Forfeit Souls (The Ennead Book 1) Read Free Page A

was not the dark and foreboding entrance to Hell as I had begun to expect, but a very bright – my eyes were searing – and very open hall. Demetrius handed me a pair of glasses with small, dark round lenses. They reminded me of a pair of pince-nez. I gladly accepted them, placing them over my eyes before I turned to give him an appreciative smile. My gesture was met with a worried look, and though it didn’t last long, I was certain that Demetrius’ opinion of me had changed. His saddened face turned from me to the hall before us.
    I looked in and with barely a glance I knew that there were seven people in the room before me. The three women all seemed to be dressed similarly to me, though I was the only one whose hair was not pulled up, and the four men all seemed to be dressed similarly to Demetrius. I could not tell for certain because they shined with the reverberating light that seemed to come from everything. Only their faces were visible to me.
    None were smiling.
    They stared at me with appraising eyes.  Eyes that were the same as Fathers – so different from the eyes I saw when I looked to Demetrius at my left. It was clear in their vacant black eyes that I was not welcome in this room.
    “Joellen!” a voice boomed from the back of the small crowd gathered in front of me. That voice seemed to part the group like Moses had parted the waters of the Red Sea.
    Father walked toward me through the scowling gauntlet. His face was the same, but I had not previously noticed his attire, or his stature. He was a small man and looked to be in his late forties. He was dressed entirely in black with a long cord hanging around his neck. At the base of that cord was a light like none I had seen before, it was a brilliant and gleaming red, the glasses did little for it.
    “I am so pleased that you were able to join us,” he said with the smile I did not trust. “I hope that Demetrius has been pleasant.”
    “He has been a most amiable guide.” I spoke to him in the same tone he spoke to me, “I am honored to be your guest, Father.”
    I had taken from the way that Demetrius spoke of him that Father was the one in charge here. I assumed his bad side was somewhere I wanted to stay far away from, and his entourage told me that he thought of himself as some sort of royalty.
    His smile showed me that he was pleased with the humility of my tone, and I was more than happy to appease him for now – at least until I knew what was going on.
    He held his hand out to me, and I fought back a grimace at his long, pointed yellow nails as I took it. Demetrius was quickly lost as the crowd grew together once more. I turned to look for him, but was only met by vacant eyes in the disapproving faces of those behind me.
    “I am, truly, so very pleased that you are our newest guest.” Father said to me in a hushed tone, as though he were speaking only to me. “I am sorry that you had to be delivered to us in such a manner. Usually we would have given you a choice, you see, but there are monsters out there with no respect for the living.” The way that he said the words monsters and living made my skin crawl. “We shant discuss the dark details tonight though.”
    He stood up on a slightly raised platform at the head of the room. “Loved ones!” he said to the other six in a loud voice. “This is Joellen, the newest member of our fold. She did not come to us as the rest of you have. I did not find her as I found you. But she is under my protection and no one will harm her. Is that clear?”
    There was a faint murmur through the group, but no one dissented.
    “Now Joellen.” He said to me. “You should go rest, you are not fully recovered from the ordeals of your… accident.”
    It sounded like he had wanted to use a different word. As though he did not feel what had happened to me had been an accident.
    “Demetrius.” He said it barely louder than a whisper and the young man was there. “Take our lovely guest back to her room.