Hell's Revelation (Book 3)

Chapter 12

I ran up the stairs, painfully aware of Lucas' tentative progress behind me. He was clearly more hurt than he wanted to let on and I couldn't blame him for being in no rush to get back into a fight with the Furies. But I had a new plan, one so simple I wasn't sure why I hadn't thought of it before. It would certainly have saved us a whole world of trouble, and Lucas was the key to making it all happen.

Another roar rumbled the ground beneath my feet, a frustrated blend of rage and pain. Frank may have started with the upper hand, but I started to worry that the Furies were finally getting the edge over him. He was knowledgeable and experienced enough in dealing with all the different breeds of demons in Hell to know how to handle them, to know how not to let them get the better of him, but that certainly didn't mean they wouldn't be able to defeat him. They'd started out entirely focussed on attacking, on weakening his much larger and more powerful form, but that wouldn't be their ultimate goal. If they could infect the Whisperer with their rage, turn him into a towering, blazing figure of pure fury then we'd lose everything. Malick had not been rash or foolhardy in his choice of guards, it was a calculated decision.

It was high time we put an end to this, and quickly. I trusted Frank not to let them get in, but how long could he hold back against the temptation of their infection? Jesse was going to be an even bigger problem now with, and what with all the noise the Furies had made taking him by surprise was definitely no longer an option. But we couldn't hope to regain one aspect of the Triangle, and lose another one in the process.

"What exactly do you plan that we do when we get out there?" Lucas asked, panting slightly as he caught up to me, squinting in the dim light as if the pain in his head even hurt his eyes.

"Not we, you. It's what you're going to do. In fact it's so obvious I'm not sure why we didn't think of it before...Why didn't Frank tell you to do it?"

I stopped to face him with that question on my lips. Why hadn't Frank thought of it? Had he just forgotten, much like I had? Or did he have some overwhelming desire to play the hero, or to just get his fingers a little bloody. He'd thrown himself head first into the danger, much as I had too, but he tended to think things through much more thoroughly than I ever did. He must have known, and the chosen to ignore the option. Why take the easy way out when you can embrace the rage and follow the hard path? I shook my head. I was going to have to have words with him when all this was done.

"Do what? What are you talking about Rayne? My head already hurts enough without trying to figure out your half-explained ramblings."

I shook my head, even he hadn't figured it out yet, what was wrong with the three of us? We were going to have to start working much more cohesively as a team if we wanted to get anywhere with this whole Revelation thing we were supposed to bring about, it would be a pretty disappointing show if this was how we continued to go about things. With a sigh I grabbed Lucas' arm and physically shoved him up the last two steps into the corridor.

"Freeze them!" I demanded.

"What?" he hissed back, frowning at me as he attempted to duck back into the stairway.

"Freeze them... or freeze time, whatever it is that power you're holding hostage does. You can stop them attacking."

"Oh right, of course...Well, I can try," he said, not sounding especially hopeful in his own abilities.

"Oh wow, that fills me with so much confidence," I said, sarcastically. "C'mon, you've done it plenty of times already. Hell you froze the whole of The Pits when I first came back and there were way more demons down there, so you can do it again now."

His lack of belief was written clear across his face, but it was our best hope. Frank may have littered the floor with body parts, but they just kept on coming; sprouting forth in great clouds of smoke from both ends of the corridor, and their attacks were starting to take their toll on the Whisperer. They were never going to stop unless we could do something, unless Lucas could manage to stop them. All of my faith rested on his shoulders.

I watched him take a deep breath and venture back into the main body of the corridor. Our absence from the scene had left Frank the sole centre of the Furies' attention. All that was visible of him was an occasional flash of black talons, or a brutal thrust of an arm as he resiliently fought back against their endless onslaught. Every now and then I caught a glimpse of bright red, stark and harsh against the gleaming darkness of his skin, signs of the many wounds the Furies sharp claws had managed to inflict upon him.

His roars had grown tired, and more pained with every guttural sound that ripped from his throat. Lucas needed to do this soon, Frank's energy was fading fast, he wasn't going to be able to keep them off for much longer.

There were so many of them. An angry swarm of feathers and claws that surrounded the Whisperer on all sides, if he should fall in the centre of them all, give himself over to their power...I didn't even want to think about it.

Come on Lucas, you can do this. What the hell is taking so long? I wondered to myself, managing to keep the less than motivating pep-talk to myself. He was hurt, but he wasn't dead, yet if he didn't pull his finger out and do something soon we would probably all end up that way.

Lucas frowned deeply,. His eyes barely squinting beneath his brows, full lips drawn into a long, pained line as he concentrated hard, summoning a power that didn't really belong to him. He may have managed to use it effectively enough before, but using a power that was not yours by birth or creation right was hard and would always feel alien – like wearing a pair of shoes two sizes too big. It needed a great deal more concentration to make work than an innate power would, and after his bang on the head I found myself severely doubting in his ability to master this skill.

I knew he was our last and best hope at getting to Jesse while Malick was still away , though this thought did not bring me much comfort. In fact, if anything, it made things feel much more desperate. Lucas doubting himself didn't help much either.

I tried to fix my face into a reassuring, hopeful expression, so that as he caught my eye he might read a confidence that I wasn't really feeling. It might have worked, or he might have just fallen onto a stroke of luck and everything just suddenly clicked into place.

A welcome silence fell over the hallway as time stood still. The Furies were frozen, suspended in mid-air, even the flaming balls of light ceased to flicker.

"You did it," I said, delighted as I ran up to meet him, clapping him on the shoulder in congratulation – I'd have opted for a hug once, but there was too much risk that I might touch his skin and go for another trip around inside of his head.

"Yes, though perhaps a little too well."

"What do you mean?"

"I froze Frank as well."

I hadn't actually noticed, although of course I should have, he'd have been complaining at us by now if he'd been moving.

"Oh, okay, well that's not so good. Although still an improvement on a moment ago."

"There was just too much chaos, my head was too muddled to differentiate him from them all. The rage in them all felt so similar, I just couldn't pick him out."

"Do you think you could start time again just for him?"

"No. if I let it start moving again I let it all go, the whole bloody lot of them. I can't control it so selectively, at least not that way around."

Lucas let out a slight sigh of defeat, the dark circles beneath his eyes much more pronounced. He really hadn't been sleeping much since I'd been gone and the strain of everything was beginning to show on his face. Once we got Jesse back we needed to take a break, a little time to rest and recuperate. Not for too long of course, Frank for one would never allow it, and besides we couldn't let Malick or Lucifer get any further along with their plans than they already were, but a little rest would definitely be on the cards. Even Frank was going to need some time to heal and lick his wounds.

"Then there's nothing for it. You and I are going to have to get Jesse on our own. Then hopefully he'll be able to help us get Frank out of there, Malick must have told him how to call off the Furies."

Actually I wasn't entirely sure about that, but it felt nice to say it out loud. A little piece of reassurance when everything so far had gone completely awry, even if it did turn out to be a false hope.

"I do hope you're right. You've got so much faith in this human, Rayne, I hope it's not misplaced."

"Yeah, so do I."