Page 57 of Hell-Bound

Mind reeling, Ren continued her clumsy search and, barely thinking, grabbed the pristine violin from the table.

A shot of anxiety went through her as she saw that underneath lay a thinly bound book with a black symbol of a Devil on it.

Azur’s symbol.

She grabbed it, one hand still holding the violin.

“Jester, I–”

A tremor shocked the room as more tomes tumbled from their resting places and antiques clinked against glass.

Jester whipped his head towards his companion.

“What did you do this time?” he barked.

The tremor got stronger, and it was all Ren could do to avoid dropping the instrument.

“Damn it all!” Jester bellowed, disappearing before the study door slammed open, four guards running in withswords and spears.

Reacting swiftly, Ren ducked under the desk as two spears were hurled at her head.

“I’m sorry I can’t take you with my gorgeous friend,” she whispered to the violin as she moved it deeper under the stonework and shoved the marked document into the back of her pants.

The guards rounded on her as she sprang up, landing on the desk smoothly and grabbing a dagger out of her belt.

The desk separated her and two of the guards, who were swinging their short swords wildly. Ren was right out of their reach, but needed to move fast.

The other two guards, now spearless, were engaged with Jester as he jumped from each of their shoulders, disappearing before they could grab hold. They slipped and fell toward their counterparts as they tried desperately to grapple him.

“Arrrrgh,” bellowed the guard closest to Ren—a red-skinned female Lesser Devil—as she threw herself on the desk, her black armor clanking loudly.

Ren shuffled back, avoiding her lunge, but she had no more space to move. On one side of the desk was a wall, and on the other, a back window that looked out on a ten-story drop to the courtyard.

“Jester, a little help!” she shouted as the red Devil closed in, sword aimed at her chest.

“Xarek is gonna have so much fun with you, pretty thing,” she chuckled darkly.

The shock of emotion that wasn’t exclusively fear went all the way to her feet at the mention of his name.

Ren steadied herself, trying to time her next move, when the second Devil, a male, skidded to the other side of the desk. She had no space to dodge as he threw himself at her, successfully wrapping two large arms around her waist and knocking her off her feet.

To her horror, she felt the small booklet slip from her waistband as her body slammed into the stone. The male heldher tightly as the red Devil approached, a short sword raised to strike. But as she struck down with the sword, her movement shifted.

Jester had appeared just in time to give a hard shove. This slight loss of equilibrium caused her to miss Ren’s head and jam her sword into the stone desk, sparks flying. The male, with his powerful grapple, averted his eyes. A brief disruption gave Ren the perfect opening to bring her leg up hard against his crotch, loosening his grip as he doubled up in pain.

Ren spun out from under him right as the red Devil jumped forward, dismounting the desk, and thrust her weapon in her direction. Ren, now with more space to move, was able to easily dodge the advances, but she knew that her distance moved her further and further away from her quarry.

Jester, now behind Ren, was still engaged with the other two weaponless guards. But as his giggles indicated, they were mostly trying to unsuccessfully subdue the trickster.

Her combatants had recovered themselves and were closing in on where she stood, giving a few test swipes with their swords—Ren batting them away with her dagger.

As the male guard’s arm pulled back from a swing, Ren spotted the marked booklet lying crumpled behind his heel.

Ren darted low towards her prize, hoping the male would believe she was trying to tackle him to the ground. The male did swing at her but, as she’d hoped, miscalculated his aim. She slid across the floor, grabbed the document, and re-secured it in her trousers.

Still crouched on the floor, she whirled around, trying to ensure that her back never faced her attackers. But the mistake had already been made: the sword of the red-skinned female was coming down upon her.

Ren rolled once more, dodging and hitting the bookshelf, but not before the female’s sword cut a long slice along Ren’s right leg. Hissing, she struggled to a stand and brandished her dagger threateningly. She saw the male fighting with a constantly vanishing Jester, who somehow hadmanaged to incapacitate the others.