The tunnel finally opened into a great cavern, a cave the size of a mountain. Dorvin thought that all of King's Forest, the woods surrounding the palace of Requiem, could easily fit into this place; the ceiling seemed as distant as the stars themselves. But this was no mere cave; the walls were not made of stone but fleshy membranes, veined and wriggling. They pulsed with blood and cast out a red glow. A sea flowed below, the water yellow and foul.

"We're inside the belly of some great beast," Dorvin said, flying with the others. Even a thousand dragons seemed small in this place, like a flock of bats in a cave.

Maev grumbled at his side. "Maybe the Abyss itself is a living creature, some great demon the size of a world, lurking underground."

Dorvin nodded and pointed ahead. "And all demons are parasites living inside it."

As if to confirm his words, a cloud of demons came flying their way, a thousand strong. Here flew creatures different than the ones that had swarmed to Two Skull Mountain. Here was not an unorganized mass but an army. Each demon was a soldier, a great insect coated with a metallic exoskeleton. Their claws reached out, embers filled their mouths, and red flames burned in their eyes. When Dorvin was young, he used to collect little roly polies—armored insects that would curl into a ball at his touch—and toss them on his sister. These demons reminded him of those creatures but a thousand times the size, unholy and screeching for his blood, come to demand revenge for his torment of their little cousins.

At their lead flew a towering woman, large as a dragon, with stony skin that leaked lava through many fissures. Bat wings spread out from her back, and a ring of fire haloed her head. Her claws shone like swords, and her fangs gleamed with dripping saliva. Her eyes blazed white like smelters of molten metal, piercing Dorvin. He screamed under their gaze. The woman seemed to stare into him, to tear through his innards with those eyes, to peel back all his layers of skin, bone, organs, and the innermost secrets of his soul, leaving him bare, barren, a boy, frightened and alone.

Hello, Dorvin. The demon spoke in his mind. Do you know who I am?

He howled. He knew.

Angel, he thought. Queen of the Abyss.

She licked her lips and smiled at him. Her voice spoke again in his mind, high pitched like shattering metal, the shards of sound slamming against the inside of his skull.

Yes, I know you . . . her brother. Alina spoke of you. She screamed your name as I tortured her soul.

Dorvin roared with rage, beat his wings mightily, and shot toward the demon host.

"You lie, Angel!" he screamed. "I'll rip your damn tongue out, demon!"