Angelus by Sabrina Benulis

hour I can make you forget the entire world.”
    Kim barely heard what she said.
    He nodded but continued to examine Mastema sorrowfully as Lilith slunk away. He wasn’t sure how much more time had passed. Kim’s ears still buzzed with her lies and false promises. Lilith knew he was up to something. She just couldn’t figure out exactly what. That invitation to her mansion was just a way to keep him in check. He took a deep breath and stepped away, intent on leaving. Sophia was waiting for him, after all. But a flicker of movement caught the corner of his eye.
    As if congealing from the shadows of the wall, a black snake appeared next to Mastema and peered down at Kim with bright orange eyes.
    Kim froze. His pulse roared in his ears.
    â€œYou’re keeping me in suspense?” The snake’s mouth opened, revealing curved, needle-sharp fangs. “Because that,” the snake said, slithering around Mastema’s neck and stretching out to meet Kim, “wouldn’t be a wise thing to do, I’m afraid.”
    â€œI won’t change my mind,” Kim said. He curled his hands into fists. “Angela needs her memories back.”
    â€œGood . . .” the snake said. It gazed at him more intensely. “Just make sure you hold up your end of the bargain.”
    â€œI’m not a liar,” Kim muttered. “And neither is Sophia.”
    Though Sophia hadn’t agreed to anything just yet.
    Kim stiffened as the snake stretched toward his shoulder and slithered around his neck. Its cool voice echoed inside of his ear, and its tongue flicked against his skin. “Of course not. You can’t afford to be,” the snake said.
    It laughed, and the noise rang through the tunnel like a terrible bell as its reptilian body turned to ash, crumbling from Kim’s shoulders to the ground.

Five
    Kim guided his Kirin swiftly through Babylon, knowing that the night would pass all too quickly, that their time was running out. The snake’s cold laughter echoed in his brain, timed to the burning image of Lilith’s piercing eyes.
    One wrong move with either demon, and Angela might never be healed.
    Sophia followed close behind on a steed of her own, but the beast didn’t have the same stealth as Kim’s. Its heavy paws thumped against the stone and earth as if they were boulders striking flint. Kim’s breaths erupted ragged and tired already. But neither he nor Sophia could slacken the pace until they were at least outside of the city, and right now its lights still shone like cold yellow stars on their backs.
    He’d never become accustomed to riding these creatures. The Kirin resembled horses from Earth, but they were more like Hellish unicorns with a lethally sharp ribbed horn rising from the middle of their head, glowing eyes, and bodies that flickered with phosphorescent blue light.
    Kim held the reins tight but winced at the pain in hishands. This Kirin had bitten him in his haste to release it from its paddock beneath Angela’s personal mansion.
    Its flanks rippled with the light that signified distress. He and Sophia would be lucky to make it through the city unnoticed.
    But so far, so good.
    Many of the streets at this hour were deserted. Most demons knew enough not to wander on their own in the more lawless hours of the night. Kim and Sophia weaved through alleys and desolate wastes, they galloped over a bridge spanning the foaming Styx River, and then they were plunging into the lower levels of the city.
    Kim glanced up at some guards patrolling the bridge. They noted his passage but didn’t make a move to stop him. Their silhouettes reappeared and disappeared behind grim spikes of obsidian as they casually strolled the bridge’s expanse. The fine mist above them responded to the increasingly chill air, tumbling in little crystals that glittered like diamond dust. Most of the guards weren’t used to any unannounced visitors into the lower