The heat hit me like a physical force the moment I stepped onto the first step. Ba'dqeel tried to push past me, making sure that he could go down first so that he was there to protect me from anything down there. The only problem was that he wasn't able to protect me from this.
No one was.
Placing my hand on his shoulder, I shook my head. "I'll go first," I assured him, slipping between him and the hot walls.
"I don't like it," grunted Ba'dqeel, and I could hear the agreeing grunt coming from the rest of the guys still at the top of the stairs.
"Nothing in here can hurt me," I smiled. "Gabriel is up and working, and the phantoms need me alive more than they want me dead."
"Yeah," grumbled He'dtaalh, coming down the stairs next. "We are going to have a whole other conversation about phantoms, deaths, and dreams."
