Execution (The Divine Book 6) (12 page)

"Come, Landon. Three days is plenty of time to get some nice torture in."

I cringed on the inside. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.
 

"I'm looking forward to it."

Cain kept his word. He brought me to a dungeon, a pit in the ground that raged with flames and stunk of sulfur, a smaller version of the Pit we had passed by train. He had me stripped naked, and then he shackled my arms and legs and hoisted me up against the hot side of the exposed earth. It would have burned my skin in an instant if I didn't wrap my power around me to protect myself.

"My minions will care for you from here," Cain said. "I'm going to pay a visit to your companion."

"If you lay a hand on her, I will kill you," I said. It was more bravado that I couldn't cash in on, but it escaped me without hesitation.

"I'll keep that in mind while I'm playing with her. Thank you again for stopping by, Landon. You've made me a very happy demon."

He bowed to me and then took his leave.

I struggled against the shackles, pushing my power out beneath them. They were covered in demonic runes that made them extra, extra strong, and they didn't break. I had guessed Cain knew what he was doing, and wouldn't have made it that easy.

A demon fluttered down to eye level on leather wings. In my anger, I gripped him in my power and threw him into the pit.

"Stay away from me," I shouted.

All I got for the effort was laughter from the other devils. Assholes.

I tried to relax. To calm my mind and think. I didn't know if my innate power to be forgotten would work on Cain. He had been able to find me out in the Desolation, after all. If it did, either I would eventually escape, or I would hang here for the rest of eternity. At least, until he re-discovered me.
 

Unless I figured out how to escape my bonds.

I had three days.

I was dangling for a few hours when the first visitor arrived. She was an ugly thing, with a rough face and distorted limbs. She had the legs of a goat, the torso of a female weightlifter, and a pair of thorny wings that sat cockeyed on her back.

"A new prisoner," she said. "What fun."

She produced a serrated whip from somewhere, holding up so I could see it. "Master says not to hurt it too much." Her eyes fell to my midsection. "Maybe I won't hurt it at all."

There was no way I was going to let that happen. I threw some of my power out at her. Just enough to shove her away.

"Oh. It has power. More fun." She unrolled the whip, drawing it back. "Hit me again, you get pain over pleasure."

I hit her again, shoving her back hard enough that she needed to use her wings to keep from falling into the pit.

"Have it that way," she said.
 

She came at me, and I threw my power out once more. She didn't react to it this time. In fact, it seemed almost as though it entered her, traveled through her arm, and extended out into the whip. The end smacked against my chest with enough force that I was shoved back into the rock hard enough that it broke my spine.

I tried not to make a sound. I couldn't help it. The pain was intense, and I cried out, even as I worked to heal myself. The demon began laughing.

"It could have had pleasure," she said.

This was one of those times when pleasure was worse than pain. I was still happy with the choice I had made.
 

"Go to-" I started to say. That vulgarity didn't mean anything down here.

The whip hit me again. And again. I winced each time but didn't scream. I healed the wounds as quickly as she made them, causing her to increase the pace.

We kept going like that for some time. I refused to let her break me or destroy my spirit, and she refused to stop. I don't know how many times I was struck, at least, a thousand. I don't know how much time was passing. We settled into a persistent rhythm of whip and heal, whip and heal.
 

After a while, I became numb to the pain.
 

After a while, the whole thing just became tedious.

And then boring.

And then, it truly became hell.
 

It was like someone poking you in the arm over and over again. Tolerable for a while, until it became the most annoying, frustrating thing imaginable. This was just like that. I went from boredom to true anguish. Not physical. Mental.
 

And the damn demon knew it.
 

She knew it was going to go like that. From experience, I guess. She gained this sick, smug grin, and she wore it proudly while she drew back and threw the whip forward one, two, a hundred more times. There was nothing I could do.
 

I was stuck.

I closed my eyes, unable to bear the sight of her anymore. I felt each strike like a slap on the skin, and I wished it would just stop, even if only for a moment. I knew it wouldn't though. It would continue for hours. She wouldn't get tired because she knew how much I hated it. Even though I tried not to show it, I knew that she knew.

Hours passed. Or maybe it was minutes. When you're in the state of being tortured, it becomes impossible to know. The only thing I felt certain of was that it would never, ever stop.

Until it did.

I opened my eyes slowly.

The demon that had been whipping me was on the ground at my feet, a pool of blood spreading below her.

Zifah was standing on top of the corpse, looking up at me.

"I decided to give you another chance," he said.

"What?"

I was a little bit dazed, and a lot confused. How had that tiny demon cut down the harpy without her even making a sound?

"I said, I decided to give you another chance. The truth is, I need to get out of this place, and you're the only one who would even remotely be willing to help me do it. I know you don't trust me, diuscrucis, but you will. I'll make sure of that."

"How did you find me? How did you even remember me?"

"Sorry bub, you've got too many demons down here talking about you for them to forget. I mean, nobody remembers seeing you, but you've already become like a legend down here. Plus, I got off the train when you did. I couldn't remember why I got off, but I figured the reason was in the Desolation, and if it was in the Desolation, that meant Cain. So I came to the palace and started poking around until I saw you, and then I remembered that was why I was here. Where's your hot girlfriend?"

"Cain took her. How did you get in here?"

"Look at me. Nobody gives a poop about a demon like me."

Did he just say poop?
 

"Are you going to help me down?"

"Heh. Deal first, down after."

"Whatever you want, you've got. Just get me down."

"I want to come back to the mortal realm with you."

"Okay."

"I want to have sex with your girlfriend."

Was that all demons thought about?
 

"No."

"You just said anything."

I reached out with my power, squeezing it against him.
 

"Hey. Oh, come on, diuscrucis. That hurts. Fine. No sex. Just take me with you."

I let him go, and he leaned over like he couldn't breathe.
 

"How do you know I'm going to get out of here alive?" I asked.

"Because now you've got Zifah. Big things come in small packages."

I hoped he was right. "Fine. We have a deal. I'll swear it in blood once you let me down."

"No need. I believe you. We have a deal. There's only one problem."

"Which is?"

"I can't get you down."

"What?"

"I have some power, but it's not enough to break Cain's runes. You have to get yourself down."

"What happened to big things in small packages?"

"I'm not Son of Lucifer big."

Great. So my torturer was dead, but I was still trapped. And Zifah thought I was going to get out of this alive?

"Alyx," I said. "You need to find Alyx and set her free. She's in Cain's harem. He put a bracelet on her."

"Cain?"

"Yes." I groaned. He couldn't open that one either.

He stood there, tapping his foot on top of the harpy's chest as it turned to ash. "What if you pull the rock out that the shackles are connected to? You would still be confined, but you'd be able to move."

"The moment Cain sees me I'll be back up here. Unless he dies of laughter first."

"There has to be a way."

I had tried being hopeful. I was starting to lose it. "I'm sorry you came, Zifah. There isn't."

"Cain's power isn't absolute."

"I can't break the bonds. I tried."

"What if brute force isn't the answer?"

Brute force. Pushing and pulling. I closed my eyes again.

"Diuscrucis?" Zifah said, concerned.

"I'm thinking," I replied.

And I was. I had taken the smallest morsel of the Beast's power. A god's power. I had let it enter inside of me, and used it to remake myself. I had taken on many new traits in my experience of it, but Zifah was right. In all of this time, I had always taken a brute force approach to its use. Push it out, pull it back. There were a million applications of the same idea, and even so the concept of it was limiting me.

The Beast's power had been enough to challenge both God and Lucifer, and I had a sliver of that inside my soul. I had used it to set Charis free, to cast her energy and light out into the universe and set it loose from the cycle of the Divine. It had been a simple act, born of love and sadness. It had hardly taken any effort at all.

I had taken the Divine power and turned it into something else. Something simple and beautiful. I hadn't created or destroyed. I had only transformed it.
 

Neutralized it.
 

Balanced it.

I opened my eyes. "Zifah, you're a genius."

He returned a toothy grin. "I know."

I felt the shackles on my wrists and ankles. I felt Cain's runes burning into me. I sensed the power there.
 

I reached out with my own. Calmly. Gently. I laid it on top of the demonic energy. I didn't push. I didn't pull. I let it be. I felt Cain's power beneath it, and I asked it to change.

Almost at once, the shackles shattered.

I fell to the ground, landing on my feet.
 

"Holy poop," Zifah said.

"I can't believe that worked," I replied, smiling.
 

All this time I thought I knew myself.
 

I still didn't know myself at all.

"We need to find Alyx," I said, bending down and retrieving the dead demon's whip from the ash.

"You need some clothes," Zifah said.
 

I looked down at my naked self. I couldn't create clothes out of nothing. "That would help."

"This way." Zifah scampered off toward the door to the dungeon.
 

I followed behind him, noting the other smaller piles of ash as I went. He had killed the other demons down here, too.

The dungeon fed out into a small chamber. My clothes were thrown in the corner, and I picked them up and put them on. Of course, the stone was missing from my pocket. It was safe to bet that Cain had claimed it.