Gasping for air, I inhaled deep breaths, smoke filling my lungs. No matter how many gasps of air I took, I still couldn't breathe. I started to see visions of Dantalion filter through my mind, his strength, the sadness in his eyes, the lies that we believed were our love. I wanted to die. I welcomed death. I wanted the fires to consume my body, to crash and burn all around me. Take away all the pain.
Blood continued pouring from my body like rain, and I collapsed to the ground. My eyes fixated on the brightest star I ever saw, flames inside the massive inferno grew hotter, crimson and indigo colors expanding into a cylindrical wave of motion. Winds whipped through the flames and up to the tree tops, the whole place burning around me. The evening star in the center of the pyre opened up the flames like a majestic gate to the heavens. The pitch burned strong still, guarded by the winged demons surrounding the Courtyard. An aura surrounding the center of the fire forced me to open my eyes wider.
Within the crimson flames, Lord Satan himself, ascended, his brilliant aura masking his wickedness. Near death, I felt my soul separating from my mortal flesh. As he raised his clawed hands to the sky, I could see my weighted body on the ground and my soul a translucent likeness he held tightly in his grasp.
Rowan and Dantalion, still blocked by the barrier of flames, witnessed the massive inferno and Satan's dramatic entrance.
"I cannot use my demonic powers to help her!" Dantalion cursed.
"What? Why the hell not?" Rowan yelled at him, furiously trapped between the barrier and my life.
"Laurel asked me to shape shift. I didn't want to deplete all my powers, but she wanted to see. Unless…."
"Unless what?" Rowan argued.
"You're new to this, you will discover soon enough. You need to feed to survive. Right now, that is what I need to do."
"So what, you're gonna leave?" Rowan yelled at Dantalion some more.
"My powers may take him in battle, but they are not strong enough to stop him now," Dantalion argued. "Either we stay here and watch Satan take her, or we do something."
"What powers do I have? What can I do?" Rowan asked.
"You do not master any powers - yet," Dantalion told him.
"Listen , I don't remember everything that happened, but I do remember seeing Laurel chained to the altar in the Courtyard, and you standing there."