Iblis possessed the dying harpy, burning out what was left of its consciousness so that its mangled body rose to its talons, blue fmes streaming from its eyes. Its feathers caught fire, and it spread massive, fiery blue wings. Jenny had felt the demon’s rage, felt his desire to attack Azra’il, felt the despair in knowing he was too weak – she knew exactly how that went.

  It’s dying, he said. The memories are fading away but there is a castle. The home of their master. Slowly, he raised the harpy's beautiful face and stared at the sky. Up there. And there are more souls up there that Azrail collects. One of them might be your Susan.

  Jenny stood in the water near the possessed harpy. She was still shaking, the presence of that monstrously powerful angel seemed to linger, and water dripped off the cracked scales of her armor. If there was any soce, it was that Azra’il hadn’t spotted her. He didn’t know she was here in this world, and that made her relieved. But that relief only pulled on more guilt.

  Disgusted with herself, she kept picturing Miriam’s wide, frightened eyes, looking around for help, kicking and struggling in Azria'il’s grip, her feet dangling. What had he said? A new princess for his collection? Was he going to...?

  She shuddered with rage and disgust and fear. If Susan was up there... then... But she had no choice. Even if Susan wasn’t there. She had to save Miriam. She couldn’t let that monster have her.

  On the other end of the corridor, angel eggs had fallen into the water, and Tarnished angels were feasting off them. Jenny grimaced, a part of her wanting to save the eggs. The angel babies didn’t seem as mindless as the tarnished, but Azra’il was right. If they were going to check somewhere, their best bet was this castle.

  “We’ll have to sneak up there,” said Jenny, righting herself. Golden light formed a fsk in her hand, and she downed another potion to heal her body. Steam rose from her skin as Iblis lowered the fmes. The harpy body stopped burning and it took a shaky step forward, talons spshing. It was still missing one on its right leg. But its eyes flickered with blue fire, and when Iblis looked at Jenny, she knew exactly what the demon had in mind.

  A moment ter, wind swirled around Jenny, battering her hair and blowing Iblis's new feathers into her face so that it tickled her nose and her mouth. The harpy body was fast, rising quickly with each fp of its wings. She looked down to see the walls of the byrinths that spread all over the ground, as far as she could see in every direction. Other harpies, their feathery wings outstretched, flew circles, but a few of them were fpping upward, gaining altitude beside her and Iblis. Their levels ranged from the low 30’s to the high 90’s. They hadn’t noticed that Iblis’ eyes were burning with blue fmes and that Jenny was clinging to his back – they were too preoccupied with the eggs and angels and souls they carried in their talons. One of them was even carrying a chrysalis.

  “Why are they doing that?” whispered Jenny. She had to repeat herself with a shout to be heard over the fpping wings and the fierce wind as they rocketed toward the red sky.

  It seems to be a part of their duties, he said. They are tending to the harvest.

  “The harvest?”

  Iblis’ voice crackled through Jenny’s mind. They are not proud of this. They are hurt. But they have no choice. No free will.

  Jenny felt the tenseness in the harpy’s body, she readjusted her grip, fingers curling through more feathers as the wings fpped right beside her. She saw the ugly wounds, the missing feathers. Why didn’t they have free will?

  Their breaths began to cloud. The air was thinning out, becoming colder and colder, and then they burst through a sudden redness, as though the sky had been a massive yer of red clouds, and emerged into bright light. A warm sun shone down on their backs, and Jenny had to squint.

  It was blue skies all around, and an enormous castle made of the same stone blocks as the walls of the byrinth floated up ahead. The ground below was obscured by what looked like an ocean of red water, and Jenny wondered if that redness was supposed to be there. If it had formed due to thousands of years of evaporating blood.

  Despite the coldness, the air was easier to breathe. Iblis fpped toward the castle with the other harpies, and Jenny realized they’d have to change things up if they want to get through undetected. “Put me in your talons,” she whispered to him.

  When he acknowledged, she let go of his torso, climbing down his powerful legs to the crude talons. He hovered for a moment as Jenny repositioned herself, and once she was safely in his clutches, Iblis flew higher.

  The castle was a rge blocky building. It looked like something out of a history book, but as they flew closer, it loomed rger and rger. It might’ve taken up several city blocks back home, and it reminded her of the archway entrance to this world.

  How could something that rge stay afloat?

  And the entrances, three rge arch-shaped openings along the bottom, were massive as well. Harpies flew into the one on the left. Other harpies exited from the right.

  None of the gnced at Iblis as they entered through the left. The bright sky vanished, and suddenly they were in another tunnel, not unlike the walled passageways of the byrinth. Iblis was still flying, there was more than enough space for his wings to spread wide, fpping gently, some strange wind from behind propelling them forward as the long hallway seemed to stretch forever.

  Eventually the stones gave way, and they came to a rge, rectangur chamber filled with an almost fluorescent glow that reminded Jenny of dying light bulbs.

  With a hard fp, Iblis banked and shot upwards before coming to a stop, hovering in the air. Jenny craned her neck, holding onto his talons. A dozen or so harpies fluttered around them in the dark, gloomy space, their wings spread wide as they circled. All along the ceilings were eggs.

  Angel's eggs.

  Jenny swallowed hard staring at their jiggling, softly glowing, round forms. And the smell, musty and sweet - somehow a little familiar, somehow a little nostalgic - then she heard giggling and ughter and looked down. It was like a nursery. A daycare. Angel babies, pudgy little toddlers waddled around, crawling or walking on two pudgy legs, hands out stretched for bance. Spread between the angel babies were bodies.

  Most of them looked like tarnished angels; most of them were half eaten. Babies waddled from one corpse to the other, chewing off bits and pieces, swallowing and burping, gurgling with joy. Thankfully, there weren’t any Souls up here.

  There was a gust of wind, and another harpy flew from behind Iblis. It gnced at Jenny, its beautiful face puzzled, but it didn't say a word. In its talons was a rge chrysalis emitting yellow light, and the harpy flew across the room to another wall of enormous archways - a hallway that led to another part of the castle.

  "Let's follow," whispered Jenny, not trusting her voice. A part of her was afraid the babies would respond to her here too. Would they though? Would they have any reason to?

  Jenny held on tight as Iblis swooped down. The babies looked up, drool and blood dribbling down their chins, their eyes watching Jenny with intense curiosity. Was that a flicker of recognition or was she imagining it? Some of them even reached for her, their little finger opening and closing as though they wanted to grab her.

  But then Iblis swung upward, gaining altitude to rush toward the openings at the other end of the chamber, and Jenny told herself the babies just thought she might be food. She must smell different to them than the angels or the harpies or anything else in this world.

  As they neared the ceiling, a wretched angel appeared from the shadows and Jenny almost yelped, ready to burst out of Iblis’ talons and attack. It had stripes. White and yellow stripes across its bck exoskeleton. The soft skin of its navel and thighs exposed; tendrils floating off from its back.

  It hadn’t noticed Jenny. Or if it did, the angel didn’t pay Iblis or Jenny and attention. Another harpy had fpped up to the ceiling, and the angel accepted an egg from its talons and turned away, shuffling across the ceiling to find some space for the eggs. Jenny turned in Iblis’ talons, trying to see. She wanted to watch how it would attach the eggs, but Iblis flew through the next archway.

  This time two harpies were right ahead. One of them carried another glowing chrysalis, this one with a pale white light, and Iblis kept his distance. The hallway curved upwards, and Iblis did too. The harpy mind recognizes this pce, said Iblis. We are rising to the second stage of the castle. What remains of the garden.

  Jenny couldn't respond. The wind was battering her, and she was too anxious for what they'd find. Would it be a hatchery for desecrated angels? Would the entire pce be crawling with desecrated angels?

  But the next "stage" as Iblis had called it was wet and grassy. It looked like they'd come outside again, but far overhead was stone ceiling. A bright light mimicked the sun, and forestry covered the floor. A river cut through the center, winding from end of the room to the other - the pce was so rge, it might've bene the size of Central Park.

  It was a lot more spacious than the angel babies' stage. They fpped away from the archway entrance, trying to take in their surroundings. Other harpies swooped down and affixed chrysalises to giant tree branches. Iblis flew overhead slowly without saying a word.

  The forest was dense and lush greenery. On the ground, there was grass, and sometimes she thought she saw little animals zipping by. Furry little mammals. But if there were desecrated angels here, she couldn't spot them, only their chrysalises, and there must've been thousands of them.

  Thousands.

  Was this... Was this their army? Fear jabbed Jenny in the chest. Were the angels amassing an army of Desecrated Angels? And the one that had attacked her and Miriam in the byrinth had been much higher level than the one she’d fought in the high school. They must be leveling up quicker in this world, feeding on an infinite source of blood, but then why were some of them kept up here in the forest?

  As Iblis swooped down, Jenny saw some of the babies again, carried in the talons of harpies. They were kicking and struggling, blood dripping from where the talons dug into their little bodies.

  "No," she whispered.

  They are feed, said Iblis solemnly. They are an excellent source of nourishment.

  "What the fuck..." Jenny watched as a harpy brought a struggling baby to a red chrysalis. The thing opened slightly, and a red-faced desecrated angel's head emerged, gooey liquid dripping away like mucus. She got a notification alerting her to its level: 55. It accepted the kicking and screaming baby with its mouth open, accustomed to feeding like this, and then Iblis fpped upward, gaining altitude again.

  There is another stage, he said. This harpy has never been there, but it believes the Souls we are looking for should be up ahead.

  Jenny's stomach was still twisted form what she'd seen. She wanted to throw up; she kept picturing the little toddlers that had followed her around the high school, the ones who'd listened when she instructed them to protect Susan. The ones who must've died carrying out Jenny's order. She vowed to free them too. Somehow. She didn’t care what they were or even that they feasted on flesh. She would find a way.

  On the other side of the forest, there was the enormous wall of stones, and they found even more archways. Iblis fluttered, slowing down. The harpy mind is frightened, he said. It doesn’t want to go there.

  “What if it’s... Azra’il?” she asked, holding her breath before allowing herself to rex in Iblis’ grip. She let her arms and legs dangling, realizing that she’d been tense this entire time. Her hair fluttered in the breeze and whipped her in the face. What if it’s Susan?

  What if she’s not there?

  Iblis started to respond, but then he fpped his wings and flew back, fmes trailing from his eyes. The movement snapped Jenny around, her vision spinning, and then she saw what he’d dodged.

  Three harpies had rocketed up from below to attack, and now they hovered in front of them, their brows furrowed, their beautiful faces twisted with anger. White hair of various lengths flopped on their heads.

  Harpy (level 38)

  Harpy (level 21)

  Harpy (level 60)

  The harpy in the middle, the rgest one and the highest leveled, its wing span almost double the harpy’s that Iblis had possessed, snarled. “And where do you think you’re going?” it asked in a scornful, melodic voice that sounded like it was mocking a young child.