Scorn of Angels by John Patrick Kennedy Read Free Book Online

it and shoved the end into the stony ground to hold her upright until her feet could once more touch. Demons laughed and danced and cut and bit at her flesh. One sat on her shoulders and shoved its clawed fingers repeatedly into her eyes, laughing every time they burst.
    When Nyx/Aleyd’s feet finally regrew, she pushed hard against the razor-sharp stones of the ground, trying to free herself of the barbed spear that ripped open her guts. She bent over and tried pulling at it, but the barbs ripped at her flesh from the inside.
    Two demons jumped on her and shoved her facedown on the earth. They grabbed the shaft of the spear and began ramming it in and out of her.
    All the way to the palace the tortures continued. Demons tortured and violated her, and visited a hundred other evils upon her flesh. And when Nyx reached the door of Lucifer’s palace, Andromalius ripped the spear from her body, leaving a gaping hole.
    I am nearly there.
    Nyx’s whip and sword were both ready to hand, though invisible. They were as much a part of her body as her wings. And all I have to do is get close enough to that bastard Lucifer and I can end this.
    She kept playing her part, kept screaming and trying to run away from her attackers, who overwhelmed her easily. She walked on bloody feet into her own palace. Around her, other souls did the same. Some were intact; others were broken. One male soul had been bent into a circle and had its own head shoved into its ass, then had its arms and legs cut off so it could be kicked around like a ball.
    Slowly, slowly, the line moved forward. And when she reached the end of it, when she stepped into the throne room, she saw Lucifer sitting on a new throne, a naked Angel on her knees before him giving him pleasure as he judged the souls one by one.
    Lucifer was as beautiful as ever. His massive chest and legs were perfectly proportioned to match his even more massive wings. His cock was outsized to the point where the Angel in front of him was hurting herself every time she took it in her mouth. He wore his horned crown upon his head, and he shone from within with a dim light like a slow-burning fire of coals.
    Nyx remembered when he had lit up the sky, but that had been before the rebellion, before all their dreams had been crushed and their lights darkened to what they were now.
    Lucifer shoved the Angel in front of him aside, changed his form into a dragon and blew a breath of fire that turned the soul before him into a crisped mass of burning flesh.
    “Throw him into the Lake again,” said the Lucifer-dragon. “That will cool him.”
    The Angels and demons in the room laughed and hauled the soul away. Lucifer looked at the male soul before him. “And here we have a rapist. Lovely.”
    He breathed fire, burning away the man’s genitals and most of his flesh. Lucifer transformed back to himself. “There’s a pole that burns with eternal Hellfire. We impale your kind there. Take him.”
    What was left of the soul screamed as it was dragged away.
    And so it went. Eight other souls were judged and tortured and thrown or dragged or mopped up and taken from the palace. Two left in the belly of demons.
    Then it was Nyx’s turn.
    All I have to do is make this work a little longer…
    Something vivid green in the corner caught her attention.
    Impossible. There were no colors in Hell, save that which spilled from the souls’ guts. Everything else was black, made from Hellstone. So what the fuck is it?
    It was small and delicate and the brilliant green of the plants that floated on the surface of a pond.
    It was the color of Epiphenia’s blood.
    But she’s dead , Nyx thought . She’s dead. They ripped her heart out and killed her, and she is dead.
    But nothing dies in Hell, does it?
    Andromalius kicked her spine, sending Nyx smashing on the floor before Lucifer. Nyx raised every mental defense she had, hid her true self behind a wall of mirrors that only showed reflections of Aleyd. Lucifer peered deep