The Spirits' Guide

Chapter 26

Iris woke when the metal door slammed open.

Her heart hammered against her chest as a man in a black coat and hood stood in the doorway. Her breathing began to quicken as the man walked to her. For a brief flicker of a moment, she saw the devil Lucifer smirk from the shadows of the black hood.

Instantly, Iris grit her teeth as she growled at the hooded man. He stumbled back slightly. The devil wasn't going to get her yet.

"She's cuffed in iron, Simon! Iron! She couldn't do anything to a mouse!" Hathorne exasperated to the hooded man. Iris chuckled. She wasn't going to die, she was just going to cook then kill.

Hathorne turned on her heel and walked out of the room, gesturing to the man. He stumbled slightly as he quickly unlocked Iris from her chair.

She was pulled out her seat and yanked through the doorway into a hallway before entering through more doorways.

She would have been lying if she said she wasn't scared. She was petrified at the thought of entering one of those pits. She swallowed her fear as she raised her chin and walked with the hooded man out of the building entirely.

She stumbled slightly when she caught sight of a large iron pit. Within the next hour she was going to be cooked alive while a congregation watched.

She was brought to the edge, the stone jagged and sharp. She looked down to noticed that it had been scrubbed recently, but there were still slight traces of dark brown in the cracks.

It was when she was looking over to one of the vents that allowed both the heat and the flames into the pit that she was shoved. She shouted as she tumbled into the pit. Gasping, she stared into the sky. A shadow covered her view.

"May I introduce Marie Pinson, Owen Pinson's mother," Hathorne introduced the woman who was blocking Iris's view.

Iris coughed as she stared into the grey eyes that had belonged to Owen. She could see the resemblance the closer she looked. Owen was his mother's son.

"I'm sorry." Iris croaked as Owen's mother turned her back on her and walked away.

Iris tried to get up but a heavy boot prevented her from even taking a proper breath in.

Iris vomited after she was struck once more by Hathorne. She barely heard her give the order to light the base of the pit.

Iris heaved herself up and ran to where Hathorne had gone, but she was too late. The door was shut and locked.

Iris stood where she was, looking around for anything that could save her. She saw nothing beyond smoke and gouges in the iron. She felt the floor rise in heat, the rubber on the base of her shoes began to sizzle.

She clutched her head and screamed. She needed to think. She needed to find a way out.

She listened to the iron cuffs clink together.

An idea popped into her head.

She backed up and looked around but found nothing. She shrieked as the bottoms of her feet began to burn.

Jumping around the pit, she noticed the smoke. The fire had not yet reached the size to enter the pit but the smoke was rising quickly, smothering her.

If Iris tried to get on the floor to get away from the dark billowing cloud, her body would be burned by the fire burning beneath the iron.

She tried to morph into a griffon but failed. The iron from her cuffs and the very pit itself were preventing her magic from working. A terrible thought occurred to her suddenly.

Iron prevented magic from working.

Her immortality was a curse, of magic. Her life depended on magic. If she were to die with the iron around her wrists in an iron pit, she was not going to survive.

Everything around her stopped. It was as though time itself slowed as she realized that these might be her final minutes.

With the fire below her roaring, she tilted her head to the sky.

It was a brilliant blue, not a cloud in sight. She felt a tear slip down her face, felt it dry within a second it was on her cheek.

She closed her eyes, she was ready for the darkness. She was ready for a new life.

Amun may finally be able to create more Spirit-Guides.

Suddenly, everything returned to normal and the roar of the fire was consumed by the beating of wings. Curious, Iris opened her eyes slightly, the smoke stinging them shut once more.

The only thing she saw from her brief moment of sight was a silhouette of a wing.

She felt her body be lifted gracelessly, felt cool air slap her face as she took in a breath that wasn't consumed by smog.

Opening her eyes once more, she saw the glimmer of the sun on golden wings. She coughed as she gasped.

"You made a deal. You cannot die until you have fulfilled your end of the deal. Go to the son of Beatrice." A woman's voice hissed in her ear before Iris was dropped, the only thing keeping her from hitting the hard ground were her iron cuffs. The angelic woman held the chain with two fingers.

Glaring into Iris's eyes, she reminded her, "You made a deal." With that, the iron was melted into feathers and Iris plummeted.

She shrieked as she dropped. The angel clearly did not understand that such a drop was going to break every bone in Iris's body, making her unable to keep her side of the deal. However, she did not hit the ground but was caught.

She slackened as she caught sight of the smirk on his face. Iris stared at him. Where was he? She was about to burn and he waited until now to find her?

"She's tied up and ready," he said as he gently placed her on the ground. Iris didn't know what to say. She nodded her head, not knowing what he was talking about.

He gestured to where Owen's mother was, tied and gagged. Iris opened her mouth to say something but he was already gone. He vanished as though he was never there.

Iris had Owen's mother in her grasp, but she didn't know if she was stable enough to transport the two of them back to Stila. Iris was too shaken.

Licking her dried lips, Iris did the only thing she could think of doing: she searched the area for enemies. She caught sight of bodies, none of them Hathorne's. With shaky steps, Iris made her way to Owen's mother.

Iris reached to touch her face and found that it was wet with tears. Iris took in a breath and took a few steps back. She thought about a beast with the head of a wolf and the body of a winged lizard. She groaned as her body stretched and morphed into a zburator, the beast of all beasts in Hell.

It took minutes to fully morph into the beast, but when she was done, Iris leapt into the air and tested her wings.

She was barely able to fly on a good day, but luck was on her side as she stayed in the air for a minute before she swooped down and snatched the woman from off the ground.