Page 2

2

Eternal Drowning

NYX

PRESENT DAY

I n death, I flew.

At first, I thought I was dreaming of flying, but then I remembered that we’d died .

The wind howling at my face and through my hair had to be punishment—the tumultuous journey before I arrived in Hell. My stomach was a mess of knots and nerves that kept plummeting into depths unknown. I longed to open my eyes—darkly curious to watch the seven gates pass by. The road to Hell had to be interesting, after all. But weakness claimed my mind, body, and soul.

Soon, the flight turned to freefall. I’d know that sensation anywhere.

A voice, a terrible, sinful voice, cried out in my ear. I couldn’t quite make out what it was saying. Warning me, maybe? I must have been about to arrive. It made sense. The entrance to Hell would be a sickening freefall. But I was too weak to care. I couldn’t understand why the voice sounded so frantic and desperate, surely the Devil wouldn’t want me to fight it? I wanted to tell him to shut the hell up and let me accept my fate.

I hit the barrier between worlds with an awful slap .

Cold, merciless arms welcomed me with a ferocious bite. Breath I shouldn’t have had was stolen from my lungs. Shock had my eyes shooting open, the world around me dark and blurred. A torrent of burning ice hurled down my throat when I attempted to breathe. I coughed and made it worse. Claws ravaged my throat and ripped apart my lungs, their edges sharp and frozen.

My arms flailed around, searching for purchase, but I found nothing but the mockery of waves that pushed me further and further below the surface.

Water. I was under water .

Alarm filled my being. This didn’t make sense! Where was the fire and brimstone?

Desperation laced through my veins and shocked my weary mind to life. I tried clawing my way up, but I’d never been a strong swimmer. I couldn’t see a thing—nothing but darkness. My heart slammed painfully against my straining ribs, my lungs full of water and ready to burst.

A rolling wave had me tumbling in the dark, unaware of what was up or down.

I realized, in that moment, as the ravenous waters sloshed me around, that this actually did make perfect sense. I was Nyx Morningstar, notoriously explosive fireling. What else would my version of Hell be, but eternal drowning?

With this revelation, came acceptance. All fight within me died. I went still, letting the endless expanse of cold, biting water —my elemental nemesis—claim me.

He would find me anywhere.

I should have known.

Even tucked away in the depths of my own, personal hell, he found me. I could hear him, calling my name from somewhere above. It seemed like I could feel his fingers brushing my skin, tracing stories over my cheeks and writing tragedies down my arms. If I stayed in this darkness, perhaps he would go away. Perhaps the abhorrent part of me which enjoyed his ungodly attention would go away too.

Cocooned in the serenity of nothingness, I ignored the insufferable probing that nagged at my consciousness.

It wasn’t just him. Another annoying stabbing sensation kept harassing me. Bright and sharp and relentless like florescent light being shone in your face.

A weight pressed me down, down, down. It was both uncomfortable and exactly what I needed to keep me untethered from the reality outside of me.

I clung to that weight for dear life. The unpleasant throb in my centre became my Holy Grail. I focused on nothing but that, in hopes it would keep me here.

But all pressure must find release.

Like a volcano, I erupted. With breath and sound and terrible awareness. Everything came back in at once like I’d been spat from a black hole back into the centre of existence.

The water that was logged in my lungs finally burst free. It spewed from my mouth and nose, leaving me coughing uncontrollably while the light above me stabbed my eyes.

“ There you are ,” that sinful voice said, still sounding worlds away. “ Yes. There you are. You’re okay .”

I coughed. Sputtered. Spazzed.

The world around me spun frantically. Until it didn’t.

Until the horrible truth of stillness settled in around me and there was nowhere else to turn. Not to the blackness which had previously taken me as prisoner. Not to the water weighing down my lungs and forbidding me to breathe.

My eyes fluttered open, and he was right there.

Eyes as silver as twin daggers, hair dark as night stained with blood. And wings . Oh, Goddess. Wings so grand they blocked out the sun. Feathers the blackest shade of red, a color I had once known as Wrath. Water dripped from them, onto me. Each droplet hit like a bullet from a weapon that would only wound me, never kill me.

He held me in his arms. Half of me lay in the sand, the other half consumed by him. One hand clutched my arm, the other brushed fingers down my cheek. He held me like a baby, our skin touching in so many places it made my stomach clench.

The sky above him was a deep, threatening grey. I thought there had been sun, but that must have been a trick of the mind. Or perhaps his darkness blocked it out—I’d never know. Freezing cold wind harassed my exposed skin like a thousand jagged little shark teeth. I could hear the moody ocean, the way her waves roared and crashed with a vengeance. This was no beach in California. This was a beach in Hell.

Yes, here I was, in my Afterlife. With him.

A hoarse, maniacal laugh tumbled through my lips, and then I sank back into the darkness again.