Her Black Wings (The Dark Amulet Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

fork in the hallway, she headed down the darkened path on the left. Right into a dead end. She slammed into the stone wall, hitting her head. She staggered backward then ass-planted. A flame to the right raged to life. Her vision blurred and blackness closed in on her. Her upper body collapsed to the pebbled stone floor and her head lolled to the side. Cloven hooves were the last thing she saw.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TEN
     
     
    Elliott
     
    I’m going to screw this up.
    Elliott’s earlier resolve waned. His head hung low. Blood covered his bare chest and the front of his jeans. The multiple gashes were in various stages of healing.
    The chainsaw wielding demon whose name he learned was Aza’zel flung the tool at the wall. He grumbled while it jumped across the sooty ground until the motor died out. His companion had long since left the cavern, bored, still muttering about what Elliott had called him; “princess.”
    The angel took a shallow breath. Some of the slices had gone deep enough to damage his lungs. They would heal, but more slowly. Painfully. He hated the position he was shackled to the wall in—arms stretched out to the sides at shoulder height, his feet planted an uncomfortable distance from each other. With his chin resting on his chest and his hair hanging over, shielding his eyes, he couldn’t see the slave but could hear his hooves. Elliott imagined he looked a bit like Cousin It, only his locks were the purest of white and only came to the middle of his back.
    Aza’zel’s clacking ceased. The differential in light and shadow told Elliott the lesser demon had stopped in front of him. Elliott’s head was yanked up by his hair.
    “How, angel, are you here?” Aza’zel cocked his head to the side. His beady steel-blue eyes stared into Elliott’s ebony ones.
    Elliott’s laugh started out as a chuckle then progressed into a humorless cackle. His head knocked to the side. Bringing his head back around, he spat blood in Aza’zel’s face. The lesser demon’s punch landed square on his right cheek.
    “It’s best you answer me.”
    “Or what? You’re going to kill me? Oh, I know, you’re going to torture me.”
    Yeah, Elliott was asking for it.
    “You’re already dead, angel.”
    No shit.
    “I already torture you.” The fiend narrowed his eyes.
    You don’t say? What a genius.
    He produced an ivory handled knife from the waistband of his brown leather loincloth. What exactly the leather covered was anyone’s guess. Goat-legged imps had plenty of fur in that area to hide whatever little thing.
    Aza’zel pressed the blade into the skin under Elliott’s jaw. A trickle of blood oozed down his neck. “How did you get here?”
    “How did you ?”
    “I was born here.” The devil’s slave answered as if the question were a serious one.
    Elliott wanted to laugh. Everyone knew the half animal types were born in captivity. Weren’t they? Keep him talking. “That must really suck. I mean, have you ever been up top?”
    “Up? Top?”
    “Yeah, you know, Earth?” The realm wasn’t actually up, down, or sideways, but in another dimension. Portals could be opened between each plane of existence. However, to get into Netherworld you had to die and the same went for Elliott’s home realm.
    “No,” Satan’s server said, lowering his eyes. He backed off, removing the knife.
    Had Elliott hit a nerve? A soft spot he didn’t know existed for this goat.
    “It’s beautiful too. So much fresh air and cold, refreshing water.”
    “Water?”
    “Lakes, rivers of it, vast oceans . And—”
    “What else? What else?” Aza’zel had heard his master speak of the abundance of water on Earth. Cool water. Netherworld only had a stream of hot water that tasted horrid. Any moisture dripping down the walls was even less potable.
    “Grass…”
    “What’s that?” he asked eagerly.
    “Well, it’s green and soft on your feet…ah,” Elliott looked at the cloven hooves, “well, soft if