Page 64 of Hell on Earth
“Remember how I told you there was a time when demons walked the Earth, but there were laws they had to follow? The one-hundredth seal housed upper-level demons who broke those laws while on Earth. Kobal’s ancestors put them there, but many of those demons are still furious with Kobal for keeping them locked away. Since being freed, some have chosen not to fight and to pursue a life of freedom. Others have decided onrevenge.”
“I see,” Iwhispered.
I searched the group again, but I saw nothing mounted on horseback. Just as I thought it, the shadows shifted behind the lower-level demons, and red eyes blazed from the forest. I bit my lip to suppress my gasp. Erin twitched beside me, and Vargas grasped his cross. Corson’s hand tightened on mine as he shifted closertome.
A skeletal horse head followed one set of those eyes out of the shadows. The cold hand of death slid over my skin as more of the horse emerged to reveal its rider. Before I saw the rider’s head, tucked securely in the crook of its arm and clasped against its side, I knew the pale, bony man wasDeath.
The headless fucking horseman ofdeath.
My clammy skin cooled as I contemplated slinking into the shadows, curling into a ball, anddying.
ChapterThirty-Two
Wren
And Death rides a palehorse.
I couldn’t recall exactly where I’d heard that. Probably during one of my Sundays sitting in a church pew while listening to the minister speak. I hadn’t been good at sitting still and often fidgeted much to my parents’ chagrin. I’d spent most of my church time daydreaming of riding spaceships to Mars rather than paying attention, but something from those sermons, or my Sunday school days, must havesunkin.
The head of Death’s horse was nothing but bone with two red orbs glowing from its eye sockets. Pale white flesh covered the rest of the horse’s body. Death didn’t use a saddle as he sat tall on the horse’s back. Broad through the shoulders and torso, the black clothes Death wore hugged his frame. I would have considered the clothes skin tight, but if Death’s body was anything like his bony fingers and detached head, there was no skin beneath thatclothing.
The skeletal head Death cradled was made up mostly of glistening bone, but its eye sockets weren’t empty and because there was no flesh on the skull, those eyes bulged grotesquely. Some white ligaments ran across Death’s skull, moving with his jaw and pulling it into a macabre smile as, like an evil pendulum, Death’s eyes swung back and forth over theclearing.
Death said something I couldn’t hear, but his jawbone moved again. More of the horsemen emerged from the woods. It took all I had not to cower as my shoulders hunched and my head bowed. I clenched my bladder when it threatened to let loose. I hadn’t felt this visceral a reaction to something since I’d been huddled beneath the sink, trying nottosob.
I cursed myself as a coward even as the others all slouched a little more. Erin edged back, and Vargas’s knuckles turned white from his grip on his cross. Corson tensed as he edged protectively in frontofme.
Taking a deep breath, I lifted my head and forced myself to gaze at the eleven horsemen spreading out behind the angels. Some of the things they rode couldn’t be considered horses with their double heads, multi-hued eyes, and just plain non-horse-like physiques. Others rode horses that could have only comefromHell.
I recognized Lust as she was gorgeous with her flowing white hair tumbling down her shoulders and spilling over the ass end of the gray horse she rode. The horse was beautiful with its thick neck and its head curved so its chin was tucked against its chest. Lust wore nothing, her voluptuous body on full display to all thosenearby.
Some of the demons closest to her stroked themselves through their clothes as they stared at her, while others dipped their hands into their pants and blatantly fondled themselves. The angels all unfurled their wings and drew them forward as if they were trying to wardsomethingoff.
My skin prickled, and my heart rate increased as Corson’s hand burned into mine. Memories of the way he’d caressed me ran through my mind.Mine, he’d breathed in my ear, and I could feel the warmth of his breath against meoncemore.
Beads of sweat lined Corson’s forehead as his eyes held mine and his thumb ran over the back of my hand. I could feel his restraint running through his taut muscles, and I found myself hoping he would let it go. I would welcome him into my arms right now without caring who watched us. Hawk lowered his head into his hands. Bale made a move for him but stopped herself before she couldtouchhim.
Death said something and Lust laughed as she tossed back some of her white hair. Like the fog retreating from the sun, my hunger for Corson eased from my body. It didn’t leave completely, but what remained had nothing to do with Lust’s spell; I would always crave Corson’stouch.
Corson’s citrine eyes filled with fury as he stared at the horsemen. Hawk lifted his head and shuddered. Lines etched the corners of his mouth as he gazed across the clearing with hatred in his indigo eyes. The demons closest to Lust stopped pleasuring themselves and backed away from her. We weren’t close to the horsemen, yet I felt the lingering effect of whatever it was that bitch had done to me. To allofus.
I wanted out of here, I opened my mouth to say so, but closed it again. I couldn’t run and hidefromthis.
One of the horsemen said something else, and they all nodded. If they could all do something like what Lust had done, we were in for a nasty battle. For the first time, I wasn’t sure it was a fight we could win. I suspected Lust had been playing with everyone, giving them only a hint of what she could do. And if War, Wrath, orDeathunleashed their malevolence,thenwhat?
I studied all of them again. Some were easy to recognize, like Pestilence with the hundreds of flies buzzing around his head. Large, white, blistering sores marred his cheeks. Black rot surrounded where the end of his nose should have been. The tips of his fingers were also covered in black rot as if he had gangrene or some plague. I didn’t want to know what the things squirming beneath his putridfleshwere.
Pestilence’s horse was the greenish-brown color of bile and also had white sores festering on its flesh. Some of those abscesses ran so deep they revealed the bone beneath. What Pestilence could do to the human race was something I couldn’t think aboutrightnow.
The horsemen made such a conflicting range of emotions flutter through me that I could barely think. I focused on Astaroth as he continued to point to different demons, Hell creatures, and riders. From the corner of my eye, I noticed hooves shifting as something more was said, and then one of the horses reared back and turned away from the clearing. The scarlet animal disappeared into the trees with a dozen lower-level demons, a handful of upper levels, and some of the Hell creatures. A few angels rose to swoop outbehindthem.
Lust turned and went in a separate direction with an entouragefollowingher.
“What are they doing?” Iwhispered.
“Smaller groups,” Corson replied. “By spreading out, they can affect more humans anddemons.”
The other horsemen vanished into the woods until all that remained in the clearing was Astaroth, Death, and a few dozen others. Death lifted his skull and settled it into place on his shoulders. He twisted it to the side, and with a crack of bone, it remained there when he removed hishands.
