Page 18 of Bent Out of Shade
There was no sock pile, no Pyotr, and not even Emmett. There was me, standing on a rocky ledge in a vast underground grotto with turquoise waters so vibrant they lit up the room.
A serpentine shadow as wide as my car slithered beneath the surface. It raised its scaly armored head partway out of the water, the fathomless gaze of its obsidian eyes boring into my soul.
Two razor-sharp fangs protruded from its upper lip and smoke belched from nostrils the size of tires, forming into a familiar phantom skeleton face.
“I am Leviathan,” Smoky intoned. The rest of the sea monster silently stared at me. Ah. They were one and the same.
That said, I took a very large step back, because Smoky was no less terrifying for learning that it was nasal exhaust. “I am Miriam.”
The corporeal portion of the sea monster submerged itself until only Smoky and the crown of the monster’s head remained visible. “I was deemed an abomination and exiled here.”
“You and me both.” I blotted sweat off my chest. Add some eucalyptus to the hot, humid air and I could have a proper cleansing schvitz. “Okay, not so much exiled, but as a Banim Shovavim, Senoi, Sansenoi, and Sammaneglof had high hopes of my eternal damnation.” Oh. Hang on. Despite my previous assumption, Smoky-Leviathan wasn’t the one in charge of the KH. “Was it the three angels who exiled you? Do they run the Kefitzat Haderech?”
Both the skeleton face’s expression and the waters darkened, frost skirting out to tendril up the cave walls. “The Kefitzat Haderech is a Banim Shovavim space. Those intruders imposed their vile magic upon it.”
When Senoi, Sansenoi, and Sammaneglof couldn’t kill Lilith’s second batch of children, the Banim Shovavim, they fed us a story about how we were wicked and doomed to eternal damnation. Unless we realized that it was just a story, not an inevitable outcome, our self-judgment often doomed our spirits to eternally wander the KH’s paths.
“I didn’t realize that the KH was initially separate from the magic torture inflicted by the angels. This is why we can’t have nice things.” I kicked at a rock, sending it bouncing into the cave wall.
“They despise Lilith’s progeny,” Smoky said. “The story of your wickedness is not merely recounted, it magically takes root in you, infusing the listener with doubts as to their true nature. Should a Banim Shovavim not see through it in time, condemnation is assured, and the angels’ torture carried out.”
“Judge, jury, and executioner,” I said bitterly. My hand flew to my mouth. Were Senoi, Sansenoi, and Sammaneglof the ones who had summoned me? Were they looking to get me in their clutches some other way since I’d called bullshit on the story? That would never happen.
“They stuck you here as well,” I said. “Another abomination locked up with the damned Banim Shovavim for company.”
“Should I fail to do their bidding, I shall be smote,” the monster intoned.
Smoky didn’t harbor antipathy toward Banim Shovavim like the angels did. In fact, he deemed Ohrists the abominations, declaring Banim Shovavim superior.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend?” I said. “Is that your deal?”
“Just so.”
“I’m happy to play on the same team, but why did you bring me here?”
“You have been poisoned. I can heal you.”
Until the phantom skeleton face spoke those words, I’d forgotten that I had a knife sticking out of me because I didn’t feel any pain. “Did you treat me when I was impaled on the tree?”
“Yes.”
“Well, thanks for that and please heal away now.”
“You will promise to free me,” it said.
I spread my hands wide. “Look, you have my deepest sympathies for your plight, but I’m full up on tasks.”
Smoky whipped around me, scattering pebbles and dirt, the lake water crashing angrily onto the rocky strip of land. “You have the Ascendant.”
Squinting, I protected my face with my forearm, the wet air acquiring an acrid tinge. “I had it. Past tense. It’s gone.”
Everything went very still.
I cracked an eye open. Smoky hovered over the water with a defeated expression.
“Pyotr has told me of the outside world,” it said. “It has changed much since I roamed free.” It turned its face to the ceiling as if seeking out the sun. “I had hoped to see it once more.” Then, as though realizing it was being awfully genuine with someone it was supposed to intimidate into serving it, the creature’s expression went back to neutral. “I have wasted your time. I shall heal you now.”
I had way too much on my plate, and besides, the Leviathan was a sea monster. It lived in the depths, so it wasn’t as if it was missing out on beach vacations and a European tour. What did it expect me to do? Sneak into Gehenna, find and steal the Ascendant back, and hand it over to set it free?
