn, I should’ve stayed put.

Every muscle in her body screamed from exhaustion and pain, but she refused to stop. If she did, Diana knew she’d crawl up into a ball to cry. Although with the heat and wind, she doubted tears could survive to cross the threshold of her eyelids.

One arm up to block the whipping sand, she shimmied forward slower. The other hand still clutched the mystery object that had smashed into her face earlier. Diana squinted down—a once-pristine white feather now coated with dirty-brown sand granules and a suspicious crimson stain.

Her heart dropped to her stomach.

“Lucifer!” Although she barely rasped out his name, her terror fueled it into a shriek.

Scrambling up the hill, Diana’s limbs found new energy. He was here or had been. If he was injured—oh, she couldn’t allow herself to imagine worse. She just had to find him.

Finally, she reached the crest of the hill, only to discover the landscape littered with more of the same for as far as she could see. Except over to the right, just below the steep slope of another, taller hill, covered in what looked to be a forest of dead tree trunks, was a glimmer of something tall and solid standing unmoved by the vicious winds.

Lucifer.

She screamed his name repeatedly. Diana jumped to her feet, then ran. Pummeled this way and that, she refused to surrender. He was there... just a little farther now. Lucifer was in this terrible place with her.

Together, they could find a way out.

Together, they could do anything.

But why didn’t he turn around, run to her? He was so... still.

It wasn’t until Diana was close enough to reach out and grab his shoulder that she glimpsed the true horrors this place held.

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