I renewed my struggles as more souls disappeared. Like before, I couldn’t break their holds. And then the ceiling was above me, and there wasn’t any more time to struggle.
I gritted my teeth and held my breath, preparing myself for impact. But instead of smashing against the stony ceiling, I moved through it much the same way I moved through the ground when I traveled between worlds. The spirits dragged me through it, and as they did so, my power flared. I could sense more spirits trapped in this section of hell. My power whipped out of me and then it retracted, pulling souls out from the earth as it did so.
Once I broke through the earth, the spirits released me, continuing to float upwards. I dusted myself off, noticing that I stood inside the palace, the black stone walls arching high above me.
Home sweet home.
I stood in the middle of the great entrance hall. Across from me, two large doors led out to the fields of fire.
The place was utterly abandoned. Not that this was unusual in and of itself. This time, however, I could feel it. All the heavy players had been released from hell.
A manic need took hold of me. It thrummed through my veins. I was a vessel. A vessel for this power that demanded I release more souls.
I lifted a hand and aimed it at the double doors. I blasted them open, and then I stalked outside, down the palace steps.
It was time to pull souls from the fire.
Andre
Andre blinked until his surroundings came into focus.
Devil stabbed me, banished Gabrielle to hell—
The scrape of steel on steel and the boom of thunder filtered in from somewhere far beyond the walls of his library.
And now the bastard is waging war outside.
He tried to sit up, but his limbs were weak. So, so weak.
I’m dying.
It was almost unbelievable. He’d been alive for so long, been the most powerful being around for so long, that he thought he might be impervious to death at this point.
But all it had taken was a wooden sword. A child’s play thing. He recognized it earlier as one of several usually stashed in Bishopcourt’s training room.
With much effort, Andre lifted a hand and probed the wound. He hissed as it screamed. The skin around his heart felt raw and ragged, and blood oozed out. Andre let his hand fall back to his side. Time to get on with the business of dying.
He laid there as his life slowly seeped out of him, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. His mind spun.
As soon as he died, Andre would drag the last of his coven to hell. A part of him wondered if they could sense his encroaching death. If their limbs moved slower, if their bodies weakened.
Then his mind moved to less pleasant places. He’d be bound in the fires of hell, burning for eternity, and he’d have to watch that monster with his soulmate. He couldn’t decide what was worse—witnessing the devil’s cruelty towards Gabrielle or his kindness. Likely Andre would have to see both. And he couldn’t do a single thing about it.
The nearby grandfather clock ticked down the final minutes of his long existence. They said that when you died, your life flashed before his eyes. But it wasn’t his life Andre was thinking about.
Gabrielle’s smile. Gabrielle’s laugh. Gabrielle’s bad jokes. Gabrielle’s clumsiness. The way Gabrielle looked at him when he moved inside her.
He couldn’t give that up. Not yet.
Andre gripped the edge of the coffee table next to him. A cry tore out of him as he pushed himself up.
This was nothing. He’d seen men with arrows wedged between shoulder blades and sunk deep into guts. He’d seen their bodies sliced open and bludgeoned in, and still they fought. And fought for what? Their country? Their religion? If ever there were worthy causes to fight for, fighting for his soulmate and his world would be them.
While there is life left in you, live.
Gabrielle
I headed straight for the hellfire, led by some unseen hand. As I passed through the flames, my instincts tugged me forward, toward a soul that needed saving.
I halted in front of a sexless gray wisp. This one had almost been swallowed whole by this place. I fed it power and a form took shape. Thick, rounded limbs and soft skin. A woman, I realized, as she filled out. Then color came. Long auburn hair, brown eyes. Each feature became more distinct until her image had fully filled out.
When I arrived here, in this damned land, I knew instinctively how to place a soul into the fire. Releasing one was a little different, a little trickier, and yet I knew the movements intuitively. I wrapped my power around the woman and tugged, like pulling a weed from the ground. Once she was free from the flames, I released her. She floated up, up, up. A bright light in the darkness. The screams quieted as they watched.