Charade (Heven and Hell #2)(95)
Author: Cambria Hebert

But the end of the chain still connected with my flesh and pain exploded through me.

I hit the ground. I was bleeding. I could feel the warm liquid ooze from my split face. I tucked the scroll beneath my body as Sam leapt into the air, shifting and landed on four sturdy midnight-colored paws. He planted himself in front of me, snarling.

Hecate held up both her hands and whispered a few words beneath her breath and flung Sam backward into a cell, the iron bars closing behind him.

I ran after him to let him out, but Beelzebub grabbed me, lifting me off my feet and carried me toward the angry flames. He was going to throw me. I was going to die.

Sam was throwing himself against the iron bars with all his weight and the metal was groaning under his intense weight and strength. A splitting sound went through the air as one of the bars cracked. In moments he would be free.

“Heven!” Cole ran forward, but he too was flung back with whatever magic Hecate was using.

It was up to me to save myself.

Using my teeth I pulled the loosened cap off the scroll and tossed it aside. Then I shook the case, flinging the Map out onto the floor. Beelzebub released me and went for the scroll, but I beat him to it, scooping up the delicate paper and holding it out. He froze and licked his lips. He wanted this so badly I could practically see the desperation dripping from him.

“Give it to me,” he said, his eye fixated on my hand and what it held.

“You know, I’m pretty tired of this thing,” I said, taking a step closer to the fire pit. “Who would have thought that a little piece of paper could cause me so much trouble?”

“What are you doing?” Beelzebub said and lifted his hand like he was going to do that little voodoo trick and fling me.

“Ah, ah ahhh,” I sang. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You take me down and I’m taking this precious piece of paper with me.”

Anger flared in his eyes, but he dropped his hands to his sides. I held the scroll out away from me like I was going to release it and I looked back at him. “Sure does suck to be the one who isn’t calling the shots, doesn’t it?”

My taunting set him off just like I knew it would, and he let out a roar and charged me. I took a step back from the door opening, flung the Treasure Map away and kicked the empty bronze case that once held the scroll into Beelzebub’s path. He tripped and reached out for me and being the good girl I was I helped him.

Right into the pit of flames.

Just before he plummeted, our eyes met and I made sure to smile. His own eyes widened in disbelief as he realized that he had been outsmarted. Even though I hated him, even though he was vile, his tortured screams were hard to hear. It was a long way down and we all heard every single one of his cries.

But I got over it. He deserved what he got.

Hecate grabbed the unprotected, fragile scroll off the floor and smirked at me. “I cannot wait to see how he makes you pay for that.”

You mean that wasn’t going to kill him? I shuddered. What exactly was this guy capable of?

I reached out to try to snatch the scroll from the witch, but was distracted by my arm. The outline of it (of my whole form really) was no longer there, and I knew that if we didn’t leave now, my soul would be ripped away from my body and I would be trapped forever.

“Here, take this,” a voice from a nearby darkened cell called. Something rolled across the floor as I turned.

The Marble.

“Kimber,” Cole said, picking it up.

“Get out of here while you still can.”

Hecate said something low and the door to Kimber’s cell swung open. We all watched as Kimber’s emancipated form floated out of the opening, suspended in mid-air. Even with Hecate’s spell holding her up, her body still sagged in defeat. She looked like an empty shell. As we watched something else floated out behind her… what could only be her soul.

Kimber’s soul had separated from her body.

But how was it still here? I just assumed that once a soul was released it would wander away and be corrupted by Hell.

“I did you a favor,” Hecate said. “You should be dead. Your soul should be gone. If it wasn’t for the magic I gave you and the spell that I cast on your cell you would be nothing but dust, your soul would have left, and turned into a lowly demon.”

Kimber gave no reaction. In fact, her skin was beginning to crack. Thin, black cracks that started at the tips of her lifeless fingers and began working their way up her wrists and arms. I watched in horror, my own body shaking, as I wondered if her skin would begin to flake off her body until she was nothing but a pile of bones.

“Stop!” Cole screamed, standing below Kimber, his arms raised as if he would pluck her from the air.

Whatever spell that was keeping Kimber semi-alive within her cell was clearly not working now that she was outside its confines.

I looked around for something I could use as a weapon, something to stop Hecate from whatever she was doing.

But it didn’t matter.

Hecate flung her fingers toward Kimber, who was tossed back into the dark cell, the door slamming with finality behind her. I couldn’t see her anymore, but I heard a smack against the granite walls and a whimpering of pain. I took that as a positive sign that she wasn’t dead. I was getting really tired of Hecate flicking her fingers and flinging people around.

Cole didn’t waste any time and threw the Marble against the floor. It shattered and a swirling portal burst open.

“Let’s go!” he yelled.

With a loud cry Sam charged the iron bars that confined him and sent them snapping outward as he broke free.

Hecate screamed in outrage at his strength. I took advantage of her distraction and ripped the scroll from her hands. She reacted quickly, jerking backward, and the fine paper of the Map ripped, leaving her holding the bottom section of the scroll. I threw what part I had to Cole and he tossed it through the portal and held out his hand for me to join him.

Sam charged the witch, slamming into her, and the torn piece of the Map fell from her hand. I grabbed it and looked down, not trying to read it, but feeling my mind click into place, retaining everything that on the page. Thank goodness for my new “ability” because a strong gust of wind pulled it right from my hands and into the burning flames.

“If I can’t have it, no one will!”

The Map no longer mattered as Sam and I ran for the portal. We were mere inches from jumping to safety when I heard him yell. I turned, but he was no longer behind me. He was back in the cell that he had just broken out of.