Page 22 (1/2)

CHAPTER ONE

Blisteringly hot hellwinds scraped across Ian MacKenzie’s flesh as he hoisted the great stone block into place His muscles burned as he shoved it into position, and the manacle affixed to his ankle cut into his flesh Why they s, he had no idea It wasn’t like the prisoners were going to flee

A desert wasteland stretched out as far as he could see, burning sands surrounding the cathedral they built in hell Certain death awaited the for an immortal It was nearly impossible to destroy the body of one of their kind, but the hellish afterworld called Moloch could do it

“It’s wrong” The voice of the overseer boomed from behind him

Rage burned in Ian’s chest, searing his ribs and lungs like hell’s fire It was alrong The great stone walls of the partially constructed cathedral soared above him He called it a cathedral, but he had no idea what it truly was No one ever told the prisoners what they were building But the labyrinthine structure was never up to the standards of the designers

“Do it again”

Ian ground his teeth and picked up the sledgeha it at the stone wall, pain singing up his ar in his soul tore away as he destroyed the wall over which he’d toiled

He kept up the motion until the voice of an overseer echoed across the red sands

“Enough!”

Thank gods Hisfrom the hellwinds, and his mind felt near-fractured from the constant repetitive toil of build, destroy, build, destroy One of the three overseers unlocked the chain at his ankle and Ian followed the other prisoners, a dozen of the uarded by two of the overseers He joined the rest of the men in line to be transported back to the prison

When he reached the front of the line, the third overseer appeared out of the air Ian didn’t bother to look at hiripped his upper arm and aetherwalked hiical Deviants in Edinburgh, Scotland