One of the demons looks at me. I can’t help but think that it’s the same one who saw me the last time I visited the Pit. His wings are on fire, and his glistening body glows red from the reflection. He snaps his multiheaded whip at me as all the chariots charge closer.

The matching heads scream as they come at me with an intensity that’s beyond insane. All balls of teeth and eyes and writhing hair.

All I know is that I do not want one of those latching onto me. I pump my legs as fast as I can. I do a sharp turn around a corner and run behind a broken building.

There’s a hatchway in a crumbling wall. I throw it open.

I’m about to race down the stone steps into the darkness below when one of the Watchers crash-lands on the ground in front of me.

It’s Beliel. He has a whip head chewing its way into his back.

Two more of the screaming heads land on him. One latches on and rips a strip of flesh off his arm. The other catches itself on Beliel’s hair and begins whipping around, pulling part of Beliel’s scalp with it.

Beliel grabs the one off his scalp and crushes it.

I jump in and viciously kick the head off his back. Beliel is my ticket out of here, and I can’t let him get killed. My head hurts just trying to understand what it would mean if he dies here.

The last head is chewing its way up the strip of torn skin on his arm. I yank the head and rip the skin all the way off, ignoring Beliel’s bellow of pain. I stomp on it until it stops moving.

Beliel staggers up onto his feet. I shove him down the dark stairs and slam the hatch behind me.

I try not to pant too loudly as I latch the door shut.

We seem to be in a basement below a crumbled building. The only light is from the cracks of the hatch door, and it’s too dark to see whether there’s another exit.

The ground vibrates. Large, heavy chunks of debris thunk down against the hatch.

I stiffen and get ready, gripping my sword with both hands. A sense of doom vibrates off Beliel as he stands with his ear cocked toward the hatch, as though he’s been here a thousand times before and lost the battle each time. Looking at how torn and trashed he and the other Watchers are, that doesn’t seem far-fetched.

The hatch rattles and jiggles as the heads attack it with their teeth. The gnawing and bumping against the hatch goes on forever before it finally stops.

Then a great rattling and the sound of whipping moves past outside. The demons must not have seen where we disappeared to, even if their whip heads did.

The chariot rattle fades into the distance.

I cautiously let my breath out and look around. We’re in an underground hovel of some kind. Trashed bedding lies in the shadows, a raised seat made of mud, charred remains of a long-ago fireplace.

‘Do you know what they would have done to you?’ asks Beliel in a raspy whisper beside me.

I jump. I hadn’t realized he was so close.

‘Those heads,’ he says. ‘Do you know what they scream for?’

I shake my head, then remember he can’t see me.

‘A new body. They’re desperate for it.’ He leans against the wall of the hovel with his empty sockets turned to me. ‘Welcome to the Pit. Like it or not, you’ve just joined the initiations for the newly Fallen.’

‘How long do the initiations go on?’

‘Until you become Consumed or something equally horrible. Or it’s possible the Pit lords might feel like promoting you out of maggot status. I’ve heard it only happens sometime after your wings fully turn. Then the real fun begins.’

‘It gets worse after you’re promoted?’

‘That’s what I heard.’

Something thuds on the hatch outside. I stay silent until whatever it was that hit the hatch goes away.

‘What about those screaming whip heads? Are they being initiated too?’

‘They’re the Consumed. They’re the ones who didn’t make it through initiation. There’s a legendary feast that goes on with the Pit lords. The Consumed are the ones who were sacrificed for the feast.’ He shakes his head. ‘We can grow back a lot of things, but not a whole body or even major parts.’

He rubs his empty eye sockets. ‘But when you’re in the Pit, there are infinite opportunities for more misery. The Consumed cry out by the thousands to be included in a head whip for the chance to claim a new body.’

I’ve never seen Beliel so chatty. This earlier version of him is going to take some getting used to.

‘If they get their teeth into you, they’ll burrow before you can blink. They’ll work their way up to your head where they gnaw until your head falls off. Then they plant themselves in your neck. Sometimes, they fight, and two or three of them plant themselves before it’s all done. That’s a sight that makes you wish your eyes had been gouged out.’

I look at him to see if he just told a joke, but there’s no change in his expression.

‘A Fallen body is a prize, but they’ll take anything with limbs. They’ll even take rat bodies with the hope that they can move up the food chain so long as they can find the next victim. So watch your feet.’

He slides down the wall, sitting against it. ‘Rumor has it that some of the most powerful Pit lords were once Consumed. Of course, by the time they reach Pit-lord status, they’re beyond insane.’

I like to think I can handle insanity, but this is taking it to a whole new level.

‘So always be on guard,’ he says. ‘You could lose more here than you could possibly imagine.’

Is Beliel really looking out for me? There must be an ulterior motive, but I can’t think of one right now. ‘Why are you telling me all this?’ Maybe he’s not Beliel but just someone who looks like him. He sure doesn’t sound like him.

‘You saved me out there,’ he says. ‘I pay what’s owed, good or bad. Besides, I have a soft spot for Daughters of Men. My wife used to be one.’ His voice trails off, and I can barely hear his last sentence.

‘You’re offering to protect me?’ The disbelief clearly comes through in my voice.

‘No one can protect you, little girl, certainly not a newly Fallen whose eyes haven’t grown back yet. Anyone who says they can protect you is lying. It’s just a question of friend or foe. That’s all.’

‘And you’re telling me you’re my friend?’

‘I’m not your enemy.’

‘What the hell kind of bizarro world am I in?’ I whisper to myself.

I don’t expect Beliel to answer, but he does. ‘You’re in the ruins of the hellion world.’