Page 37 of Queen of the Wicked (Afterlife #1)

Alessia

“ W e found water from a nearby tunnel.” Izara passed a canteen to Alessia, nose crinkled in disgust. “It doesn’t look the best, but it’s something.”

Alessia’s canteen had spilled and emptied during the battle with the argentinosaurus. With her ankle still puffy and swollen, the soul seeker had offered to try to find a replacement, but with a sniff of her nose, Alessia almost gagged. It smelled off, like boiled eggs mixed with seaweed.

“Take mine,” Erebos said. “I’ll drink this.”

Alessia clutched the canteen when he tried to take it from her. “Absolutely not. You don’t have powers, Erebos, which means you’re more susceptible to illness. If anyone should drink it, it’s me.”

They had taken shelter in a secluded part of the cave, hidden behind a wall of spiked stone and rubble.

It smelled damp here, like clothes left in a washer for too long, and Alessia’s body chilled with uneasiness the longer they remained in the pits.

Being here felt unnatural, like this level of Hell was reserved for corrupt and vile demons with bad intentions.

She felt out of place—a foreign entity in a realm that wasn’t meant for her.

“Take mine,” Izara suggested, holding out her canteen. “I will drink the one you have.”

“I can drink this,” Alessia reaffirmed. She didn’t feel right having others take the consequences of her canteen spilling. It was her fault it fell out of the backpack to begin with. When Erebos offered to carry it for her, she should’ve ensured it was secured.

“I know you can, but you shouldn’t have to.” Izara seemed frustrated that she couldn’t elaborate further. “I should be the one to drink the tainted water.”

“Oh my god.” Exasperated, Alessia drank a mouthful of the vile liquid, trying but failing to hide her disgust at the bitterness that coated her throat as it traveled to her stomach.

It tasted rancid, like a dead fish baking in the sun all day.

“Mm,” she said, attempting to convince them all that it was fine.

“So yummy. It’s like—” Throwing an elbow over her mouth, she erupted into a fit of coughs.

Erebos instantly called her bluff. “Give me that,” he muttered, snatching it away from her. He set it beside them and shoved his own into her hands. “We’ll share the remainder of what I have. We shouldn’t be here longer than a few days. That should be enough to last us.”

When Eryx led them to their spot to rest, Erebos hadn’t given Alessia a choice when he sat down on the floor with his back resting against the stone, keeping her in his lap.

She hadn’t fought him on it, either, so Erebos had spent the past hour keeping her ankle elevated with his hand, his fingers gently caressing the swollen flesh.

They didn’t pack blankets or a tent, as they didn’t intend to stay in one place for too long, but Izara had lit a fire that was meant to keep them warm.

Initially, it had, but an icy frost had seemed to coat the walls the longer they sat there, despite them being in a realm crafted of fire. It caused Alessia to shudder, her breath noticeable in the golden hue that highlighted her face.

“Why is it so cold?” she asked.

Erebos furrowed his brows. “You’re cold?” Reaching to grab her arm, he hissed and pulled away. “Christ, Alessia. You’re freezing.”

“It’s hotter than Hades in here with the fire going,” Izara muttered. Eryx stood on the opposite side of the cave, keeping watch, remaining silent since the fight he had had with Erebos earlier. But Alessia had noticed that he stripped himself of his shirt, sweat trickling down his spine.

No one else was cold?

“Her lips are turning blue,” Izara murmured as she studied her. Suddenly, her eyes darted to the canteen with the vile liquid. “You don’t think?—”

“Shit,” Erebos said. “Is the water poisoned?”

Alessia’s teeth chattered as the cave seemed to drop another ten degrees, and the same foreboding sensation she felt before Kael’s arrival in Hell came crashing down upon her like a tsunami. It filled her veins with dread, clogging her bloodstream and arteries with pure, unadulterated fear .

Suddenly, the flames of the fire extinguished, casting her into total darkness. It provoked the breath to whoosh from her lungs as if she had just Traveled, but that didn’t make sense when she hadn’t initiated it.

Where was she?

Fear quickly took root as she whipped her head towards Erebos, where she should still be perched on his lap, but all she found was a damp stone floor and darkness.

She was alone.

That fear quickly transformed into terror, choking her as her eyes darted to find a source of light, only to be met with none. Her heart rate spiked, drumming against her chest when she crawled onto her knees, wincing from the pain that still throbbed in her ankle.

An instinct told her that someone was there with her, watching, waiting, observing. She felt it when the hair rose on the back of her neck. As trepidation trickled into her veins, preparing her for the moment the jumpscare would strike.

But she refused to be as idiotic as the people she watched in the horror movies growing up.

She wouldn’t ask who was there or give them her name.

Instead, she shrank into the shadows, willing herself to become as small and frail as she could.

Her lungs ached, like someone had wrapped their fist around them and squeezed as hard as they could.

It caused her to wheeze, a hand flying to her chest as if that would ease the discomfort.

And then the jumpscare happened.

A thump landed beside her that nearly caused her to fly out of her skin.

Alessia scrambled away from the sound, her back hitting the stone wall behind her. A deep, familiar voice chuckled in response, but she couldn’t place a name to it.

“You can run, but you can’t hide,” it taunted.

Panic seized her, filling her chest with a swarm of static she couldn’t shake. Her body vibrated with dread, like she knew what was coming before it happened.

And then it did.

A sharp pain blasted through her ribs, shattering the bone on impact. A scream crawled up her throat, but she swallowed it down, gasping for air as the agony ricocheted through her stomach.

Where was she?

The entity was soundless, instead replacing her head with voices that came from every direction. It was cries of pain, the souls begging for help. They shouted for mercy, as if she were the one bestowing the punishment.

Nothing made sense.

Slamming her hands over her ears, she paused when her fingertips landed on short curls rather than her lengthy ones. She skimmed over the ends, how they swooped at the nape of her neck, and that’s when it dawned on her.

She was in another one of Erebos’s memories.

But how did she get here?

“The more you fight this, the more innocents die.” The voice projected into her mind, like it forced its way inside, and her brain felt like it was being ripped in half, icicles jabbing against her cranium.

Now she screamed, but the sound was deep and hollow.

It was Erebos screaming. Erebos going through this excruciating torment.

Erebos’s voice breaking as anguish tore from his throat.

“Will you break?” The chilling voice asked. “Join us. Lead us.”

Alessia crawled away from the voice, even with the screaming penetrating her mind. Even when her rib felt as if it were hanging by a thread, darkness cloaked her, beckoning her to succumb to the monstrosities the voice craved for her to give.

And then the hard object slammed into her back, pinning her to the stone floor.

It crushed her spine, tearing another ripped scream from her, although it sounded like Erebos.

Alessia couldn’t tell what was happening, or why she kept experiencing Erebos’s past, but this didn’t feel like the past, especially when she felt the object dig further into her spine, threatening to break another bone.

“You will choose us eventually. I will see to it that you endure this agony for centuries, keeping you on the precipice of death but never allowing you to cross over into eternity. I will torture you until my last breath, until the only person you see when you close your eyes at night is me. Until the only fear you have is me. ”

Her cheek pressed against the frigid floor, trembling beneath the weight on her back.

Tears cascaded down her cheeks, but still, she didn’t scream.

She remained limp, allowing an odd calm to settle in her bones, a sense of peace that maybe the pain would be gone soon.

That perhaps the next strike would be the last.

Death wouldn’t be so bad.

Alessia, a warm voice soothed. Come back to me.

A flicker of light appeared in her peripheral vision, and suddenly she was pulled back to reality and staring down at a new scenery: Erebos clutching her to his chest as she convulsed in his arms, eyes rolled to the back of her head while Izara leaned over her, seeming to wait until the convulsing stopped.

Alessia stared at the scene for a long time, drifting around the cavern like a fly on the wall until suddenly, Erebos’s voice echoed through her mind again.

Come back to me, my love.

Come back.

Come back.

Come back.

Eyes shooting open, Alessia flinched when the flames of the fire greeted her.

She scrambled out of Erebos’s hold, putting as much distance from everyone as she could.

The ghost of the hard object still lingered, but no pain remained.

Her ribs and spine were uninjured, but her swollen ankle continued to throb.

“Alessia,” Erebos breathed, eyes softening as he scanned her over. He seemed panicked himself, dirt and blood still coating his skin from the battle. “Are you all right? The water was poisoned with ergot.”

She blinked, regaining her bearings as her heart tried to catch up to speed that she was safe now. The darkness was replaced with the gentle glow of the fire, and Erebos’s presence enveloped her like a blanket of warmth she desperately needed.