Page 105 of Endless Terrors
My vision went solid again, the fuzzy lines sharpening. I could see the lights of the First City below. I wasn’t sure when I’d become airborne, and I knew I needed to be concerned about it. While I struggled to look up, trying to get a glimpse of what carried me, Lilith started talking again. Her voice was more solemn. But some of them are angry.
It was a demon. It looked like a moving skeleton, the thin membrane of its wings catching the light. You have enemies here, child, Lilith whispered in my ear.
Her urgency beat at my mind. It slid through my veins like fire. Just before I slipped into a black void, I heard Lilith one more time. Saw her lovely eyes filled with warning.
Be on your guard.
The gargoyles arrived silently.
They dropped down from above, catching the demons by surprise. I’d started to regain consciousness and come back to myself, a little more with each passing second, but I still couldn’t get my body to obey me. I was forced to watch again as another battle broke out. This time, it was in the sky.
And I didn’t have wings.
Shrieking and screaming pierced the frozen darkness. I only glimpsed flashes of what was happening as I lay in a demon’s talons like a glassy-eyed doll. A red-eyed gargoyle landed on a demon nearby, opening its jaws to bite down on the creature’s entire head. Above me, an even bigger gargoyle tore a demon’s wing clean off, and the creature bellowed in agonizing pain. In another flash, I saw one of my defenders—if that’s what they really were—ripping into a demon’s stomach and pulling out organs like a child gleefully rummaging through a toy box. It all had the feeling of a surreal dream.
In seconds, the dream changed into a nightmare. One of the gargoyles came at the demon I was flying with, and with me in its grasp, the creature couldn’t defend itself. Chittering excitedly, the gargoyle latched on and began to tear out chunks of flesh. The demon’s roar shook the world. Moments later, a scent stuffed itself up my nostrils, and I knew I was smelling its blood. It was sharp and fetid and horrible. What do I do, what do I do? I thought wildly, holding onto the beast’s legs for dear life.
Just as I feared, the beat of the demon’s wings faltered, and we plummeted.
The gargoyle was still ripping into the demon. Wet drops landed on my face and streamed past us. Even if I could’ve done something, I wasn’t sure which monster to help. My thoughts moved sluggishly through the haze, trying to see outcomes and deduce whether the gargoyles had an objective of their own.
All at once, though, none of that mattered. Everything started happening in slow motion. Every noise or sound became muffled, as if someone had put their hand over a microphone. The demon went slack, and its claws opened. For an instant I saw the red horizon reflected in its wide, unseeing eyes.
Then I was falling.
It felt like arriving in Hell all over again. I tumbled through the air, and small, panicked sounds burst from my lips. I threw my arms out in a desperate attempt to stop the wild flips and turns, and the action made me realize I had control of my limbs again, not that it did me much good. I was heading straight for the hard, unforgiving ground, and in this world I was just another soul. I wouldn’t survive it. There was no time for furious grief or frantic hope.
I closed my eyes and prepared to meet my end.
Something caught hold of me. Or, rather, I felt its arms slide beneath my body and fall with me. My wild momentum slowed, eventually stopping completely. I craned my neck and found myself peering into a gargoyle’s whiskered, curious face. Didn’t even know they had whiskers, I thought with numb shock. I instinctively wrapped my hands around the creature’s arm, needing to hold onto something, and wondered if I was in as much danger now as I’d been with the demons. Did gargoyles possess the ability to speak?
Before I could attempt to ask, something huge and dark slammed into us from the side.
I heard the gargoyle scream as it dropped me, and just like that, I was falling again. Fuck. My body did another flip, and as the skyline rushed past, I saw the rapidly approaching ground. We’d gotten closer than I’d realized.
Pain ricocheted through me as I collided with the earth. It must’ve been at a slant, because suddenly I was rolling, over and over again, grunting and crying out. I waited to slam into a rock or fall off a cliff, but luckily, I just … stopped.
I’d reached the bottom of the slope.
Wind whistled in my ears. Everything hurt. I couldn’t afford to rest, though, or tend to whatever injuries I might have. My eyes went to the sky. Nothing moved in the vast darkness, but that didn’t mean it was empty. I pushed myself up, wincing, and scanned my new surroundings. Those red lights crackled and raced across the horizon. In the distance, there was a mountain range, if those oddly-shaped rocks could be called mountains. I frowned, staring harder. The effects of whatever that demon had blown into my face hadn’t completely worn off yet. My vision was still blurry, my thoughts slower. The line of those mountains triggered a memory …
It was called the Maiden, I remembered suddenly, my stomach dropping. Because of how the line looked like a naked woman, her back arched, her long legs clamped shut.
I knew this place. Not because I’d been here before, but because I’d read about it in one of the books from Lucifer’s library. The souls called this region the Lowlands. While it wasn’t nearly as dangerous as the Waste, I was still royally screwed. I had no power, no weapons, and no way of knowing which direction would take me back to the First City. There weren’t just hungry demons out here—there were deadly storms and other natural dangers, like patches of earth that looked like solid ground but were really vast gaps, sealed over by wind and time. Holding my side, I searched the sky again, nervous something would notice movement down on the ground.
Demons and gargoyles weren’t the only things I was looking out for. I had to get back before the necrool awoke. I’d learned more about them during my tour with Lucifer, and they weren’t a foe I was ready to take on. Especially not right now.
So I started walking.
It was agony. The fall had done more damage than I’d thought. I tried to tell myself the pain was just a remnant of my old life, my old body, but it felt pretty fucking real to me. I gritted my teeth and found the will to keep going, step by step. I imagined the necrool plucking me off the desert floor and going to one of their nests, where an enormous baby reptile would make a crunchy snack out of me. No thanks. I grimaced and pressed onward.
A chittering sound came from behind.
I froze, and my heart pounded in time with the seconds ticking past. One. Two. Three. In a rush of panic, I spun around. The wind blew in my ears, but I strained to listen for other sounds. Had I imagined it? Maybe this place played tricks on the mind …
My thoughts were cut short when something finally moved in the darkness.
It was the gargoyles. They crept forward on all fours, wings folded against their spines. There was something feline about the way they moved, and their eyes weren’t glowing anymore. I spotted the one that had fought the demon I’d been flying with. The creature looked no worse for wear, despite the battering it had gotten.
