Page 77 of Hellbound

His smile shrank.

“And you’re not pissed? Or are you just really stupid? My lady did say you weren’t the brightest Crayon in the box.”

“I’m dumb and livid. But Tori didn’t sell me out. And unlike you, she’s not an incel simping for a fucking demon.”

Roman’s face contorted in a snarl as Tori popped up behind the bed like a jack-in-the-box wielding a floor lamp by the shaft. She jumped on the mattress and swung for the fences, slamming the heavy round base against Roman’s head so hard, he collapsed to the floor and didn’t get up.

Tori threw the lamp on top of him, the flimsy fabric lampshade splitting when it hit his backside. Then she leaped off the bed, snatched up a duffel and pink backpack from the floor, and ran to the door.

“Come on!” The traveler barked as she threw open the door.

But the door slammed shut in her face so hard that the walls shook and kept shaking well after the deadbolt locked itself.

Fear knotted around Marian as the room’s marigold walls rippled like water. Paint bubbled and then sloughed to the floor. Instead of plaster or insulation, rusted scaffolding emerged from the goop.

Daylight light out the window rapidly dissolved into oppressive darkness. The overhead light flickered to a sudden, high-pitched signal that made Marian clap her hands over her ears to prevent her eardrums from bursting. Tori shrieked in pain as she fought with the lock. The deadbolt didn’t budge.

The door groaned as it slid out of reach, higher until it was well over their heads and gliding toward the lengthening ceiling. The ceiling light guttered one last time before it went out completely.

Marian suddenly felt like she was stuck at the apex of an inversion on the worst roller coaster she’d ever ridden as the motel room warped around them. Wood splintered, carpet frayed, and thick black ichor dripped down the scaffolding, gathering at its joints in large, throbbing tumors. Pressure filled the room as a dim orange light rose up through narrow fissures in the floor.

The sound of pelvis-deep chuckling unstuck her paralyzed body. She spun around to find Roman rising to his feet, black blood trickling from his hairline to his jaw where Tori had struck him.

His lips split in a smile that was far too wide for his face, the corners of his mouth tearing nearly to his ears. His bottle-green eyes flooded milky white as the scar on Marian’s wrist erupted in blinding pain.

Marian swore and clutched her wrist as the stench of sulfur invaded her senses. She stared at Roman in open horror.

“You. You’re possessed. By the Remnant.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“Wrong,” Roman said with glee. “I wield the Remnant.”

Wield? Marian had only ever seen the Remnant wield people, like when it had connected to Lloyd. Not the other way around. “That’s not possible. That doesn’t make any sense.”

And yet here they were, standing in a rapidly changing nightmare straight out of Hell.

Tori staggered to her side, leaping over one of the tears in the floor as it widened large enough to swallow them whole. “Roman, how are you doing this?!”

The room pitched backward, putting them on an incline. Tori swayed, catching herself on an exposed beam in the wall. Marian threw out her arms, fighting the gravitational shift that now pulled them in Roman’s direction.

Roman walked effortlessly up the sloping floor toward Tori, his hands in his pockets. Marian angled her body sideways and slid into the opposite wall, gripping it for dear life.

“Well, I’m different. Special,” Roman replied. “Everything you’re not.”

Tori, despite the thinly veiled terror in her eyes, glowered at him. “What did Verinne do to you?”

“She gave me power,” Roman replied.

The traveler shrieked as the scaffolding buckled under her weight. The floor beneath her vanished. She kicked out her legs and hooked them on another intact beam.

“What …” the traveler grunted. “What did it cost?”

Roman leaped, gravity shifting so that he walked with ease along the bars Tori fought to hold onto to. Marian looked on helpless as the room churned and changed ceaselessly. There was no way across yet. No way to help.

Roman crouched down beside Tori. “What you were too afraid to give. It was so easy, too. All we have to do is die.”

“No,” the traveler gasped. “You let her kill you?”