Page 24 of My Demon Hunter (Hell Bent #2)

23

A FOOL’S C H A N CE I N H ELL

T hey crawled through the tunnel for what felt like forever. The process was slow and exhausting, and it took great effort not to succumb to irrational terror in the confined space. Only constant reasoning— the only way out is forward —kept Lily from falling into a catatonic state.

“If we survive this, I’m going to sleep with a night-light for the rest of my life,” Iris whispered. “I’ll get one shaped like your arse for good measure.”

Lily tried to laugh, but it came out more like a sob.

She tried not to think about what would happen if she reached into the blackness and touched a gorath larva. Instead, she fretted over what condition Mist would be in when they found him, which wasn’t really an improvement.

Would they be able to get him back through the tunnel? If he was unconscious, there was no way they could drag him. Would he even fit? There was a strong possibility the tunnel was narrower than his shoulder width if the tight squeeze against her hips was anything to go by.

Neither of them spoke, their heavy breathing the only sound to penetrate the quiet.

It was impossible to say how much time passed. Maybe one hour, maybe five. Maybe less than an hour. But eventually, they came across the first fork in the tunnel, and Iris broke the silence with, “Two rights and a left.”

They went right. Not too much further ahead, the tunnel forked again, and again, Iris repeated the mantra. After the final turn, Lily’s heart began to race again. Only then did she realize she had somehow overcome her panic instincts.

Unfortunately, they returned with a vengeance as she suddenly spotted light ahead. The reality of what she was about to do hit hard, and just like that, she was terrified again.

Wordlessly, they crawled toward the light that grew steadily brighter. Before long, she came face to face with a large boulder blocking the tunnel entrance. There was a narrow horizontal crack just wide enough for Iris’s slim figure to fit through, but Lily’s butt was a different story.

“Can you see anything?” Iris whispered.

“I’m not sure I can fit through the crack.”

Iris scoffed. “Your butt isn’t that big.”

She was pretty sure it was that big. “Only one way to find out—”

“Wait.”

She stopped, staring at the little patch of light, waiting for Iris to speak.

“Before you go out there... if everything goes to shit... I just have to tell you that I love you, and I’m glad we’re in this together. And I’m sorry for everything, and I swear I’ll never lie to you again.”

Lily was too wound up to care about the past anymore, and in that moment, all she felt was gratitude for her sister’s company as well. This would have been so much worse if she was alone.

“I love you too, and I’m glad you’re with me even if it wasn’t by choice.”

“Are you kidding? I’d never miss a chance to do something impulsive and life-threatening, you know that.”

This time, she did manage a laugh. A sad, breathy thing that died quickly in the face of what they were about to do.

“I guess I’d better see if I can fit through that.”

“I’ll shove you through like Winnie the Pooh if you get stuck.”

With another feeble chuckle, Lily inched forward through the rock, crushing her boobs painfully and sucking in her belly. As predicted, she got stuck at the hips. Fighting down the panic, she braced herself against the sharp stone and pushed.

When she still didn’t budge, two palms landed on her ass cheeks, and despite everything, she felt her face flame with embarrassment. She heard Iris grunt with effort as she shoved forward, so she braced herself against the rock to help out.

Just when she was starting to fear she really was stuck, Lily finally slipped through with a painful scrape across her butt cheek. Pulling herself the rest of the way out, she scrambled over the rock and took in her surroundings, ready to face whatever new terror awaited them.

Distantly, she heard Iris climbing through behind her, but everything else faded into the background as she stared ahead.

The spacious cavern was dimly lit by flickering torches on the walls. A long, rectangular table stretched across the space, laden with a literal feast of horrors, though no one was eating the writhing stews and roasted limbs. There was no one around at all, in fact, save for a lone figure.

At the far end of the room, suspended high above from hooks stabbed through his wings and shoulders... was Mist.

Choking back a scream, Lily forgot her fear and ran toward him.

“Look out!” Iris called, and she skidded to a halt, not a second too soon.

Another two steps, and she would have run right off the edge of an enormous hole in the ground. The Pit. The bottom was black, but she could just discern something moving below and hear a skin-crawling sound like writhing insects.

Mist was hanging right over it, blood dripping from his wounds into the abyss. Driving the beasts into a frenzy.

She choked on the bile rising up her throat. Despite what the gargoyles said, she still hadn’t imagined something this horrific.

She was going to get Mist out of here if it killed her, and she would do whatever it took to make sure he never set foot in this terrible place again.

Spurred into action, she craned her head back to study the contraption holding him aloft, following the chains to a pulley system near where they had emerged. She wanted to call out to him, but he appeared to be unconscious, and making unnecessary noise wasn’t smart anyway.

“Stay there and make sure he doesn’t fall in,” Iris whispered from across the room, seeing what Lily had. “I’ll lower him.”

Iris unhooked the chain, grunting with exertion as her arms strained under the weight. The pulley made a great screeching sound as the chains moved, and Lily’s heart began to race faster. Terror consumed her as she imagined Paimon bursting through the door at any second.

The chain ran on a track that guided the hooks from the center of the Pit toward the edge. As Mist’s feet hit the ground, his knees immediately collapsed beneath his own weight. Lily caught him before he fell, dragging his immensely heavy body away from the edge as best she could.

He groaned, and his eyes shifted beneath his closed lids.

“Mist, it’s me.” She could barely speak through her constricted throat as she eased him onto the ground on his side. He wasn’t supporting his own weight, and there was no way she was strong enough to hold him up. “It’s Lily. I’ve come to get you out of here.”

Iris appeared beside her. “Fuck, what happened to him?”

His arms had been shredded nearly to the bone, and his face was bloody with deep lacerations. There were thick manacles around his wrists with a heavy length of chain between them.

He didn’t respond and didn’t appear to be aware of much. It was a blessing for now while they removed the hooks, but what about when it was time to leave? There was no way they could carry him.

One thing at a time. The ones through his wings were easy enough to remove, though Lily was twice as panicked as she’d been in the cramped tunnel and was close to losing it. Tears ran unchecked down her cheeks as she gently slid the hooks through the wounds in the soft, leathery tissue.

Soon, all that was left were the two big ones through his shoulders.

“We’ll take these out together, okay?” Iris’s level head was the only thing keeping Lily from breaking down. “Let’s start with this one.”

“O-okay.”

“You hold him in place while I pull from the back. I’ll do it in one go so it hurts him less.”

She took a shaky breath and nodded.

With a grunt of exertion, they worked together on Iris’s count, and the hook slid free. And Mist finally woke up.

With a snarl, he tackled Lily, pinning her to the cold ground. His claws dug into her shoulders, the chains on his manacles draping over her chest. His yellow eyes were crazed, his sharp teeth bared, the wounds on his face dripping blood.

“Lily!” Iris’s panicked voice seemed far away.

“It’s okay,” she said, keeping a level tone. “He won’t hurt me.”

At the sound of her voice, Mist blinked groggily. “Lily...?”

“Iris and I came to get you, but we have to go now. We’re running out of time.”

He inhaled deeply. “My Lily.”

Her breath caught. “Yes, it’s me.”

“You’re glowing again.”

“Yes. But we really have to go. Paimon could come back at any minute.”

He frowned like he was struggling to understand. It must’ve been an immense effort for him to even remain conscious. Slowly, comprehension dawned, and his eyes shot suddenly wide. He scrambled off her, snarling with pain from the movement of the remaining hook in his shoulder. His gaze caught on Iris, and he froze.

“Hey,” she said weakly, lifting a hand.

“We have to pull that hook out,” Lily said, sitting up. “Iris and I can—”

Mist reached over his shoulder, and with one rough jerk, he tore it out of himself. Iris actually gagged.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, tossing it away. “Why are you here?”

“To get you.”

“Lily...”

Their gazes met. There was so much she wanted to say to him, and she could tell he felt the same. Why had he come here? He’d promised to have hope. Why hadn’t he told her what he was planning? Why hadn’t he confided in her?

But there wasn’t time. Later, they would talk. She scrambled to her feet, knees wobbling, and grasped his hand. “We have to go.”

He painstakingly rose, holding her tightly. Gratitude filled her heart when Iris came over and grabbed Mist’s other arm to help. She wasn’t thinking about the chains at his wrists that were supposed to bind him to this place. She’d gotten him free before, and she would do it again. Together, they could do this. Together, they—

The door at the far end of the chamber banged open.

A looming figure stepped into the torchlight. Not clearly male or female, the demon was lean and incredibly tall, easily eight feet or more, with powerful, taloned wings. Four horns framed a cruel face, atop which sat an elaborate crown of black jewels.

Lily had never seen this demon before, but she knew immediately who it was.

Paimon had come for the Hunter.

The Queen of Hell didn’t rage or yell when she saw them in the process of liberating her prisoner. She strode calmly across the room, an enormous, red-eyed camel loping at her side.

The tunnel entrance was only about twenty feet away. The smart thing to do might have been to run, but all thought had fled Lily’s brain in the face of her fear.

Paimon stopped before them. This close, her looming height was even more obvious. She looked down at them like they were mere insects.

“That’s my Hunter you’re attempting to abscond with.”

Lily flinched, though Paimon’s voice was level. She expected shouting and wrath, but this cool detachment was somehow worse.

“I knew there was a reason Murmur chose to attack my lair all of a sudden. I’m surprised he chose to ally with mortals, however. Then again, the famed blood-borns are no mere mortals.” Her thin lips curved as she surveyed Lily’s glowing form. “What a unique phenomenon. I wonder what purpose it serves?”

None at all, unfortunately.

Mist inched closer to her, his grip tightening around her hand. “Run,” he hissed. “I will hold her off.”

Paimon ignored him. “How convenient of you to visit my lair and save me the trouble of locating you myself. Lucifer will be pleased.” She flicked a hand at Mist. “Step aside, my Hunter. Or better yet, why not throw yourself in the Pit and save me that trouble as well.”

Despite her paralyzing fear, Lily heard herself say, “He’s not yours.”

Paimon’s brows rose. “No?”

She shook her head mutely, bravery dissipating as quickly as it had come.

The demon queen threw back her head and barked a laugh that echoed around the chamber.

“If he’s not mine, then why can I do this?” Her gaze snapped to Mist, and she lifted a hand and flexed her fingers.

The sulfuric burn of Sheolic magic singed the air. Mist shuddered, and a low groan escaped him as he fell to his knees, clutching his chest. With a cry, Lily dropped beside him.

Paimon’s hand relaxed, and Mist slumped forward onto his hands, panting. He glanced at Lily through the hair falling in his face, pain clouding his vision. “Run... now.”

“In every way, he belongs to me,” Paimon said. “Even his heart does not beat without my permission.”

The brands. It all came back to those cursed, awful brands. Lily shook her head in response to his beseeching gaze. There was no way she was leaving him.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t got time for games right now, as much as I enjoy your screams. I need to go take care of Murmur before he decapitates too many of my soldiers. Heads take forever to regenerate.” Paimon glanced at her camel. “Throw the Hunter in the Pit, Shaheen. Now that I’ve got the twins, we have work to do.”

Before Lily had a second to react, the enormous, skeletal beast knocked her and Iris aside and closed its jaw around one of Mist’s wings.

This is not happening. She leapt at the camel, pummeling its hateful face with her fists.

“Go, Lily!” Mist snarled. He put up no resistance as it dragged him away, the chains at his wrists scraping on the stone floor. What was he doing? Why wouldn’t he fight?

Iris was there too, but instead of helping, she was trying to pull Lily off the camel, begging her to listen to Mist and run while they could.

The commotion progressed toward the looming edge. There had to be some way to stop this. Something she could do. Anything.

They reached the Pit.

Without hesitation, Shaheen swung his neck and tossed Mist over the edge.

Lily’s scream echoed around the cavern.

But then... a familiar gray tail snapped over the side, wound around Shaheen’s leg, and tugged. The camel tripped and, with a terrible, haunting bellow, went sailing into the abyss.

Paimon’s shriek of fury rent the air.

If there had been chaos before, it was nothing compared to what was unleashed now.

With her great scream, the halls began to shake with a rumbling earthquake. The dishes on the table rattled, vibrating off the edge to smash on the ground. Rocks dropped from the high ceiling amid a shower of dust.

Ducking under falling rubble, Lily caught a glimpse of black claws clinging to the edge of the Pit. Mist. She ran to him.

Paimon saw too and charged toward them. A boulder fell from the ceiling in her path, and the demon queen swatted it aside as though it were a balloon.

Dropping onto her belly, Lily reached over the edge. Her fingers closed around Mist’s chains just as Paimon reached her.

Paimon aimed a kick toward her side, but Iris was there, throwing herself in front of Lily. Her body intercepted the blow, and she went flying back toward the table. Lily shouted her sister’s name. Still clinging to the edge, Mist reached one hand out and grabbed Paimon’s leg. He yanked. Paimon tripped just like her camel and toppled over the edge.

Just before she disappeared, her hand shot out and seized Lily’s glowing arm while she was distracted looking over her shoulder for Iris.

And Paimon and Lily went down together.