At my words, flames flared from Valdis’s tip, then split and raced left and right, until they’d formed a two-foot-wide circle. Gray smoke began to billow, the concrete dust teasing my nose and catching in my throat, making me cough. Deeper and deeper the flames bored into the concrete, until suddenly they were through and the concrete ring dropped into a deeper darkness. The flames clung to its side, providing us shadowed glimpses of what lay below.

And what lay below were more fucking hellhounds.

Chapter 7

“You know,” I said as the hounds stared up at us, their red eyes glowing with malevolence and their thick bodies little more than shadowed outlines in the fading glow of Valdis’s flames, “I’m getting a little sick of being attacked by hell’s creatures every time we take a step forward on this damn quest.”

“It is the price we pay for tracking a dark sorceress. Stay here —”

I snorted. “Like fuck —”

“Risa,” he said, cutting me off with a fierceness that surprised me. “There is no need for you to place yourself in danger. Not in this case. For once let me do what I was sent here to do without argument.”

Let me take care of you. Please. He didn’t say the words out loud, but they echoed through me nonetheless. I met his gaze, saw the annoyance and the caring there, and reached out, cupping his cheek lightly as I leaned forward and kissed him. “Just this once,” I murmured.

“Thank you.” His voice was dry but amusement tugged at his warm lips. “So generous of you.”

And with that, he jumped into the hole, Valdis aflame and spitting in fury. I watched, heart in my mouth, as the hellhounds attacked and he briefly disappeared under the force of their onslaught. He emerged seconds later, Valdis a blur as he hacked right and left, dispatching the hounds with quick efficiency. When the last of them was dead, he looked up, his blue eyes glowing as fiercely as the sword in his hand.

“Now you may come down.”

I sheathed Amaya, then gripped the edges of the hole and carefully lowered myself into the darkness. It seemed an awful long way down to the bottom, even at full arm’s length.

“I’ll catch you.” He sheathed his sword, though her brightness still provided enough light to see by.

“You’d better, or I’ll be pissed.”

“Which scares me not. It’s not like I haven’t been subjected to your ire before.”

I snorted softly, then released my grip on the edge and plummeted down. Two heartbeats later Azriel caught me, as promised.

“You,” he said, voice severe as he stood me upright, “have lost far too much weight since this quest began.”

And the opposite should be happening given I was now pregnant. “Yeah, well, tell that to the bad guys who are either interrupting my meals or making me lose my lunch.” I swung around. “Is there anything here besides a black hole and hellhound bits?”

“There are no cuneiform stones, if that is what you are looking for.”

Meaning our sorcerer and sorceress weren’t using it as a jumping off point to get to their ley-line intersection chamber. I swore softly. “Is there anything else here?”

“Nothing living.”

Flames flared down Valdis’s sides again, lifting the shadows and lending the rough-hewn walls a blue glow. The cavern was on the small side, though there were two tunnels leading off it. A few small tables had been hacked out of the soil and stone, but there was little on them other than clean spots in the grime – indications that things had sat there not so long ago.

I drew Amaya and marched toward the first of the two tunnels. It was small and narrow, and cut so roughly that the sharp edges tore at my dress and skin. Thankfully, it wasn’t all that long, and I soon found myself standing in another chamber. This also held empty shelves and tables hewn out of the earth, but there was one major difference here. A very elaborate protection circle had been etched into the stone floor, and the melted remains of black candles sat on each of the four cardinal points.

The twin scents of frankincense and cedar still lingered in the air, which was odd. I knew from Ilianna that frankincense was used as protection against evil, and I had no doubt that Lauren used this circle to summon evil. But maybe she used it for personal protection – it wouldn’t be surprising given what she was summoning. It was what ran under those scents, however – a sharper, almost caustic aroma – that made my skin crawl.

“That is the scent of hell,” Azriel said grimly. “This is certainly where she summoned her demons.”

“Then we’d better destroy it.”

“It will not be the only place from which she could summon.”

“No, but one less place has got to be a good thing for us, right?”

Not waiting for his answer, I stepped forward, swung Amaya, and slashed her across the nearest part of the circle. The sharp point of her steel scored the stone, cutting the etched lines in two, thereby destroying whatever magic lingered within the circle. To use it again she’d have to redo the entire thing, and that would take time in stone this hard. I smiled grimly. It wasn’t much but, if nothing else, it would annoy the bitch.

“Now all we have to do is find whatever other circles she is using.” Azriel touched my back, his fingers warm against my spine. “Shall we inspect the other tunnel?”

Tags: Keri Arthur Dark Angels Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net