AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What did call to you?”
She glances at me sidelong. “Wrath.” The “of course” goes unsaid.
“How much time have you spent here?” I grip her hand tighter.
“The entirety of the four months before he burned my body.” She grimaces. “I managed not to fall for any of hell’s traps… because I knew they were lies.”
“What kind of traps are they?”
She stops, turning to me and caressing my cheek. “There shouldn’t be any for you here. Hell punishes the deserving. Your balance sheet hasn’t been tallied yet.”
I lean into her palm. Even here, her newly physical presence is soothing. But movement catches my attention and I turn away from her, searching for what my periphery had shown me.
Whoever it is, it’s the right size and shape… human, definitely not a demon or something worse.
I hold her hand tighter. “Come on, I think we found one.”
I get closerand I can tell immediately that it’s not Dylan. He’s way too tall.
“Jonas!” I shout his name, but he doesn’t turn back. My voice doesn’t carry in the stagnant air. It won’t reach him to hear.
He’s headed for the ravine that spills down into the woods and if he falls… I’m not sure I’ll be able to pull him back out. So, I run—grimacing the whole way. These boots were made for aesthetics, not athletics.
I reach him as he gets to the edge and recoil at what I see below. Eyes wide, I lurch away, grabbing his arm. I fall backward onto my ass, dragging him down with me. He’s as stiff as a felled tree.
“Jonas.” Even though I know he can hear me, he doesn’t react to his name. His eyes are like Julia’s were in the living world: all black and vaguely terrifying.
The lights are on, but no one’s home.
When I stand, he struggles to get up. Flailing like he’s a creature with a carapace, he doesn’t even try to bend at the waist.
As he works to get to his feet, I look down at what he would have fallen into.
It looks like a set from a horror film.
The ground is covered in coals with skeletal remains half buried in them.
“Fucking hell.” I mutter under my breath.
“That’s where we are,” Julia says, floating on the other side of him, scowling down at the scene.
Jonas finally gets to his feet…And immediately starts for the ravine again.
“What are you doing?” I ask as I catch him, but he’s not really here.
“Jonas, look at me.” He doesn’t respond to his name and I finally give up, slapping him. “Jonas.”
But his gaze is fixed on the burning bodies at the bottom of the slope and he licks his lips.
“His hell is a stronger draw than you are right now,” Julia says.
“Okay, so what do we do?”
“We should get him someplace he can’t see this anymore. That should help. If it doesn’t, we can take him back to the house and shove him through—which will take time—or… we can find a place to put him.”
“Why does he want to go down there so badly?”
She glances down again. “He doesn’t see what you see.”
