Free Execution (The Divine Book 6) by M.R. Forbes Page B

demons would notice anyway.
    "What's wrong?" Alyx asked me, noticing the tears.
    I pointed out the window. "I've been here before."
    "In Hell?"
    "It wasn't in Hell, but it looked just like this."
    It was inside the Box. A broken Earth. A post-apocalyptic, destroyed world. Buildings turned to slag and scrap, corpses everywhere. It was the Beast's world. The one that he had destroyed with his power. Or at least, it was a reproduction of it. I had defeated the Beast, but I had lost Charis. I had lost Clara. I had almost lost myself.  
    It hurt to see it again.
    "It isn't the same place. Whatever hurt you there, I won't let it hurt you here."
    I reached out and took her hand without thinking. I squeezed it, and she squeezed back.
    "It will be well, my love," she said.
    "Thanks," I replied.  
    The train slowed to a stop. Most of the demons were getting on the train. Only a minority departed with us.
    "Damien said Cain's palace is near the center. He said you can't miss it."
    It was going to be the Freedom Tower. I just knew that it was. It would make the entire nightmare complete. Dante had said Lucifer wouldn't bother with me, but I couldn't help thinking that he was watching, and he had done this to torment me as best he could. A joke only he could make.
    I took her hand again, and we started walking, picking our way over the corpses and through the destruction. We hadn't gone too far when I realized that the corpses weren't dead, per se. They were more of the damned, souls left to hunger and thirst for all of eternity. The gluttonous, I assumed.
    We covered a lot of ground in two hours, but the broken city seemed to stretch forever. Turning in circles revealed more of the same as far as we could see, as true a desolation as I could have ever imagined.  
    "If Cain's palace is too far away, we won't make it back to Damien in time," I said.
    "We have lots of time left. We can move a lot faster than we have been if I change."
    "I'm worried a Great Were running across this landscape is going to attract the wrong kind of attention. I don't want Cain to know we're coming."
    "You don't think two people walking across the Desolation will attract attention? There's nothing else out here but the damned, and they aren't upright."
    "My plan hinged around sneaking into Cain's palace." I knew it wasn't much of a plan. But then, how could I plan anything when I had no idea what we were walking into.
    "I think we need to change the plan. We've been walking for two hours, and I don't see anything. How do we even know we're going in the right direction?" She gave me that mischievous smile again. "Besides, it's the only way I can get you on my back."
    I could feel the heat on my face, and it wasn't from being in Hell. I stood silently for a minute, looking around and thinking.  
    "Okay. You're right. We only have three days, and I don't want to waste them all walking through this."
    She leaned in, nuzzling my neck. One second, I could feel the softness of her skin against mine. The next, I felt the rougher fur of a massive muzzle.
    Our eyes met. I could still see Alyx behind them, but it was an understatement to say her demon form was nowhere near as attractive as her human form. At the same time, I could still feel our growing connection there.
    "Get on," she growled, her voice rougher.  
    She dropped to all fours, dipping lower so I could climb onto her back. I used my power to plant me to her, and we were off.
    Alyx bounded across the landscape with ease, leaping over shorter walls and debris and pushing aside burned out cars and other garbage. Within minutes, we had pushed our past location beyond the horizon, and within an hour we had traveled nearly fifty miles. I knew Alyx was enjoying the run, and having me riding her. Part of me didn't want to be having a good time in Hell, but I was a balance of good and evil. I did enjoy it, and I leaned down and wrapped my arms around Alyx's thick neck, holding on tight.
    We covered another twenty