Page 2 of Hellfire to Come (Infernal Regions for the Unprepared #5)

Chapter Two

ALICE

I couldn’t remember the last time I drank this much; Hell, not even when I was bleeding out and Samir fed me his own blood to keep me alive after we’d clawed victory from the jaws of death with Brooklyn.

Back then, I was half-dead, barely hanging on, but even that hadn’t left me feeling as wretched as this.

I did feel horrible for making my friend drown in guilt for accidentally hurting me but that was a different kind of torture.

Maybe we celebrated too hard, too fast. Maybe I got drunk on the relief of her recovery and the joy of still being here, both of us whole in ways that once seemed impossible.

Maybe I lost track of the liquor the same way I lost track of time at the moment.

Each blink felt like it lasted a second and an eternity.

I mean, can you really blame me for losing track?

Brooklyn was herself again, and that kind of miracle deserved to be drowned in every bottle within reach.

I would take victory wherever I could.

Those Syndicate bastards could go suck on a cactus for all I cared. We won. Again. Us, two. The Council, zero. Victory tasted sweet… but its hangover hit like a vengeance.

My groan vibrated inside my chest, sending another wave of nausea through me.

I probably shouldn’t have downed the booze like it was my last day on Earth, I thought to myself.

The laugh that rose inside me died the second bile curled up my throat like a cruel reminder of my predicament.

Acid churned in my gut, turning my limbs into cold stone, though I was aching to jump up and pester Brooklyn with the flood of questions I knew she hated.

Not because she truly hated me. No, she acted tough because deep down, she was terrified.

Scared to let herself feel, to be exposed.

Because love, be it romantic or platonic, leaves a mark.

And when it’s taken away, it shreds you raw.

I understood that fear more than she knew, but I refused to let her bury herself beneath it.

I’d drag her humanity out into the light even if it tore me apart. Hell, it nearly did.

But it was worth every inch of pain to see her and Dominic finally let the walls crumble.

Watching them open up to each other was like watching the sky tear open at dawn after endless night.

I was a sucker for happy endings, always had been, and the sight of them accepting their feelings for each other made me want to cackle like some unhinged witch from a forgotten fairy tale.

I’d do that later though. Right now, my head was ringing like some cursed cathedral bell and the floor threatened to slide out from under me every time I cracked an eyelid open.

Darkness swelled around me, thick and velvety, and far too alive for my piece of mind.

It wrapped around me like a shroud, with streaks of color flashing through it, chaotic, hallucinatory brushstrokes slashing through an otherwise lifeless canvas.

Some flared for a heartbeat at the edge of my vision, others twisted and writhed, slow and sickly, crawling across my sight like blooming nightmares.

Was I buried alive? The thought crept in cold and sharp out of nowhere, tightening my chest.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the hallucinations, willing them away, praying for a breeze, a whisper of air, anything to prove I was still part of the living world.

Maybe Rowen slipped some herb or something in my drink as a payback for messing with him?

I wouldn’t let it pass him. He’s been finding his sass in the time he spent cooped up with us in that house.

My thoughts were as erratic as my heartbeat as they jumped in nonsensical manner from one thing to another.

And then it came. The grinding shriek of metal on stone that froze my entire being.

So distant it echoed like a memory, something important that I should remember, yet sharp enough to cut through my fog and dissipate the urgency faster than the quick flashes of light.

The sound clawed its way into my ears, absurdly loud and yet far away, turning my brain into mush.

Instead of freaking out, I found myself thinking, what kind of rusted gate had we installed in Samir’s pristine damn house? He’d murder us if we scratched his beloved polished floors. The absurdity of the thought made a smile tighten my cheeks and pull at my lips. Small, shaky. But real.

Somewhere in the madness, my humor was still alive. And that meant I was too.

“Grab hold of her other arm.” A hushed voice spoke urgently, sending alarm-bells pinging through my foggy brain.

Rough fingers wrapped around my limbs and that was enough to shoot adrenalin through me, strong enough to make me jerk and flop in their hold like a fish out of water.

It was a couple of people fumbling around, trying to grab hold of me while I flailed wildly, in erratic jerks, trying my best to dislodge them from me.

“I told you…Oomph!” One of them sounded pained when he grunted the moment my knee connected with the soft tissue of his abdomen. “Get hold of her arm before she wakes up fully.”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” The anger from the other person slithered like a snake over my skin when he hissed close to my ear.

My limbs were still heavy but fear gave me strength I shouldn’t have had.

I redoubled my efforts to prevent them from taking firm hold of me while trying to remember how I found myself in this predicament.

In increments, details returned. The attack at the house where Guardians came in droves across the large expense of the yard and on the roof of Samir’s safe house.

Red bursts of magic spraying from my hands, killing everything in sight.

Bodies turning into husks as soon as I grabbed hold of them while Brooklyn and Dominic fought with everything they had to keep anyone from hurting me.

That made me pause.

Without thinking too much about it, I stopped flailing and the moment I felt gold clammy hands latch onto my forearms I crossed my arms and grabbed onto the attackers the same way they clutched me.

I had no idea what I expected to happen as I held my breath and all of us stopped scrambling for purchase as if they didn’t know what possessed me that I’m holding onto them like my life depended on it.

I cracked an eyelid open.

The faces looming over me wavered from the stabbing pain in my retinas but the shocked widening of their eyes was comical nonetheless.

All three of us froze, holding our breath in anticipation but nothing happened.

My attackers didn’t shrivel into husks, no red magic shot through my fingertips to punish them for assaulting me.

There was nothing apart from the staccato thrum in my ears from my heartbeat.

“Shit,” I slurred as they looked at each other, their gaunt faces coming clearer into view. All anticipation and fear disappeared, leaving only determination hardening their features. “Shit, shit, shit.”

“Grab her.” The one on the left lurched forward and twisted my arm back so he could yank me to my feet. “She has no magic.”

I dwelled on that comment as I hung awkwardly in his grip, twisting sideways until his buddy grabbed my other arm.

In seconds, they had me suspended between them, my hair falling like a curtain over my face, hiding them from sight.

I remembered making a dome around Brooklyn and Dominic to protect them from the never-ending swarm of Guardians, feeling my life drain into it with every hit it took from our attackers. Then… nothing.

Someone must’ve snatched me and dragged me.

My feet scraped over rough terrain as the two of them hauled me along, my body hanging limp between them. The stench of unwashed bodies clung to the air, making my nose wrinkle—and that’s when I noticed my glasses were gone. Maybe that’s why everything around me looked so blurry and misshapen.

“Remind me again why this is a good idea?” the other person, who was silent until now spoke, the words mumbled under his breath like I was too heavy to carry.

The nerve of these guys. It wasn’t like I asked them to drag me around like a ragdoll.

My huff of annoyance was lost under the heavy sigh from the first guy.

“She asked us to bring her the new prisoner.” The reverence in the tone was unmistakable. Whoever she was, this guy made it sound like she was a goddess he worshipped. “We are alive thanks to her. The least we could do is bring her the girl when she asked.”

“We won’t be alive for long if those monsters return and find her missing.” The other one grumbled. “I thought the whole point was to stay invisible so we could keep our head on our shoulders. This is not staying invisible at all.”

“They never return fast. It always takes a couple of days, you know that.”

“Yeah well it only takes one time for them to return the next day for us to pay for it.”

“Just shut up and move faster.”

My mind was reeling while they bickered.

No matter how much I wanted to pretend otherwise, it was clear that I’d been captured.

With everything in me, I hoped my friends were alive because I knew without a shadow of doubt that Brooklyn would never let anyone take me if she could help it.

Dominic wouldn’t either, and as much as I gave Samir a hard time, grandpa would tear them apart to protect me as well.

So, they were either incapacitated or dead if I was here.

Fear like I’d never known embedded itself into the marrow of my bones.

No.

I refused to even think that. I needed to get my head clear, figure out where I was and get the hell out of Dodge. Then, I’d find my friends and hear the story about what happened from them. Yeah, that sounded like a perfect plan to me.

“I can walk.” My voice sounded raspy and raw.

“What?” They both stopped, painfully jerking my arms in the process. The bossy one took hold of a fistful of my hair and lifted my head to look at me. “What did you say?”

“Did I stutter?” My annoyance turned into a hysterical giggle because I sounded so much like Brooklyn at that moment. I only wished I had her strength as well. I would’ve dismantled their limbs for drugging me and losing my glasses.

“Whatever they gave her muddled her brain,” the second guy grumbled again as if this whole thing was too much of a hustle for him. Me too, buddy, me too, I wanted to say but couldn’t summon enough strength to argue with him.

“I said.” With everything in me I placed one foot flat on the ground, then after a couple of failed attempts, placed the other firmly enough to be able to straighten and wiggle my arms out of their hold. “I can walk. No need to drag me around.”

To prove a point, I stuck my nose in the air and took one step forward.

As life would have it, I didn’t lift my foot high enough and my toes stabbed the hard ground with a sharp pain.

My whole body lurched forward, and I only had enough time to throw both hands in front of me to soften the fall.

All the air whooshed out of me when I face planted between the two men.

“Did she knock herself out?” The one who had been complaining the whole time sounded as if my clumsiness was a personal insult to him.

“For your information,” I said, affronted, forcing the words past my slightly swollen lip—the result of my teeth meeting the inside of my mouth when I introduced my face to the ground.

“I can’t see well without my glasses or I never would’ve tripped.

” It was a lie, but they didn’t need to know that.

“I don’t have time for this. They can come back at any moment and find her gone. There will be no hiding this time.” The bossy one snapped and grabbed my hair to pull me to my feet.

The gasp of pain that escaped me was cut short by a low, predatory rumble from the darkness—a growl so menacing every hair on my body snapped to attention.

Fear prickled across my skin, and my breath froze in my chest. Slowly, I lifted my head, pushing the hair out of my face, only to find myself dangerously close—face to face—with one of the largest creatures I’d ever seen.

My insides shriveled as my eyes locked with its bright green stare. The rest of the world blurred without my glasses, which, in a twisted way, dulled some of the terror clawing at me. If I were about to get eaten, I’d rather not see it coming.

My mouth opened—maybe to plead, maybe to scream—but before a sound escaped, a blast of strange energy slammed into all of us, scattering bodies like bowling pins.

Voices rang out, distorted and distant, as if underwater.

I recognized the two men shouting above me, but their words were lost beneath the agony ripping through me—my skin peeling from my bones.

Darkness came out of nowhere and like a wave picking up sand on the shore it took me with it. Grateful to let the pain fade, I willingly followed.