Hellfire

Chapter Sixty-Six

I was expecting Lucius' study and Little One, and to work my way through the tunnel until I reached Morrigan. Instead, I fell straight into the dreamscape, landing in the depths of the entryway I knew so well. It was a misshapen mess again, but there was clarity beneath the under layer – ghosts of servants long gone now wizened burnt husks, the stonework splitting apart into welts of blood or pulling away to unveil pulsating flesh beneath. I kept close to the floor, my fingers brushing the carpet and my gaze snapping this way and that, inhaling for threats and listening for movement. I didn't like this. Laughter hung in the air – goading me. I wiggled my nose. Morrigan was challenging me, opening herself up to walk straight into her dreamscape. She didn't think I stood a chance.

I breathed out a rush of embers, rising up and letting my claws come free, the blood spitting and bubbling with raw heat. I inhaled the air, scented the distinct rush of old blood, rot and dead winter, and tore after it. It wasn't like last time, when Morrigan had that lull of calm before the storm and Lucius had control - nothing had posed a threat to me then. This time though, she knew I was in her head, trying to seek out her soul and burn it to ash, and she wasn't going to let me do it without a fight. Her dreamscape twisted around - the hall was endlessly spilling out before me, carpet and walls rising to existence to keep me caged in an endless loop – and burnt hands or threads of blood tried to grasp at my ankles. I very quickly realised diving forward did no good, after fighting off numerous hands and making no progress, so I snapped my teeth, slid to a stop, and rammed my claws into the wall. I did as I'd seen Lucius do numerous times. I slashed at the stone, my boiling claws searing through it like butter, and tearing apart a hole. I didn't know where it would go, but I didn't expect Gabriel to be on the other side.

His fist smashed into my face like a truck, hurtling me into the wall opposite. My back crashed against it, making me gasp at the rattling of my ribs, before I set my focus on the massive apparition ducking into the hall. Gabriel had grown, somehow looking more like a bull now. Horns jutted out of his head, so thick I could barely see his eyes, his suit could barely contain him, and his mouth was shredded from the size of his teeth. Cold rushed from him, black frost and blood curling over his skin and suit, and the distinct scent of death coiled in the air.

I breathed out heavily, releasing a rush of heat. I couldn't waste my energy on him. Lucius warned me I could cut him down, but he'd only get back up. He was a collection of Morrigan's memories, not a living thing. So long as she remembered him and held him close enough to form an apparition, Gabriel would never die.

He stepped towards, curling a fist, and threw it towards me. I ducked as his fist connected with the wall in a shower of blood and dust, and took advantage of the slight opening he'd given me, scrambling forward, leaping through the hole in the wall and finding myself in the exact same hall - stone walls and red carpet as far as the eye could see. I tightened with frustration, still unsure where to go and very aware Lucius was out there fighting the body of Morrigan and needing me to do something about her soul if he was going to live, but Gabriel was clearly going to give me a hard time when my back shivered with alarm and I spied blood hurtling towards me.

I folded out of the way with a leap, turning into smoke and mist for a brief moment, to reappear on the ceiling above as spears of blood collided into the wall. My soles burned with hellfire, clinging me to it, and I gazed down at Gabriel's hulking form as he tore open the hole wider and forced himself through it with a roar. I wiggled my nose, inhaling for that faint scent of Morrigan and finding nothing – no hint as to where I should go to find that Well. I was going to get nowhere fast and wasting energy running blindly and being burnt out by the time I reached Morrigan would be pointless. So, as Gabriel launched another attack at me, hurtling a pillar of frozen blood to skewer the ceiling, I decided to get into Gabriel's head. He'd know where the Well was. He'd take me there. I just his blood.