Wicked Abyss
Page 16

Focus. Time moved at a sluggish pace here. She could finish before daybreak if she kept her eye on the ball—
They began scuttling back and forth. It took her a few panicked moments to realize they were creating new webs. “No, no, no!” She would have to outrace them, then somehow harvest the additional webs!
The faster she spun, the faster they did—until they’d cloaked nearly every chamber entrance.
She was failing. Already, blood dripped from her fingers and sweat from her skin. Her head pounded. Each time she coughed on ash, the tower seemed to spin. That devil had told her she would sicken from the vine burns.
A hazy light grew outside. Dawn? She wasn’t through! Would those creatures attack as one—
Abyssian appeared. Or two of him did. Her vision had turned double.
“You barely finished in time.”
I . . . did? She glanced up. The spiders and the new cobwebs receded into the walls, only the wheel and thread remaining.
“You’ve earned your breakfast.” He conjured a tray of food, setting it on the edge of the broken-down fountain. “To merit a respite, you’ll complete another task.” With a wave of his hand, he produced a broom and a mop.
Or as she liked to call them, the beginning of my arsenal.
“Clean each of these rooms by nightfall,” he ordered. “Or the spiders will return.” He vanished.
Prick! She cursed him in multiple languages.
The king intended these tools to be a part of her punishment? Mistake, demon. I’ll repurpose them to strike back in some way.
She would finish this chore; then during her respite, she’d plot.
A desperate need for energy made her investigate the food. Demon food. The contents of one bowl were merrily swimming around. Nausea churned.
She’d have to get through the day on nothing but sheer will. Knotting her hair atop her head, she squared her shoulders, then started sweeping.
Cleaning this place appealed to her fey sense of order. Not that she’d ever tell him that.
In several rooms, she found stone bed frames, but no mattresses. Statuary of obscenely erect demons, fauns, and vampires had fallen throughout the tower. Most had lost their focal point—carved stone dicks littered the floors. She piled them up in the corners of a few chambers.
Words had been etched into the tower walls from top to bottom. Demonish.
In her quest to read ever more about this dimension, she’d taught herself the language.
No longer could she deny the obvious: a past-life history with Abyssian would explain her unusual interest in Pandemonia. More evidence that she was a reincarnate. . . .
She made out some of the archaic spellings, raising her brows as comprehension took hold. This tower had been some kind of sex den, and each room had been devoted to a particular act or position.
Though intrigued, she needed to concentrate on her task. Using her fey super speed, she cleaned until sweat drenched her body, pausing only when coughing spasms seized her. Barefooted, she couldn’t avoid stepping on the fire vines. With each hour she grew weaker.
Right now, I hate that Valkyrie almost as much as Abyssian.
By the time Lila had finished with the broom, blood stained the handle from ruptured blisters. Dust and ash coated her skin and hair.
In one of the forty chambers, a grate covered the floor with a drain beneath, and a warm cascade poured through a pipe in the roof.
Water for mopping. How fortunate for her.
Lila promised herself that she would soak her sore body under that stream when finished.
For now, she rolled her head on her neck, then got back to it. The poison from the fire vines and a lack of sleep were making her delirious, but dusk was slow to come.
When she stumbled into the last room, the light of day had just begun fading. She pushed past the pain in her muscles, her feet, her bloodied palms, and toiled.
Then . . .
Done! She surveyed the drying floors with a sense of triumph. Set to rights, check, check.
She limped to the bathing chamber, lurching under the water. Ignoring the blisters in her palms, she scrubbed her body and hair, washing her underwear as well as she could. Then she merely soaked.
Her lids grew so heavy. Maybe she should close her eyes . . . just for a second. . . .
Her eyes shot open. She’d dozed off standing up!
Wringing her hair out, she headed to the central courtyard. She drew up short.
Somehow she’d missed a room. Thank gods, she had some spare time. Dashing for the broom and mop, she cleaned. But then she found another dirty room.
Was she going crazy? How could she not have seen those?
She squinted. No, not going crazy; this was a freaking trap. The demon king had set her up to fail.
The second time she’d been set up in as many days.
There was no way to FITFO; the logical solution and orderly completion her fey mind craved had been denied.
How dare he! He would return soon, shouting and threatening. Yet he’d never even given her the chance to succeed.
He was treating her like a . . . plaything.
She heard a voice booming from the valley below. She headed outside to the terrace railing and gazed down. Speak of the devil. Abyssian stood atop a monolith of stone, addressing his legions.
Her immortal senses were definitely coming online. Even from this distance, she could make out differences among the demons. Some had wings, others had hooves. The shape and color of their horns varied. All were shirtless and armed.
Shirtless must be a thing here.
The lava river illuminated Abyssian’s features. His forbidding face and horns. That fathomless gaze. The glinting of his white fangs and teeth.
The skin glyphs across his broad chest burned just as brightly as the river. At his side, he wore that large battle-ax. His intimidating wings stretched wide. Each one had a curving claw atop the largest joint and at the bottom of the outermost one.
King Abyssian Infernas emanated pure power.
Saetth wanted her to spy? Her report: We’re about to get our asses kicked. Seek terms.
From what she could make out, Abyssian was banishing all the demons back to “their punishments.” With each moment, he became more aggressive, his voice rising and his muscles tensing. Even the landscape grew more unsettled.
Tornadoes of ash swirled in the valley. The lava river swelled, consuming more rock.
Again, the brutal king was spinning out of control. So what would happen when he returned to this tower and found her chore incomplete? Even if he had no imminent plans to kill her, he could accidentally harm her.