Faith (Soul Savers Book 7) (16 page)

And good thing for that
because my eyes landed on an aged wood cabin nestled in the woods
that I wouldn’t have seen through the cover of leaves.

Our landing was clumsy
as we plowed into a bank of snow, but then I could use my power to
lift Tristan up the wooden stairs and across the porch to the front
door. With another shove of power, I slammed the door open, then
guided Tristan inside the cold, one-room cabin.

When I glanced around,
my eyes instinctively went up to look for a hole in the roof because
a blanket of white covered the entire interior. There was no hole,
though, and when the back of my hand dragged across the top of the
couch as I directed Tristan to the hearth, the white stuff didn’t
feel cold. It plumed into a cloud when I lay him on the floor. I
rubbed my fingers together. It was thicker than normal dust, more
like ash. Was this fallout? I had no idea, but that was my best
guess.

There was no wood in
the cabin, so I had to go back outside and hunt some down. Once I had
a few logs stacked in the fireplace, I had to hunt some more for
matches or a lighter, and blankets and food would have been nice. I
didn’t find any blankets at all, but I found a matchbook with a
single match and one can of sausages. Miraculously, I managed to
light the fire with the one match, and then I cut open the can with
my dagger. The sausages smelled like farts and tasted like ass, but I
couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten. So I shoved
them in my mouth and forced them down as tears spilled over my cheeks
at the memory of my son, my husband, and my team choking down
sausages just like these on the train in Russia.

The fire barely warmed
me and did nothing for Tristan. When the few logs I’d found
crumpled into coals, I went outside to find more wood. A new blizzard
howled through the woods, blanketing any fallen logs. I found one
piece that lasted another hour or so, but it quickly became apparent
that we couldn’t stay here.

So where to next? And
how?

Since I’d been
successful in taking off and landing to bring Tristan from the
cliff’s edge to the cabin, I considered flying us out of here,
but decided to give something else a stab first, because flashing was
so much faster and more efficient. So I focused on my destination of
“one hundred miles south of here” and hoped that didn’t
send us farther away from civilization. Well, not that there was any
civilization left on this world, but I needed to go closer to the
equator.
Oh
. Maybe that was how I needed to think it. I
clarified my destination, one hundred miles closer to the equator,
and flashed.

We appeared on the edge
of a dark, lifeless village. No mind signatures around. The place was
eerily still, but I couldn’t stop and contemplate. Tristan
could be dying. I had to keep us moving. I tried flashing again. This
time, I sensed the minds—all Daemoni—close by the moment
we arrived in another village, but before I could concentrate on a
new flash, a red light streaked toward us and blasted into my wing.

The shock of impact
rattled throughout my body, making me yelp. After a moment, though, I
realized that I otherwise felt no effects from the mage’s
spell. The feathers of my wings had hardened and taken on a steely
edge along with a silvery glow. Another light shot at us. I
immediately folded myself over Tristan and pulled my wings around us,
enclosing us within their protection. More spells pinged against
them. I peeked out through a crack between feathers. Several Daemoni
witches had emerged from the town’s buildings, standing on the
roofs around us, firing their spells as we sat in the middle of the
road. But none did any damage. My opinion of these wings improved
drastically.

Knowing the witches
couldn’t hurt us but sensing the mind signature of a more
powerful mage nearby, I focused on another hundred miles closer to
the equator and flashed us out of there.

We slammed into what
felt like a brick wall.

The Daemoni had trapped
us, blocking the flash. We still sat in the middle of the same road.
My mind and body picked up on the more powerful mind and magic of a
warlock, and a moment later, a spell blasted at us, feeling like a
sonic boom that crashed into us. The pressure hit my ears, and my
heart stopped for a long moment. I couldn’t pull in a good
enough breath. The mages circled us, following the warlock’s
lead. More spells soared at us. I covered us with my wings, wiggled
my legs out from under Tristan’s body and still hanging on to
him, crouched upward as best as I could without removing the
protection of my wings from his legs.

“Don’t
worry, Tristan. I’ll get us out of here.” My promise was
made more to boost my own confidence than anything.

I lifted my palm up
just enough from his chest and parted my wings. An electric bolt shot
out of my hand at the same time that I launched us upward.

More spells streaked up
at us as we climbed to a few hundred feet above land. I swerved and
twisted, dodging them and throwing my own powers back downward while
somehow managing to keep a hold of Tristan, too. Then I turned us to
head toward what I felt in my gut was south. As we flew farther away
from the mages, I thought we might have made it. But apparently the
warlock had flashed ahead, because a powerful spell surged at us
again. The movement in the air sent me flying backwards, and then
tumbling uncontrollably. My hands’ grip on each other loosened
… then broke. I lost my hold on Tristan.

He plummeted for the
ground.

“Tristan!”
I screamed as I nosedived after him.

Another spell hit me,
sending me off course and farther way from him. I arced around to fly
for him again while zapping electricity toward the warlock, having no
idea if I actually hit him and not caring. Tristan’s limp body
plunged toward the ground entirely too fast. I focused on zooming
toward him, hoping that even if I caught him, I didn’t slam us
into the unforgiving ground. A spell flashed by me. I twisted and
swerved. Shot Amadis power blindly behind me.

Almost there, baby.
Almost there.

Another sonic boom
carried through the air. And I immediately knew I wasn’t going
to reach Tristan before it hit him. I reached my arms out, trying to
grasp his ankles, but he was still too far away.

“Tristan,”
I tried to call again, but the wind carried his name away as my chest
tightened and my throat closed.

A gold streak flashed
before the boom hit us. Something wrapped around my wrist. I yelled
one more time for Tristan when everything around me disappeared.

The air changed—the
smell of it, the very feel of it. The sounds of growls and grunts and
metal clashing against metal reverberated all around me. When my eyes
adjusted to the new scene, my mouth fell open. Angels and Demons
surrounded me, swords and other weapons flying, lodging into shields
and flesh. Silver and black blood flowed like water.

I blinked, but the
scene remained. I stood in the Otherworld, facing a golden-haired
faerie who held Tristan in her arms.

“Bree!” I
squealed, but when I was about to lunge at Tristan’s faerie
mother, she shook her head.

“I need to get
him out of here before he suffers the consequences. Where are the
faerie stones?”

“In his pocket.”

She nodded. “Good.
I’ll be right back. You stay here.”

Her head flicked to the
side, and the veil to Earth parted.

“Wait! Where are
you taking him?”

“Where he’ll
be safe until you can get back to him.” She disappeared, taking
my husband with her.

My heart didn’t
even beat once before she returned without him.

I glared at her with my
hands on my hips. “It’s a good thing I trust you!”

“Duck!” She
grabbed my shoulders and pushed me down right before a Demon’s
mace swung my way. The air swished over my head, blowing through my
hair. “Come on.”

She became a gold blur
darting through the battle, pulling me along with her. I had to
tighten my wings close to my back before an errant sword sliced
through them. I didn’t know if they’d stand up to the
weapons of the Otherworld as well as they did those of Earth.

“Where are we
going?” I asked.

“I’m taking
you to Hell so you can save my son. We have to hurry before it’s
too late for him.”

“
What?
”
I came to a screeching halt as my heart leapt into my throat. “What
do you mean, too late?”

She jerked me back into
motion. We left the fighting behind and became swallowed up in a sea
of gray. The light blinded me, and I could no longer see Bree, but
could only hear her. I followed her voice.

“His past is
bogging him down, Alexis. He’s letting the pain of other
souls—pain he caused—to get to him. His soul will succumb
soon. Only
you
can reach him. Only you can save him.”

We emerged from the
gray fog into a dim light where I could see again. We stood on the
jagged edge of a blackened cliff. Far below us, at least hundreds of
feet, raged a river of lava, parts of it glowing orange and yellow.
The smell of death and sulfur made me gag, and I had to swallow down
burning bile.

Bree turned to look at
me with piercing golden eyes. “You’ll save my son,
Alexis?”

My eyes widened, and I
pulled back with surprise. Her golden locks flashed in the darkness.

“Of course!”
As if she had to ask.

“You’re
going back to Hell.”

As though hearing the
words from her rather than myself made the prospect more real, fear
suddenly grabbed hold of my soul and twisted it up. What was I
thinking, wanting to go back to Hell? Hadn’t I already lived
through enough of it? The memories of the desperate screams of souls
and the beasts that tried to eat my own nearly suffocated me. But my
poor husband was still suffering through it. And if what Bree said
was true, I was about to lose him forever to it. I
had
to go
to Hell.

“I know.” I
nodded while expelling a long breath. “I was planning on it.”

“You have your
physical body with you this time,” she said. “Any
injuries you sustain are permanent. You may not heal completely, if
you even survive. And if you die here, nobody can save you.”

I pressed my lips
together as I let this warning set in. But what good was my body if
my soul was damaged beyond repair? “I don’t care. He’s
the other half of my soul. And he doesn’t belong here.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

“Then I’ll
save him.”

She nodded. “Okay,
then. I’ll take you down as far as I can go.”

“What’s the
plan?”

She shrugged. “You’ll
have to find him, convince him to come with you, and fight your way
out.”

My eyes bugged. “That’s
it?”

My life and soul—and
Tristan’s—were in mortal danger, and that was her plan?
She didn’t answer me. Golden wings sprang from her back, and
her hand encircled my wrist as it had before when she’d rescued
us from the warlock. Without any warning, she launched us off the
edge of the cliff. My wings covered hers as we soared downward,
colliding into the heat that waved off the lava.

“Use your wings
to protect you,” Bree yelled at me, letting go of my wrist as
we headed straight for the burning river. “It’s an
entrance to Hell, so we’re going to dive through it.”

“Oh, crap,”
I muttered as I pulled my wings around me to enclose my entire body.
They hardened right before I plunged into the lava. The warmth
surrounded my wings, but didn’t penetrate them, and they didn’t
burst into flames. The thickness of the lava slowed my descent down,
and I began to wonder at Bree’s so-called plan. What if I
didn’t make it through? Surely she wouldn’t have set me
up for failure when her son’s soul was at risk. Would she? Was
she any better than the Angels?

Cooler air surrounded
me. Far from cold, but not as hot as the lava.

“Okay, you’re
through,” Bree said, and I opened my wings.

Darkness surrounded us,
but the familiar odors of Hellfire and Demons greeted me, sending my
emotions spiraling as panic tried to take over. A fear-filled voice
in the back of my mind screamed at me to turn around, to save myself
before it was too late. But saving myself was impossible if it meant
abandoning Tristan. Again. I shut that voice off as we continued our
descent downward until we came to a land bridge that I thought might
have been the same one I’d left Tristan on. But he was nowhere
to be seen.

We landed on the edge
of the lava rock, overlooking the fiery lake below. The distant light
shone on Bree’s face, revealing features that were close to
what you’d think a faerie should look like—large, upward
tilted eyes, a pointier nose and chin, and elongated and pointy ears
protruding through her golden hair.

“He’s
fallen farther down,” she said. “But my part ends here.
You need to get through to him, Alexis. If anyone can, it’s
you.”

My heart stammered with
fear, but I nodded. “I’ll save him, Bree. Or die trying.”

“Focus on your
love and your—” Her body suddenly jerked into the air,
and she was sucked away into the blackness beyond the bridge,
screaming what sounded like “fae.”

“Bree!” I
yelled, springing after her, but unable to catch her hands that
reached out for me.

Her golden hair and
eyes disappeared, swallowed by the blackness.