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

Chapter Five

ALICE

It was always cold here.

Not the kind of cold that made you shiver and rub your arms, but the kind that sank deeper—into your bones, into your thoughts. The kind that whispered you were alone, even with someone standing right in front of you.

I didn’t know how long I’d been here. Time didn’t move properly in this place. The light—or whatever passed for it—the constant, sickly flicker of muted green, never shifted. The walls stayed damp. The silence pressed in, patient and listening.

And I hated it.

Curled up as tight as I could fold my body, I hugged my knees to my chest fiercely to prevent the violent shaking racking my frame.

I think I was imagining things as well. Monsters lurking in dark tunnels. Men dragging me half conscious, bickering amongst each other that they had to take me somewhere before someone else came. Someone else meaning the Council.

The two remaining asshats that were left, that was.

A crazed snicker escaped me, and I had to press my trembling hands to my mouth to stifle it.

They thought they could break me.

And maybe, on some days, they got close.

Those days when I woke up screaming, soaked in a fear that didn’t belong to me.

When the chains around my wrists burned even though they were cold.

When I swore I heard Brooklyn’s voice in the dark, only to realize it was my own mind playing tricks on me.

Yes, on those days, I thought maybe they’d done it, cracked something in me.

But I wasn’t shattered. Not yet.

Not while I still had my friend, my sister.

I didn’t know what they did to me, not exactly.

I only knew that things weren’t right. That the air buzzed too loud when they entered the room.

That sometimes, I felt like I was glowing beneath my skin, lit up like a candle from the inside, and it hurt.

Dear Universe, it hurts. But worse than the pain was not knowing if my friends were safe.

Brooklyn and Dominic mostly. I couldn’t imagine a world without them, although I had to admit I cared a bit too much for the others, as well.

The demons included, even though I barely knew them.

Having their magic pass through me made me understand them better on some molecular level.

Like I wasn’t weird enough before all this shit.

Not for the first time, I wondered if there was some merit to my father’s crazy ramblings about aliens and conspiracies.

What if supernatural creatures did things to him that he couldn’t explain so he created this world of extraterrestrial beings following him around?

His poor mind could’ve been messed with because of me.

Because of whatever I was.

Isn’t it a damn fate years later after his death to meet the most wonderful people, a new chance at having a family and a friend everyone wishes for but rarely gets, only for bastards to want to use and control us. To destroy us on a soul level.

If they’d hurt my family to make me do whatever they wanted, I would never forgive myself.

Especially Brooklyn.

She had been the anchor in my storm, the one person who didn’t flinch when the darkness crept in behind my eyes or when I did the most ridiculous and insane things.

When I was slowly changing and turning into who knows what.

Brooklyn stood firm. She saw something in me. Something I wasn’t even sure existed.

Now I held onto that thought like it was life itself.

Like it was blood.

Because if she was still out there, then I had to survive until she found me.

And she will find me, I said firmly to myself.

I would survive.

Even if I had to pretend to be broken.

Even if I had to smile at my captors like I didn’t dream of ripping their spines out.

Even if I had to become something they didn’t expect.

They thought they had me.

But I’ve played the game of pretend before.

And this time, I wasn’t playing to protect myself and blend in.

No.

I was playing for Brooklyn. For Dominic.

And all the gods and the universe help anyone who tried to stop me.

I didn’t hear any footsteps or anyone nearing the dark, damp room where I was kept. The walls here had a way of swallowing sound, like everything sacred had been devoured long ago.

But I felt it.

That shift in the air.

A ripple of something slick and venomous sliding into the room.

I didn’t move. Didn’t even lift my head. I stayed curled against the wall like I hadn’t noticed.

“Alice,” came the voice, silken, amused, and serpentine. “That is your name, is it not?” when I didn’t answer or acknowledge his presence he continued. “Still playing martyr for those who abandoned you without a second glance?”

I almost laughed. Still playing, he said. Like my pain was an act. Like my strength was theater. I can feel the fucker Frederic leering at me from a few feet away. The last rat clinging to the throne of a sinking ship.

He moved closer, each step deliberate, calculated. The scent of cinnamon and blood enveloped him, a sickly sweetness masking decay. His power pressed down on me, an unseen hand gripping my throat, squeezing my lungs.

“Must be exhausting,” Frederic whispered, his voice threaded with mock sympathy, “pretending defiance will save anyone.” He crouched beside me, long blonde hair falling over his shoulder and hiding half of his face. “We both know how this ends, don’t we?”

I didn’t answer. I focused on keeping my breathing shaky, my eyes dull, like I was barely there. Let him think I was broken. Maybe he will go away.

He sighed theatrically. “I have an offer.” His voice lowered conspiratorially. “You help us…genuinely help us…and you’ll see your little band of misfits again. Safe. Unharmed.”

Slowly, deliberately, I lifted my gaze to meet his. “And in return?” My voice was fragile, vulnerable, just as he wanted. My friend would be proud if she saw my acting skills.

The idiot crouched next to me bought my act.

Frederic smiled sharply, the beauty of his features distorted by cruelty.

“You let us harness what’s inside you. Accept your true potential and do our bidding.

Imagine the power you’d hold. You’d be revered, feared, unstoppable.

” He leaned in closer, his words baiting me like poison-coated apple.

“Brooklyn would live, Dominic too. All you have to do is surrender yourself fully to us. Become something greater.”

A beat of silence passed. I let my eyes shimmer with just enough unshed tears. Let him think he’d won something. I could feel him gloating and the excitement bubbling, buzzing under his skin.

Then I smiled. Small. Hollow.

“I’m already something greater,” I whispered.

His expression flickered.

I leaned forward, slow, every part of me humming like a drawn bowstring. “And if you so much as touch one hair on Brooklyn’s head again,” I said, voice sharpening like frost across steel, “you won’t live long enough to beg for death.”

Frederic’s eyes widened, but only for a second. Then he laughed. Light, mocking. But he stepped back. Just one step. But I saw it.

He was afraid.

From me.

The absurdity of it almost made me scream-laugh in his face.

“Such spirit,” he said, standing straight again. “You’ll learn soon enough the only room for you in our world is on your knees. You’ll learn your place. We all do.”

He turned to leave, but paused at the door.

“Oh,” he added without looking at me, “when you start glowing again, try not to scream too loud. We have new guests in the lower levels who are dying to meet you. Don’t want to disturb their rest.”

And then he was gone.

The door shut softly behind him, plunging the room back into its oppressive quiet.

He thought he knew me. Thought he could control me. But he didn’t see the truth.

I would figure out what terrified him about me, then I would use it. I had every intention of escaping before Brooklyn risked her life to save mine.

They thought they almost broke me, but I was just getting started.