Chapter 5 All Perfectly Normal Things
Nora
I wake with my mouth stuck to itself and a dull ache pressing behind my eyes.
For a few seconds, I lie still beneath a heavy black blanket, staring at a ceiling made from the same dark stone as the walls. Red light spills through the arched windows, and blue flames burn inside the sconces without making a sound.
The memories return all at once.
The footpath disappearing. The endless fall. Two suns. A creature with more teeth than any living thing needs. The enormous demon who searched the bathroom while I stood behind smoked glass covered in moving shadows.
Last night was real.
“Fuck.”
The word comes out rough, and my tongue tastes as though something died on it.
I turn my head and find a glass of water on the table beside the bed. A napkin sits next to it, holding bread, slices of roasted meat and a dark-red fruit I have never seen before.
Right. I’m in hell, and a demoness hid me from men who might kill me, gave me her bed and left breakfast beside me.
All perfectly normal things.
I reach for the water and notice Tee sleeping in a chair near the bedroom door. Her arms are folded across her chest, her long legs stretched in front of her, and her chin tipped down. Two blades remain strapped to her body, because apparently sleeping without enough weapons to gut someone would be irresponsible.
I push the blanket aside and begin to sit, and Tee’s eyes fly open.
My hands shoot into the air.
She straightens, one hand already wrapped around the handle of a blade, and stares at me through the pale strands hanging across her face.
I keep my mouth shut. I have no idea whether I am allowed to speak yet, or whether the other demons are close enough to hear me and charge through the door.
Tee releases the blade slowly. “Are you hurt?”
I shake my head.
“Do you feel ill?”
I make a small motion with my fingers. A little.
Her brow furrows. “You may speak.”
“That would have been useful information before I started communicating through interpretive sign language.”
Her mouth twitches into a smile as I lower my hands and take the water. “Did you sleep in that chair all night?”
“I was keeping watch.”
She says it as though that settles everything, then rises and crosses the room. She has not changed out of the black clothes she wore last night, and I doubt she slept for more than a few minutes at a time.
“I examined what remained of the circle that brought you here,” she says. “There is a symbol connected to old records kept beneath the Council building. We will take the remains there and find the text that holds the same mark.”
I stare at her over the rim of the glass.
“If the text contains the spell used to summon you, it may tell us how to reverse it.”
I nod silently.
“You may still speak.”
“I’m processing the part where we walk into a building full of people who will execute me… How certain are you that the book can send me home?”
“I am not.”
“Well, that’s comforting.”
“It may be the only record connected to the spell. If it offers no way to reverse the summoning, I will search elsewhere.”
“And if entering the Council gets us caught before then?”
Tee’s eyes hold mine. “Stay close to me, follow every instruction I give you and do not touch anyone. I will handle the rest.”
She says it as though keeping me alive inside a building full of demons is another task to complete before lunch.
“You sure know how to sell a plan.”
“They will not see you. Kilan will hide your body, scent and voice.”
“Unless someone touches me.”
“Yes.”
That does very little to help my currently rising anxiety.
Tee looks towards the door. “Zev and the others should be out of the house by now. They will remain at the southern boundary until later today.”
The breath leaves me so hard my shoulders drop with it.
“Good. Great. I was worried the giant might come back to inspect your shower again.”
“Zev is thorough.”
“Zev is terrifying.”
“That too.”
I drink the rest of the water and look at the plate. My stomach twists painfully, reminding me that yesterday’s meals consisted of rum and whatever hope remained after losing my job and home.
Tee pushes the food closer. “Eat.”
I tear off a piece of bread and take a cautious bite. It is slightly sweet and better than anything you can get at the supermarket on my salary. The meat tastes close enough to beef that I decide not to ask what animal it came from.
The fruit cracks beneath my teeth, releasing cold juice that tastes somewhere between a plum and a blackberry.
“Okay,” I say around another bite. “Hell has excellent fruit.”
“This is the Nether.”
“The Nether has excellent fruit.”
Tee waits until I finish before pointing towards the bathroom. “You may shower. I will find something for you to wear.”
Steam soon fills the room while hot water pounds across my shoulders with enough pressure to strip away a layer of skin. It might be the best shower I have ever had. My old unit barely managed a sad trickle whenever someone in the next building flushed a toilet.
I wash the smoke, sweat and remains of yesterday from my body. Bruises cover one hip and both knees, while a red line crosses my neck where my duffel bag tried to hang me during the fall.
When I step out, clean clothes wait on the vanity beside a thick towel.
There are fitted black trousers, a soft grey shirt and a dark jacket with silver fastenings. Nothing is faded, stretched or stained. The clothes look better than most things I have owned.
I dress and walk back into the bedroom, rolling the sleeves once around my wrists.
Tee looks me over. Her gaze catches on the bruises near my collar before her jaw tightens.
“These are your old clothes?” I ask.
“I wore them when I was smaller.”
I look at her shoulders, the muscle beneath her fitted leather and the long legs that make me feel even shorter than usual.
“I think you mean younger. You don’t look like you were ever smaller.”
“I was both once.”
Fair enough.
She lifts the same metal bottle she used last night. “Close your eyes.”
I do, and the cold spray settles over my hair, face and clothes. It smells faintly of burnt herbs and metal.
“That hides the human scent?”
“It weakens scent. Kilan will conceal the rest.”
Darkness rises around my feet and slides over my body, cool and strangely gentle. It covers my hands, chest and mouth before settling against me.
Tee stops at the bedroom door and looks back.
“Are you ready?”
Ready to sneak through the Nether and try not to die?
Fuck no.
Ready to go home?
Yeah, I guess so. There is not much waiting for me there, but at least I can live.
