Four Psychos

Chapter 9

“The first twenty to emerge will go onto the final round in one month,” the weird little troll guy a

If he’s the same thing as my guys, he has to be hating life, because life has certainly not been fair to him in the attractiveness department. His face looks like the inside-bend of an elephant’s leg. I’m not even sure where his eyes are, if I’m being honest.

“He’s an angel?” I ask dubiously.

“He’s a form of angel,” Jude states absently as the man drones on.

“He totally got gipped,” I say on a sympathetic sigh.

Gage chokes down whatever sound just tried to escape him.

“The rules are written in the devil’s blood. No competitor may use lethal force against another competitor while in the gauntlet,” the elephant man goes on.

I glance around, seeing a lot of really hard, nasty people also around us, all of them glaring at the four guys surrounding me. Apparently they don’t like that rule, since it looks like they want to break it.

The guys don’t notice the angry glares or just simply don’t care.

“No competitor can use any form of teleportation to get from one area to another. Doing so will have you immediately disqualified,” the man states, facing one woman in particular before dropping his eyes—well, the area where I think his eyes are—to the scroll he’s holding.

“No competitor may leave the gauntlet until they’ve completed it, or they forfeit their chance at ascension and go back to the surface to complete their tasks until someone comes to reap them.”

“What?” I hiss, jerking my gaze to Jude.

“The trials are to thin the crop of the weaker links, so that only the strongest guard the surface,” Ezekiel answers at my back. “Getting reaped puts you back at the throat to grow stronger again.”

I’m not sure I want to know what the throat is.

“Your teams, as you know, can change, should you decide to shift alliances. But only if the other team accepts you.”

There’re only two other four-man teams. Judging by the groupings, everyone else is solo or in twos, I notice.

I suppose if you can change teams mid competition, it’d be hard to trust someone who might stab you in the back. Unless you’re as close this quad.

“If one member of your team is left behind, your team forfeits the thirty bonus points, and that member is disqualified for not crossing the line with you.”

“Glad I’m not part of the team,” I grumble. They’d totally leave me behind if they could.

Kai snorts when he hears that.

The man rolls the scroll up very slowly, staring up at the stands over our heads as he does so.

I follow his gaze, seeing him look up to the box where there are six people in ornate, golden chairs, set up like royalty. Manella is among them.

“Is Lucifer here?”

“Never. It’s too risky for him to leave the underworld. He’s untouchable there. Not so much here,” Jude answers.

So those must be the six heirs.

The woman with red hair who spoke to Manella is sitting down, her hand on her chin as she smirks down at the world with her red-painted lips and scarlet red dress.

Manella is beside her in a black suit, his long black hair tied back.

A blonde woman is dressed in a sparkly silver dress on the other side of Manella. And to the right of her are two men dressed like they’re here to slay. And lastly a man with such dark hair and eyes that black isn’t black enough to describe them.

All of them are stu

Which, obviously they’re the devil’s children, so that makes sense.

“Manella, you already know. He’s the one who has evaded history, and has the most discretion. Hence the reason he’s the trickiest to deal with and the reason we need to get underground to learn more about him,” Jude explains.

“The redhead who looks like she can’t wait to see blood being spilled is Lilith,” Gage tells me.

“As in the vampire?” I hiss.

“As in the devil’s firstborn,” Jude tells me as though he’s exasperated. “After a

“The twins are the Gemini twins—Collin and Marcus,” Gage goes on. “They prefer the second round of the trials, since that’s when mortal combat comes into play.”

I hate these damn trials.

“There are two hundred competitors here today,” the man goes on, his eyes staying fixed to the evil royalty in the stands. “The horn of Jericho will blow every time the gauntlet claims a life.”

“The blonde is Hera,” Kai tells me, resuming the interrupted conversation, and when I open my mouth, he adds, “Yes, that Hera, and yes, she posed as a Greek Goddess for a while. She’s vain like that. They all are.”

Just…mind-fucking.

“And the last guy is Cain. The same Cain who killed his brother—Abel. The same one born to Eve, after Lucifer deployed his plan to corrupt humanity and prove he was right all along, sending his own son into the womb of Eve, just before he was cast from the heavens,” Ezekiel tells me.

They don’t even have to look back to see these people. They just know them, probably have them memorized.

The elephant man looks away when all six heirs give one nod of approval in eerily timed unison.

“The day of the gauntlet begins now!” the man shouts.

Without a second of hesitation, everyone on this platform starts racing through me, rushing toward the drop. My guys are the first to drop off the side. That’s at least a hundred feet worth of drop zone!

I dive to the edge, even as people continue to pass through me en masse.

I watch as they land on their feet, and I curse when they propel themselves into the thick fog cloaking the gauntlet.

The horn is already blowing, signaling a death so soon, and my heart beats in my ears as panic consumes me. Was it one of them?

Before I can even think about it, I’m suddenly dizzy, and I’m spi

In front of them.

I turn and run with them, easily keeping up, since my spirit body happens to be very fast and nimble. It helps that I can run right through many of the obstacles they’re having to avoid.

The blades shoot out, nearly decapitating Jude before he can dodge it like it’s no big deal. If protective spirits can suffer cardiac arrest, then it damn near just happened to me.

The acid spray mist takes out several of the men behind us, their screams of agony piercing the air as that horn of death blows twice.

Fire shoots up into the air, and Ezekiel barely stops in time. Another man can’t stop so quickly, and a bloodcurdling scream rises into the air as the skin melts from his body.

I cut my gaze away, unable to watch. “That’s hellfire instead of fucking eternal flames,” Jude growls. “That’s supposed to be outlawed.”

“Hell on earth better not happen if I turn whole,” I grumble as I leap through it, trying to find a way to let them pass.

I finally find a boulder and stare at it, because it would be perfect to create a path. It’s just big enough that it would take it a minute to melt, and they’re fast enough to use it before it’s gone.

Now…how do I get it to move?

Ghost girl problems.

Several more screams erupt when more people dive into it. I hear someone shouting, “It’s hellfire! Not eternal flames!”