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anything when suddenly I do. My ears pick up an almost imperceptible rumble. I spin around and hold my pendent out farther, trying to find the source of the sound. I drag Azael forward with me a few steps but can’t see anything. The rumbling increases slowly, and it sounds as if the entire room is vibrating.
    “What is it?”
    The sound continues to intensify until I am convinced the walls are collapsing in on us. I pull Azael tight to my side as the ground beneath us begins to tremble violently. A severe pressure constricts around us, and I suddenly feel like we are in a very small, confined room.
    I have to yell over the commotion for Azael to hear me. “Where’s the door?”
    I hold the pendent between us, illuminating the sharp angles of his face. He opens his mouth like he’s going to say something but before he can, a single bloodcurdling scream tears above the rumbling. The darkness explodes into chaos.
    The blackness that squeezes in around me shatters with a giant crash to reveal a ruddy sky with a low, swollen and murky moon. I drop my pendant, letting it fall sharply to my chest. The floor transforms from tile into stiff, rocky orange clay. The clay continues to shift unsteadily and my boots slip out from under me, but Azael catches me before I hit the ground and pulls me to my feet.
    The room is not a room at all. It’s become a giant, expansive landscape of rocks and desert and everything orange and blood red.
    “We have to move!” he shouts, pointing to a giant fissure splitting the ground.
    I grab on to his arm and drag him with me as we jump across the swelling ravine. A second fissure rips through the clay, crisscrossing with the first and leaving us on a narrow cliff. We’re not technically trapped; I could fly off of this island of rock if I wanted to, but the sky looks like it’s bleeding and I don’t want to move unless I have to. The rumble fades to a soft hum and the clay, finally, stills.
    I break Azael’s grip on my arm and walk to the edge of the ravine. Deep within the gash is a thick, boiling vein of blood. The familiar rusty smell of it allows me a moment of calm and gives me something to hold on to that makes sense. That’s when another smell hits me.
    Beneath the metallic scent of blood is the thick and putrid smell of death, old and ancient death, that sets my teeth on edge. I have never felt anything like this since Lucifer fell, and its unexpected presence is unsettling.
    “Home, sweet home, Pen. Although, it seems that Hell’s redecorated since we’ve left. I remember it being much colder and much more blue. But I like the change. Red is very in.”
    I look back at Azael and see him smiling. He looks almost cheerful, but I can’t find any energy to pretend to be entertained. “This isn’t Hell,” I say.
    “Clearly.” He walks up next to me and peers down into the ravine. “But it’s the next best thing. Smells like Hell.”
    “A bit,” I say, scrunching my nose.
    I close my eyes and take several deep, unnecessary breaths. With each breath, I become calmer. The nerves that spiral through my abdomen slow and my head feels lighter. The scene around me—the noise, the smell, everything—disappears.
    At the edge of my consciousness, I feel a malevolent force hanging in the air, but I don’t fight it. It’s not bothersome. Distantly, I detect my pendant vibrating.
    I relax into the sensation and notice a thick pressure on my chest. The weight of the pressure spreads through my limbs, bringing with it a wave of strange emotions, like someone else has stepped in and taken over while I’m in this state of not caring.
    An intense burn seeps painfully through my veins. The pain spreads slowly to the base of my neck, where it throbs uncomfortably. The throbbing sounds like a quickening heartbeat.
    Thump. Thumpthump. Thumpthumpthumpthump.
    The feeling within me is foreign. I don’t have heart, not anymore, and certainly not a heartbeat, but I can feel a pounding beneath my