Khrene came in first.

He slashed open the net with one stroke of his claws, barely longer than tipped fingernails, but sharp enough to cut aralochon silk.

I jumped to my feet.

Khrene made a sound like "Dk, dk." He stepped forward, making a dog-mumph sound like "Ufz, ufz."

"Fuas sduyaqpcpqj of," Arveya hissed. I don't know how she pronounced that middle word, but that's how she said to spell it. (something like ss-doowoy-akpishp-kij)

Stop patronizing us, the Voice translated in a whisper.

"Rt zqar iao zqar English," she said. (ert zkar eeyow zkar English) "Hay aoy kowdq hyptqgf, fstdz English, sxtdft!" (Hay owoy kowduk hype-tukgef, fst-duz English sixt-difft.)

We know you know English, the Voice translated. For our human friends, speak English, please!

"Ah," Khrene murmured, grinning. "Of course. For friends, of course."

"We're not your friends, you freak of nature," I muttered, my shirt pulled over my nose and mouth just in case.

Khrene laughed. "Humans, the ever-paranoid race!" he said, grinning. "One, I'm not-" He chuckled. "-perfuming the air right now, and two, your little layer of cloth wouldn't help you if I was."

"You're sick," Arveya grunted. Cole let out a few choice words, gripping his watch. Nee reached down her shirt and pulled out her bag.

"Hey, demon!" she yelled. "Mind if I knock you out and use you as a freaking specimen? Cuz I need a sleep poison formula and, if you'd be so kind, I'd like to dissect you."

Khrene stared at her for a second, then started laughing.

That laugh was the most sinister, foreboding sound I'd ever heard. It seemed to start inside of him, then rose out from him like thunder, pounding in my ears until I'd rather go deaf. He howled like that until I realized from the annoyed grunt beneath me that I was sitting on Kel. Apparently I had backed up around ten feet without realizing it.

"Now, now," he said when he'd recovered. "Let's go see Kraiyn. He'll be getting impatient!" As he walked, I had to take three steps for his one, and Nee was practically dragging Cole.

Liyz. Not the Voice this time. This was a voice I knew.

LIYZ. Arveya's thoughts burst in again. I nodded imperceptibly.

Okay, her thoughts came. He said Kraiyn, right?

I nodded again.

Kraiyn is one of the worst demons around. He commands an entire army of Scasirs. He is a Scasir himself, but has risen nearly to the status of Dimension Lord. Larafobew has been under his rule for ten years. She paused, and I heard a mental sigh come from her. If Khrene is working for Kraiyn...

We're as good as dead, I thought, but she couldn't hear me, of course.

As Khrene walked us down the hall, he stopped. The rest of us bumped pell-mell into each other. Khrene clicked his claws together. A demon stepped out of the shadows. I felt one of my arms yanked practically out of its socket, then something went click around it. This same procedure was enacted on my other arm. Handcuffs.

"Gaq'u kdyw aoy xpuuxt kowdq sypaqtf," Khrene rumbled with a smile. (gak-oo kidyoo owoy zpookst kowduk si-paktf)

Don't harm our little human prisoner, the Voice translated.

"I am not little," I mumbled.

"But of course," Khrene said, smiling. His teeth were serrated, jagged like mini shark teeth.

She speaks Demonic? Nee thought. Her thoughts shot into a burst of swearing as the demon cuffed her as well.

"Don't touch me," Arveya snarled, but they cuffed her. Khrene tried to pull her sword from her belt, but winced and hissed as it touched him.

Sword. My silver dagger was hidden in my bag, which was hidden in my shirt. Hopefully they didn't know I had it. They had managed to wrestle Nee's scimitar out of her hands and had stowed it in a satchel.

We were walked through dozens of hallways, then into an enormous room.

The room was twenty feet high and at least fifty feet long. It was the size of the gym at school.

There was a throne.

There was a demon on the throne.

It was Kraiyn.

He had no obvious torture implements. I raised my shirt over my face as best as I could with my hands cuffed behind me. Khrene chuckled.

Next to Kraiyn was the inctaz.

This was the same one that I had fought. Why wasn't it dead? It saw me and gave me a "hey girl" wave, smirking.

I turned to Khrene. "Could you just let me have one arm free? For a few seconds?"

"Hmm," the demon muttered. "Okay. But don't try anything." He seemed to want to see what was coming as much as I wanted to do it.

He opened one cuff.

I thumbed my nose at the inctaz, then flipped it the bird.

I slid my arm back into the cuffs as Khrene burst out laughing.

"You had it coming, Jyrz," he said, deep voice reverberating around the enormous room. The majority of the demons were laughing now, excluding the inctaz and Kraiyn. The inctaz looked like he was going crazy, as he was trying to smile cooly and look furious at the same time, which made him look like he was smiling bug-eyed. Kraiyn just looked angry that I had insulted one of his highest agents.

Wow, Nee thought behind me. I did not think she was that brave. Or stupid.

She just wrote her own death sentence, Cole thought anxiously.

Well done, came the Voice. Well done!

That's Liyz for you, Arveya thought with a smirk.

"FPXTQBT!" Kraiyn snarled. It sounded kind of like he was blowing a raspberry. It would have been funny if what happened next weren't so creepy: the demons stopped laughing as if someone had thrown a switch.

Silence, the Voice translated.

"Rtxx," (err-tix [roll the rs.]) Kraiyn hissed. "Rtxx." He paused, shaking his head for a second, then continued in English. "What brings you to our neck of hell?"

"Nice joke," Nee muttered, then yanked at her cuffs. They didn't come apart, and from her wince, it seemed like she had pulled her wrist.

"Now, now," Kraiyn said, smirking. "Are humans really this weak-minded? Do you even realize that you can't break demon-forged obsidian?"

"A girl can freaking dream," Nee muttered, looking at the bump in the side of her shirt where her bag was stashed. I knew she had a strength potion stashed in there.

"You," said Cole, yanking at his chains. "You. All. Suck."

The demons laughed again, an awful sound. Khrene simply chuckled, and Kraiyn grinned. Cole looked mutinous, his hands twitching as he tried and failed to grasp his watch. I heard an annoyed grunt from behind me, one of the few audible sounds that I'd ever heard from Kel. Nee glanced at him. Arveya was yanking on the chain, but she winced as it seemed to burn her. The unnamed demon behind us chuckled at her pain. I resisted the urge to run at him and break his spine.

"Fa," Kraiyn said softly, and the rest of the demons stopped talking. "Anyway, what brings you all here? I thought that Soul Reavers never came down here? Too scary for you?" The demons laughed as Arveya sputtered random swear words in Demonic. "Fa," Kraiyn said more pointedly. The demons stopped again. "Where were we? Oh yes. Why are you here?"

We looked at each other. We were all thinking the same thing.

We don't have a lie we can tell.

If we tell the truth (we need to kill their god) we're dead.

"Well..." I began.

"WE'RE GOING TO KILL YOUR EFFING GOD!" Arveya bellowed. The demons gasped, and I heard the sound of knives unsheathing.

"THAT'S RIGHT!" I heard Cole yell, shaking his chains. I had never heard him speak that loudly, or with that much heat in his voice. I could feel the slow burn in his eyes, even from in front of him. "YOUR DEMON LORD RUINED OUR FRIEND'S LIFE! WE'RE GOING TO AVENGE HER!" He took a step forward, snarling at Kraiyn. One demon with metal-tipped whips for arms lashed one around his throat and practically killed him yanking him back. He smacked into Nee as the demon released him, choking and gagging.

Now I was full of Cole's fire, too. "GO DIE SOMEWHERE, YOU WEIRD DEMON BRUTE! HAVE YOU EVER HAD A GOOD THOUGHT IN YOUR LIFE?" I stepped forward. "GO DIE IN A HOLE, YOU UGLY DEMON FREAK!"

"Rtxx," Khrene murmured. "D htpfu aqt." (Duh hutupfu akt)

Well, the Voice translated. A feisty one.

"I AM NOT JUST A FEISTY ONE!" I bellowed at Khrene, turning my hatred and anger on him. "I AM A WARRIOR, AND I WILL REND YOU LIMB FROM LIMB, POWER OR NONE!" Khrene had a strange light in his eyes as I said this, so I shifted my shirt over my nose just in case. After a few seconds in which I couldn't smell anything, I let it back down. It was hard to hold it in my teeth anyway.

"YOU TELL 'IM, LIYZ!" Nee yelled from behind me, stamping the foot of the demon behind her. "MAY THE FREAKING RIGHT PREVAIL!" It was not like Nee to quote in any situation unless she was mad as heck. (she always threw freaking into quotes. If she didn't add freaking, she added something worse.)

That's when Cole let out a wordless roar, somewhere from deep in his chest. It echoed off the walls, quieting the entire room. (Leave it to Cole to have his voice drop at the exact moment that we needed it.)

"Rar," Khrene growled appraisingly. I didn't recognize it was Demonic, and if it hadn't been for the Voice I'd have thought he was harassing me and killed him.

Wow, the Voice translated. That's Demonic for 'Wow.'

"Well," Kraiyn snarled. "You're getting too annoying. Maybe torture will knock some sense into you."

Oh no, I thought.

We're screwed, Arveya thought.

We went too far. Just as I feared. Cole.

Let 'em uncuff me. Nee. I'll shred 'em all.

All I got from Kel was a wave of resigned determination.

The best we can do is hold out, the Voice sent. Let them get tired of torturing us.

"Us?" I murmured. "Wait. Either you're part of me..."

Or? the Voice asked with a hint of amusement.

"Or you're in our group," I said, almost squeaking.

This time, the Voice came from somewhere other than my mind. Too quiet for the others to hear, but loud enough for me.

"Liyz, I think you've always known," Kel whispered.

I had never thought she could have the strength to go against a demon.

Maybe there's some things I could learn from her as well...

A/N: If anyone knows how to add fonts to Wattpad, info would be appreciated!