“I don’t like this, Mistress. It feels wrong.”
“Because it is wrong. But we have to do it. No demon will ever give me a horn, so we have to steal one from someone who doesn’t need it anymore.”
“How about this one?” Valac pointed at a huge mausoleum in the middle of the cemetery. It was made of black stone that could’ve been either onyx or obsidian. “Looks perfect to me. I bet the guy buried here has horns aplenty.” He read the name carved on an intricately decorated plaque. “Belphegor. Oh, he was one of the greats!”
“Valac, what did I say?”
“So, that’s a no?”
I ignored him as I looked around. I needed a small, insignificant grave. One no one would care about. I walked toward the edge of the cemetery, looking at the mounds that didn’t even have statues to guard them. Some barely had an inverted cross made of decaying wood.
“This one,” I said. The grave was unmarked.
“We don’t know who that is,” Valac complained. “This is getting less and less exciting. I thought you were an adventurer, Yolanda Aleksiev.”
“Dude, I don’t need trouble. I just need one damn demon horn, so I can get out of here before Professor Maat figures out I’m gone.”
“Fine, whatever.”
“Corri, please do the honors.”
She flew in the air, circled the grave a few times, then used her magic to remove the dirt and open the coffin. It only took her a couple of minutes. Now, Valac and I were standing over an open wooden box filled with bones and a skull. Skeleton hands and feet peeked out from underneath a beautiful white dress. This was the grave of a demoness. From head to toe, she was draped in jewelry – a heavy gold necklace around her neck that was peppered with big gems, bracelets around her wrists, and at least two rings on each of her fingers.
“Oh, it’s a lady,” Valac said. “I’m not stealing from a lady. That’s fucked up.”
I sighed. “Now you have principles?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. This was horrible. I couldn’t believe I was going to do it, but… there was no other way. The grave was pretty deep. I counted to five and jumped right inside the box, careful not to disturb the skeleton too much. The demoness had four horns protruding from her skull, two at the front, and two at the back.
“Corri, a little help?”
The horns were long and curved. Only pixie magic could detach one. Corri teleported next to me and used her tiny finger to draw an invisible line around the base of the nearest horn. As I held it by the sharp tip, Corri made the invisible line glow, and in seconds, the horn fell off on its own. I let out a breath of relief.
“Okay, let’s go back up.”
I was getting ready to teleport when I felt the earth shake. It started as a low, subtle rumble, then it grew louder and more powerful. The grave itself started shaking, and I had to grab onto the edges of the coffin. It was no use. I lost my balance and fell face first inside, my nose inches away from the dead lady’s skull.
“What’s happening?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t stop it,” Corri yelled at me.
It was an honest to God earthquake, and I couldn’t believe they happened in Hell, too. Or maybe they didn’t. As I stared into the skull’s empty eye sockets, a thought crossed my mind: what if I’d just caused it?
“What the fuck, guys? Get out of there!” Valac screamed from above.
“Corri, do something. Fly away, save yourself.”
“I can’t fly!”
And that was when I noticed that even though she was flapping her wings like mad, she couldn’t lift herself out of the coffin. We were both trapped, except we couldn’t see the force that was keeping us down, keeping us inside with the skeleton of the demoness.
“Guys, I’m out of here! Sorry!”
Fucking Valac. He was such a coward. But just as I was thinking that, the earthquake intensified, and he fell on top of me.
“Owww!”
He was so heavy! I was pretty sure he’d broken my back. The second all three of us were in the coffin, something completely unexpected happened. The bottom of the coffin opened, and we fell through it. It was dark, dusty, and it felt like we were going to fall forever. We landed hard on a floor made of black, cold stone. Valac was on top of me again, and I pushed him angrily. I crawled onto my hands and knees, trying to figure out where we were.
“Oh shit,” I heard Valac behind me. “Oh shit, we’re in deep trouble!”
“What? Why? What is this place?”
“Can’t… fly…” Corri complained as she flapped her wings uselessly.
There were candles in the four corners of the chamber, and my eyes slowly adjusted to their dim, flickering light. I stood up, checking that my bones were intact. The horn I had stolen had fallen a few feet away, and I grabbed it and put it in my pocket. No matter how this was going to end, I couldn’t lose it. We’d already gone through so much to get it, and it seemed that our little abominable adventure wasn’t over.
“This is a trap.” Valac was freaking out. “This is a motherfucking trap!”
I looked around me. It seemed that we were inside a stone box underground. The ceiling was tall, the candlelight could barely penetrate the darkness, and on one of the walls there seemed to be an altar. I approached it carefully. First, I saw the coffin. Not the one from above. This one was made of the same black stone that surrounded us, and inside it lay the demoness, as if she’d just fallen in by magic. She was missing a horn, but her dress and jewelry were intact. Above the coffin, a painting depicted her in her youth, alive – tall, beautiful, dressed in an impressive crimson gown, her bare neck and arms glittering with jewels. She had golden hair and red eyes. Her horns were adorned with strings of black pearl beads, the intricate arrangement making them look like a crown upon her head. Under the painting, a plaque.
Here lies Kore, the Concubine of the great Belphegor, Prince of Hell, Commander of a Thousand Armies, Chief Demon of the Sin Sloth. Kore’s beauty proved to be treacherous. When her lover found out about her numerous infidelities, he killed her with his bare hands and buried her in an unmarked grave with the gems he’d gifted her in life. Regretting it later, he came back and built her a secret grave worthy of the love he’d once felt for her.
Anyone who dares to desecrate her grave and steal her riches will be punished. They will be buried alive with her, never to see the light of day.
Thus has decided Belphegor, Prince of Hell.
“Oh no,” I whispered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Our powers had been rendered useless. Nullified. Corri couldn’t even fly, let alone do magic. I couldn’t teleport, and Valac couldn’t either. As a demon, he must’ve had some interesting tricks up his sleeve, but when he tried to do something, nothing happened.
“Cursed,” he said. “A cursed grave. That’s just great!”