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Dominion (Life After Book 3)

By Julie Hall

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I coughed for the hundredth time. Hell was . . . well, hot as Hell. As clichés went, this one was turning out to be extremely accurate.
We’d only been here for an hour, tops, and I was already dying to leave.
Oh look, I made a funny!
My quiet laugh turned into another round of nasty coughs. Once they subsided, I half expected to find a lung lying on the ground.
If the incessant hacking didn’t get me, the stench was going to kill me.
I’m on a roll.
The atmosphere was filled with a nasty cocktail of rotten eggs, rotten meat, and rotten souls. That last one was just a guess—but if souls could rot, I’m pretty sure the mystery scent in the air was what they would smell like.
Our small group—my fellow friends and hunters—baked in the funk as we trudged through the barren and rocky terrain on our top-secret mission. We’d been transported from our realm to this barren one only an hour before. The conditions were just shy of unbearable, despite the protection provided by Joe. I mean Jesus. I mean the Creator’s Son. Oh geez, I was still struggling to wrap my brain around Joe’s identity.
He’d been the first person I met when I woke up in the afterlife. He’d introduced himself as Joe, so that was how I thought of him—even after he’d recently revealed himself to be the Son of God. I could swallow the news that he was the Savior of mankind, but actually processing the implications of that information was a little too much for me right now. My finite brain could only handle so much at a time.
In the last twenty-four hours alone, I had discovered my beloved quirky mentor, Hugo, was actually the Holy Spirit; defended my family on Earth against a horde of demons, including Satan; and contracted the heavenly equivalent of a fiancé. And yes, I say contracted as if the engagement were a virus, not the romantic proposal every girl dreams of. It happened much like one would get mono. One kiss and bam I was stuck with him forever. Technically we’d shared a couple of kisses, but who was counting?
As I trekked along behind my friends, my face reddened at my thoughts.
Oh gosh, I really hope no one was counting.
The slight tug on my brand-new internal Logan-GPS—the sense I had of his whereabouts and well-being, activated upon the fateful kiss—was physical proof of the bond between us, as certain and permanent as the Epstein-Barr virus. So here I was, sneaking around a realm I had no business entering and sucking down sulfuric fumes on a quest to rescue my viral love.
Another round of rib-cracking coughs racked my frame. I pressed a hand to my burning throat. Every breath seared my windpipe.
Gosh, he’s lucky he’s so good looking because rescue missions in Hell are totally overrated.
Something slimy rolled in my gut. I tried hard to ignore the sensation.
Jokes and grumbling could only cover up so much of my concern for Logan’s welfare. A throbbing awareness in both my wrists accompanied the pull of my Logan-GPS. I suspected the pain was an echo of what he was experiencing. Phantom twinges had sliced my body since we entered Hell.
I tripped on what looked to be a black lava rock, and Jonathon shot his arm out to steady me. I started to offer thanks, but he was already walking past. The rapier hanging from his waist slapped his thigh with every step. Covered from head to toe in hunter’s armor, Jonathon blended well with our trained band of warriors. He looked the part, even if he was a skilled healer rather than a proven fighter.
“Watch where you’re going.” His words carried a frosty bite that contrasted with the suffocating heat bearing down on us.
Sigh. There was another unneeded complication to this mission. My ex-boyfriend was along for the ride as our group’s medical support—the “ex” was for sure . . . the “boyfriend” part debatable.
Why he’d even bothered to stop me from face planting into the craggy red ground was a mystery. He’d made it clear he wanted nothing more to do with me when I told him there could never be anything more than friendship between us. He threw that suggestion back in my face like I’d offered him a bite of a moldy sandwich.
A peace offering he wasn’t interested in—and actually offended by.
My chest tightened as sadness blanketed my heart. I lost his friendship, but whatever attraction had existed between us was never going to be strong enough to go the distance. Maybe when he realized that, he’d forgive me.
Of course, he thought I’d cheated on him, so maybe that day would never come.
Another round of coughs compressed my chest and burned my throat. I sucked in the putrid air like it was laced with honey rather than whatever dark pollution caused the stench, but I couldn’t catch my breath.
“Hey, you all right?” Romona’s chocolate eyes were round as she patted me on the back until my coughing fit subsided.
“Yeah,” I croaked.
Great. Apparently a frog had crawled down in my throat and taken up residence.
I did a quick sweep of my traveling companions. All five of them: Kaitlin, Kevin, Jonathon, Romona, and Joe. They all struggled to varying degrees in our new environment. Kaitlin covered her nose with her hand. Romona’s eyes watered, whether from the smell or emotions, I wasn’t sure.
My throat screamed for some moisture-filled air.
Whoever said dry heat wasn’t as bad as humidity didn’t know what they were talking about.
Kevin wasn’t doing anything to ward off the stench, but sweat dripped down his face. He lifted an arm to wipe the moisture away every few minutes. Guilt washed over me when I realized I was mollified that someone else was suffering from the heat.
Jonathon strode forward as if completely unaffected by our environment, but I suspected his bravado was out of pride and sheer determination to appear strong.
As for Joe, the only sign of distress he revealed was the expression on his face. A sadness had invaded his eyes the moment we reached this realm. The emotion showed itself in the creases around his eyes and the tightness of his features as he surveyed the landscape.
Stumbling and hacking, I was having the worst time of it.
Romona grasped my elbow to help me stand upright, and she kept her hand loosely on my arm to steady me as we continued. We’d fallen a little behind the rest of the group and hurried to catch up.
A stabbing pain in my gut caused me to lose my footing again and cry out. If not for Romona, I would have been on my hands and knees on the scorched ground. The agony was enough to double me over and stop my forward progression.
I took deep breaths with my arms around my middle, protecting myself from the phantom pain.
My Lamaze-like breathing probably made me sound like I was about to give birth. I’d laugh about that if the truth weren’t so horrific. I half expected to look down and see blood leaking from my gut. But this wasn’t my pain. This was a whisper of whatever Logan was enduring. Panic churned in my stomach, but I stuffed the dread down.
Horrible as that was, the knowledge kept me going. If I didn’t know to the very fiber of my being that he was here somewhere and in a tremendous amount of danger, I wouldn’t subject myself to this misery any longer.
First train back to the heavenly realm? Yes please. Sign me up.
But I wasn’t physically capable of leaving him here, thanks to our bond. And even if I were, I’d never abandon Logan in this horrid place.
“Guys, hold up,” Romona shouted.
One breath in. One breath out. One breath in. One breath out.
A cool hand touched my forehead, and the pain subsided. I looked up into Joe’s sad, kind eyes.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yeah, thanks.” The frog had vacated my throat, and I could speak again. I straightened my frame.
He nodded once. “I know. I can feel it too.”
“You can?” Could have fooled me. Besides the hidden sadness in his gaze, he appeared fresh as a daisy.
He rolled his eyes. “Appearances can be deceiving.”
Right. He probably knew every thought flitting through my mind. Awkward.
Turning his head, he addressed the small group, “Let’s stop for a bit.”
No one talked as we all pulled out our canteens to gulp down some water. I took a seat on a spiky rock. That had to be a better alternative than the ground. Wrong. My backside had become a pincushion.
I chugged my drink too quickly, and some of it dribbled down my neck and fell to the dusty soil where the liquid sizzled before evaporating. The desire to drink it all rode me hard, but I’d need it later.
I capped my water and secured it to my belt. Waiting for the go-ahead, I looked around.
Red ground littered with small mounds of black stones stretched as far as the eye could see. When I looked up, there was no blue sky but rather a rocky surface that could have been a mile above our heads.
We were truly entombed in the Earth.
I had no idea what dim luminescence lit this place, but whatever the artificial light was, rather than enhance color, it drained it. The faces of my companions were chalky. Even the dirt beneath our feet seemed leached of color. Devoid of vegetation, the barren wasteland laid out in all directions.
Hell was bleak.
Looking at the grey faces and dull eyes of my friends was a bit like looking at reanimated corpses. Waves of trepidation rolled down my spine, wracking my frame with full body shudders as my thoughts, steeped in the macabre, worked their way through me.
“Is it all like this?” Kaitlin swept her arm in an arc as her eyes scanned the vicinity.
“No.” Joe was the only one of us still standing. His gaze remained outward even as he addressed Kaitlin’s question. “This part hasn’t been filled yet.”
Filled? What did that mean?
The look of disgust marring his face was unmistakable. “I wanted to make sure we weren’t detected, but entering an empty part of this realm calls for a lengthy walk. You all are holding up well.” His eyes found mine. “Considering the circumstances.”
He turned to face the whole group. “Listen. There are a few things you all need to know before we go any farther. This realm was created for the Betrayer and his followers, but there are others here as well. It isn’t Our desire that a single soul should end up in this vile place, but . . .”
He paused and scrubbed a hand down his face before going on. His expression was tormented, his mouth was pressed into a hard line, and veins pulsed at his temples. “You’re not going to like what you see. You need to prepare yourself. We’re here for one reason alone, and that is to bring Logan home. You are going to have to come to terms with the fact that you can’t do anything for anyone else here. They are not your responsibility.”
Then whose responsibility were they?
I snuck a glance at my companions. Mouths pressed in hard lines and scrunched brows were a common theme.
“What else can you tell us?” Romona asked.
Joe motioned for us all to come forward. With his sword, he drew a circle in the red volcanic cinder at his feet.
“This realm is composed of rings.” He drew several more circles within the first, each one inside another until there were nine circles. The center one was no bigger than a quarter.
“We’re currently in the outermost ring.” He indicated the space between the largest circle and the next one with the tip of his sword. “As we travel farther, each ring is more inhabited, and the discomfort you’re all feeling will intensify.”
I blinked back at him. Intensify? I wasn’t going to make it.
Squirming, sharp pains of discomfort stabbed my backside. This rock made a horrible seat.
“Audrey.”
My attention snapped back to Joe.
“A lot of what you are feeling is leaked to you from Logan, so you’re already experiencing what it’s like to be in a deeper ring. I’m not saying it won’t get worse for you, but not by much.”
Dread sunk my heart to my belly. Logan.
Multiple pairs of concerned-filled eyes swung my way. Jonathon didn’t look at me. He was staring at the circles Joe had drawn in the ground as if they held the meaning of life. Jonathon’s features were hard. I couldn’t help the tendril of compassion that spun around inside when I looked at him. Knowingly or not, I’d played a part in the stone-like façade he now wore.
“Do you know where he is?” I asked, turning my attention back to our leader.
Joe nodded and made an X in the space between the fourth and fifth circles, four rings away from where we currently resided. “Logan’s there, and we’re here. This is an oversimplification of the realm, but it’s basic information you should have.”
“Why didn’t we just drop into his exact location, grab him, and get out of here?” Cocking my head toward Kevin, I silently admitted he had a point.
“Your bodies need some time to adjust to the atmosphere down here. The demons are extremely active where Logan is. If we’d gone straight there, you’d be forced to defend yourselves against upper-level demons while you struggled to breathe.”
We nodded, our faces broadcasting a range of emotions.
“Your bodies weren’t meant for this realm, but by going through the circles slowly, you’ll be able to handle its intensity better. We’re going to skirt around as much of the demonic activity as possible, but at some point, you will all have to fight to defend yourselves. The creatures residing in this realm have been here many millennia and have adapted to its climate. This is their home turf, and it’s important you remember that. Our primary objective is to get Logan and get home. You need to readjust your thinking.” He took a moment to look each of us in the eye. “You are no longer the hunters, but rather the hunted.”

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