Page 5 of Hell Burns Between Us

She’d been certain they would heal after collecting the smoke from the wyverns. The snakebites were supposed to have been a guiding beacon, leading her to the nearly untraceable wyverns’ nest—which would have otherwise taken much too long to find.

Even so, it had taken her weeks to finally track those damned wyverns down, which is why she’d originally assumed the bites had become infected. She’d only needed to find the nest to find relief. Only now, she couldn’t deny the rancid smell of corrosive magic still oozing from the bites.

Golden blood crusted under her fingernails, and she realised with a start that she’d been scratching around the cracked, raw edges of the bites. She cringed, pressing on her wrists to keep from scrubbing at them anymore.

It was maddening that she’d likely have to make yet another bargain with the spirit who’d given her these wretched wounds in the first place. She closed her eyes and focused her energy on the protection wards around her bedroom, checking to make sure they still held. They weren’t fully preventing anyone from entering if they were determined enough; but they blocked sound from escaping and would turn away any casual visitors. It was the best she could do.

Instinct told her to lay her wrists atop each other, joining the bites together. The moment she did, a hum of power rumbled through her.

Her voice was shaky as she called out, “Slang?”

Like before, thousands of serpents slithered out of thin air into her bedroom—curling around the pottery that lined her back wall, over her favourite reading chair, and still more slithered onto her bed.

She stumbled backwards until she fell onto the mattress, moving snakes out from underneath her. They wriggled under her covers, across her pillow, seeming to multiply as she tossed serpent after serpent back into the writhing mass.

The flare of tangerine light struck her, slamming her into the bed frame. The room spun, yet through the pounding in her skull, she lifted her face; searching for proof that the summoning had worked.

Slang, one of the oldest and seldom-seen spirits in Hell, rose from the writhing mass of serpents in a billowing swath of steam. Two terrifying heads, moving in synchronicity, branched out from their massive flame-orange body. They loomed, all four eyes locked on her with unblinking intensity.

A voice, smooth and tender, echoed inside her mind. “Hello, little Hellion.”

Peri winced. The titanic serpent was too close. Unease coiled in her stomach as her gaze flicked between their heads. Her breaths came shallow as the sounds of the smaller serpents thrashing filled the silence. Gathering her courage, Peri held out her wrists. “Why are your bites poisoning me?”

The two heads cocked in unison, their eyes narrowing.

A shiver ran down her spine. “Slang, our bargain was completed.” Slang was powerful, sure, but in the end a bargain was still a bargain. “Or… I believed it to be complete, anyway.”

Silence loomed around them but she pressed on. “If the bargain is incomplete, then you are required to tell me.”

She scrubbed at her wrists reflexively and Slang’s tail shot out, wrapping around one of her arms, pulling it close to examine it.

“Interessssting.” Slang’s heads cocked to the side in synchronicity. “I’ve never thought to approach a demonesss of your Circle for the Bite, and in all thiss time none have called upon me… until you.”

Peri’s forced calm was swiftly unravelling. “I’m sorry but, we made our bargain—you got my blood and now I have the hatchling smoke I needed. Your puncture wounds should have healed by now… not started poisoning me.”

“The Bite only stayss with demonessses clever and brave enough to help uss—the magical creaturess.” Slang slithered onto her bed, their tail moving behind Peri, slipping up her back until they cradled her head gently, but firmly.

“Help with what?” she asked softly, tampering down the terror growing inside her. “How could I—I can’t possibly help you.”

“The woundss—my Bite—on your wrissts ssay you could. That you have my Bite, fesstering though it may be, meanss you have the ability to break the Curssed Bargain… should you choose.”

Hell’s history was littered with famous bargains, most of them long since completed and forgotten. Only one renowned pact remained ongoing.

Though, if it was the same bargain, then she knew it by another name.

Peri’s voice was a choked rasp as she asked, “Is the Cursed Bargain anything like the Divine Bargain?”

“There iss only the Cursssed Bargain. The one keeping the magical creatures in Hell.” Slang stared at her for a very long time. “To break it, someone musst take back an item that has been sstolen.”

“I don’t—” Peri drew in a trembling breath. The Divine Bargain bound magical creatures and demonkind together in a harmony so carefully balanced it was said to benefit all. “I’ve never heard of this Cursed Bargain. But the Divine Bargain—I know it to be good. Why would you ever want to end it?”

Slang studied her with eyes glowing like the last rays of a sunset. “And you believe thiss to be the truth of thingss?”

“I—” Peri tapped the tips of her fingers together nervously. “What would it even mean to accept this Bite? What does it…do?”

“It would grant you privilegesss and protectionss to help you break the Curssed Bargain—marking you as one of our own. It connectss you to uss sso that we can help you ssteal back what was taken.” Slang considered their next words, their heads tipping from side to side. Their tail’s grip on her head tightened ever so slightly.“Your woundss won’t heal until you decide either for or againsst the tassk at hand.”

Slang let silence billow between them, their unblinking eyes seeming to peer into her soul.“Try going to the Asscenssion Ceremony."