The Devil's Love

Queen of Hell: Chapter 9: Anton

I hadn't been in this section of the underworld in such a long time. It held little interest to me until now. Sarah's eyes were filled with wonder and it made me question my motives for keeping hold of the apartment block in New York. I could feel the enthusiasm she held for the land, the sense of belonging she had. It was like she was made for this world.

It was a perplexing thought to think that someone had been made for me, that when she was just a thought for this world she was created with me in mind. Maybe that is why her parents could never show her true affection like they could for Allison, maybe they knew that there was something different about their daughter.

The way that Sarah spoke about religion I knew that her parents were likely to be regulars to a Sunday service. They might have had niggling thoughts that one of their children wasn't like all the others that were her age. It was even possible that they might have loved her a lot but didn't understand their thoughts.

With the thought that Sarah was made for me whipping through my mind, a lot of things began to make sense. Michael's sudden determination to make life difficult was making it rather obvious that there was something about this that I did not know.

I had brought us close to the castle but further enough away that our sudden appearance wouldn't be noticed. Crows flew through the sky, circling the castle and cawing insistently. That was not odd, not even the slightest. If they didn't have to reap a soul then they were left to do as they pleased and one of the things they liked to do was annoy the stone gargoyles on the ledges of my castle.

Everything that moved in this world had once been a living creature, cursed into this life of servitude. The gargoyles were an addition that I had made after being inundated with reaper crows. Sitting on a building ledge in the warmth of the underworld was almost like retirement for the demon crows, after serving for a few centuries they gladly took a life of rest.

The underworld did not have the stark opposites of day and night, it had a day time that was filled with the bright red sun that shone over the land. The night was just a dull twilight as the sun lowered to the horizon. There was no darkness in the underworld, no shadows to hide in and no inky darkness to stop the world from seeing our approach. I could only hope that they didn't bother with the castle.

Sarah kept quiet like she knew that a single slip of the tongue could make or break us, she refrained from speaking a single word. She held my hand as we walked through the trees and crunched the leaves under our feet as quietly as we could. There was no hiding the fact that we were walking here, the leaves were so dry and hard that the second something touched them they crumbled with the weight.

We had both worn black if someone passed us we could try to hide in the black of the trees. I wasn't sure how well the idea would work if needed but it was all that we could do.

Sarah stopped as we reached the crest of a small hill, staring at the view beyond. The mountains seemed to dominate the castle, matching it for height but nothing could overshadow the beauty of it. It was dark, the castle was made of a pale gray stone but for some reason when the castle was built it became almost a black coloring.

Towers with spires sat at each of the corners of the outer walls, a lava moat surrounded it. No doubt Sarah was wondering how we would get into the place without using the drawbridge. But that was the least of our problems. In the outer ward was a dragon that had anger issues, mostly because he lived in an area that contained thorny bushes. Her eyes widened as a spurt of fire burst out from the section close to us, a mighty roar filled the air as the beast began to take flight. He could and always would fly but was bound to protect the outer ward.

If we made it through the thorns and past the fire-breathing dragon, we would then be faced with the inner wall. The wall itself was fine except that it was twice the height of the outer wall. Scaling it would be an issue, the guards who were placed in the varying posts would see us easily. And even if we were to avoid their attention, one irate dragon could come along and say what lovely little bugs on a wall we were and chomp us down in a flash.

Sarah craned her neck back as she watched the dragon fly over us, her arms wrapped around me tight out of fear that the blasted beast would see us. He wouldn't, he was only interested in scratching his underbelly on the trees. The flap of his wings sent a wave of hot wind down upon us, nearly knocking us off our feet.

I smiled at her, kissing her upon her perfect and sweet lips. Throughout it all, she had not screamed in fright nor run away. She was scared, I knew it easily but she remained quiet. Her world knew nothing about dragons, not really. Sure they made movies with them and about them, they fantasized about what they would look like if they were real. But actually seeing one in real life, it was vastly different.

When the creature was turning back we slipped through the trees towards the back of the castle. It gave Sarah a better view of what will be her home, in the inner ward was several buildings but the one that should hold her interest was the largest of them all. The castle itself stood tall and proud, flanked by walls, a dragon, thorns, and guards, it was a hard place to get into.

That is of course unless you knew where the back door was.