I shook my head. “I understand Petra is strong, but she won’t survive the separation. We can’t let her leave. We can’t let her stay. But with Gehenna, we could rid her of the tag—even in a weakened state—and then she can go.”
“Go?”
“To Heaven. With a sacrifice.”
“You’re talking about letting her die.”
“I know,” I said, reaching out to him. “I know, but it’s the only way.”
Levi stared at me, confused. “You want to separate the tag from my mother and then kill it with Bex’s blade, and then she somehow makes a sacrifice and goes to Heaven.”
“Yes,” I said, hating myself.
“No!”
“Tell me another way, Levi. Tell me, and we’ll do it.”
“We’ll separate the tag with Bex’s blade. She lives. The end.”
“It’s not Bex’s blade,” I said. “It was mine.”
He took a moment to process my words. “Yours? Eden, it’s Gehenna. It’s ancient … eons old, and infamous and—”
“I created it.”
Levi was confused. “Why would you create something that could kill an immortal? Was it meant … was it meant for me?”
His question was valid. There was a time in the very beginning that we hated each other.
“I had it forged after we fell in love; after the first time they took you from me. It was for the next time they tried to separate us,” I said, a tear falling down my cheek. “You don’t remember? We agreed.”
His eyes lost focus as he tried to reach back further into his mind. “Not to kill our captors.”
“It was for us. Like Eli said… We were the first Romeo and Juliet.”
The creature screeched again.
“The title is the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, don’t forget,” Levi yelled. A stifling gust lifted his hair.
An eruption sounded in the distance. Not uncommon in Hell, but a rolling cloud of red dust kicked up and began barreling toward us like a dirt tsunami.
“We need shelter!” Levi yelled. “Now!”
The only thing close enough was an abandoned, rusted semi-truck with no glass intact. Levi grabbed my hand without speaking and sprinted for the truck.
“It will be a blast, then a sandstorm. We need to wait it out for ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes?” I yelled.
“We’ll be safe! Nothing will be out in this.”
Fifty yards, forty, thirty…
The blast hit just as Levi lunged for the door. We hunched over to fight being blown away, locking arms while Levi gripped the handle, our feet being pushed across the ground several inches even though we dug in. Sand and soil pelted my face and skin, even under my clothes. I could feel tiny sharp edges slicing through my skin in the hundreds of billions, and then the wind changed direction, feeding the already gargantuan wall of sand and debris towering over us.
Levi yanked open the rusty door and pulled me closer so I could crawl inside. The gear shift moved when I climbed over it with a creak, and I yelled for Levi as I made myself small enough to fit in the floorboard of the passenger side.
“Levi!” I yelled again, reaching for him.
He shut the door, every exposed inch of his skin cut and bleeding. We used our shirts to cover our noses and mouths and waited. It was eerily quiet for just a few seconds, and then the truck rocked with the second wave.
“How long do they last?” I yelled, squeezing my eyes shut. “I have to move. I can’t breathe!”
It was already difficult to breathe in Hell, but the hot air mixed with dust created a panic within me that I had to talk myself down from.
I felt Levi’s hand on mine, rubbing his thumb back and forth against my skin. “We’ve survived worse, baby. Controlled breaths. It will be over soon.”
Once the truck stopped shaking, we emerged. A sand drift nearly covered the front of the truck, and my arms were covered in mud from a mixture of my blood and sand. As the haze cleared, I noticed we were within a mile of a looming mountain with cliffs and holes carved out with precision. There were no machines in Hell, so it had to have been done by hand.
“You okay?” Levi asked, his face covered like my arms.
I nodded, coughing so hard I nearly threw up. “As if Hell isn’t bad enough. Why did you ever stay here?”
He shrugged. “It was home. And these things are easily ridden out in my father’s temple.”
“What are the holes?” I asked, nodding toward the mountain.
He squinted. “Hard to tell. There are several creatures that create them.”
“That makes me uncomfortable.”
“Well … it’s supposed to. It’s Hell.” He patted my hair, and sand poured out with each stroke. “You’re a dirty blonde now.”
“Ha, ha,” I said without humor.
The ground began to rumble, the gravel bouncing like mustard seeds in hot oil. Now that the storm had passed, an army was coming.
“The plan,” I said.
“We have to keep moving,” Levi said.
“There!” I pointed at hollows in a mountain. We reached the base, but at least two hundred feet of loose gravel stood between us and the first cave.
“Can you make it?” I asked Levi.
He grimaced as if I’d insulted him.
I crouched and leaped, grabbing onto the ledge. My legs dangled beneath me, and I checked to see if Levi had left the ground. He hadn’t. A cloud of dust kicked up by the misshapen soldiers crawling toward him at top speed had caught his attention.
“Levi!” I yelled.
He crouched and sprung upward, reaching for the ledge. His fingers gripped, and he hung right beside me with a smile.
“Can you make it?” he asked, mocking me.
I smiled and then nodded toward the next dark entrance, more than five hundred feet up. “Can you make that?”
We both pulled up to stand in the mouth of the cave and stared at the next one, gauging the push off and inertia.
“Can you?” he asked, looking less confident.
I scratched the base of my head where my hair was damp from sweat. “Not sure. Can we phase there?”
Levi shook his head. “Satan’s rules. We can only phase in and out. He loves struggle.”
“Okay,” I said, looking up. I rubbed my hands together. “We’re getting ready to find out exactly what I’m capable of. Worst-case scenario, I tumble down to the army and have to fight my way back up.”
“No pressure.”
“We can do this,” I said, staring at the ledge.
He grinned, then kissed me quick on the forehead. “Easy peasy.”
“Lemon squeezy, let’s go.” I crouched and jumped, knowing the moment I left the ground I would just barely make it. I hit the ground, stood upright, and turned. “Give it all you’ve got! Running start if you have to!”
Levi ignored his Satan-sized ego just long enough to take my advice, jogging back a dozen feet before running full-speed and coming up just short. I reached out, grabbed his hand, and pulled him to the ledge I was already hanging half off. He dangled from the edge of the second cave with a half surprised, half relieved expression, and once I got my footing, I reached down and pulled him up.
“Nicely done,” I said.
The army gathered below us, already trying to climb the gravel, but failing.
“They’re not going to give up,” Levi said. “It will be a matter of time before they start climbing over one another. They’re slow enough to control but not stupid, so tell me your plan, and let’s get the hell out of here.”
“It’s possible that I might be able to remove the tag, and she might be strong enough to survive it.”
“That’s two mights,” he said, doubtful.
“I’ve never done it before, Levi. I can’t promise there’ll be zero risk, but… What I can do now … feel now … I’m stronger.”
Levi held my chin gently unt
il my gaze met his. “You’ve phased four times today. Something is different with Morgan. I no longer sense evil in him. You did something to him. You healed him, and you can heal my mother.”
I closed my eyes. “What if something happens to her? What if I can’t?”
“What did you do to Morgan?” he asked, emphasizing each word of his question.
My lashes fluttered to protect my eyes from the strands of my hair that whipped in the fiery wind. “I took his memories.”
“You…” He trailed off, surprised. “So if you can do that for Morgan, it’s very possible you can keep Mamá alive.”
“This is different. It wasn’t life or death for Morgan.”
“You didn’t know that.”
“I could feel it.”
“Tell me, Eden.”
I shrugged, pressing my cheek to his chest. “He was in pain,” I said, speaking loud enough for him to hear, “and I could feel it as if those memories and his pain were mine, but it was muted. Kind of like the way my dad explains how he can feel my mother. Morgan’s nightmares were torture, and when he was awake it was worse. He was left with powers.”
“Powers? He—”
“So I … I took them.”
Levi released me and stepped back, his eyes bouncing around while he retreated into his mind to sort out what my words meant. “What do you mean … powers?”
“My mother’s friend Kim had powers after she was possessed. I don’t remember the exact story, but—”
“And you wiped his memory.” It wasn’t a question. He was skeptical; not because he didn’t believe me, but because he didn’t want to.
I looked up at him. “Only up to that day.”
“Eden…” He sighed in frustration. He shook his head. “We’ve been around since the dawn of time. No one can do that.”
“I can.”
“How?” He let me go.
“I don’t know. I just… I could feel them. His feelings were sort of, well… It’s hard to explain.”
“Try,” Levi said.
I stood on the cave’s edge, staring down the cliff at the demons tearing one another apart trying to reach us. “His feelings were tangible, so I wrapped my mind around them and took them away. And then, he was free.”
“No one has powers like yours. Not Eli; not even my father,” he said.
“Be careful,” I said, turning to him. “Only one being is more powerful than Satan. I’m not God.”
Crippling fear radiated from him, but his emotions didn’t stem from our assailants, or even from being struck down by the Almighty for blasphemy. Only in the moments before I died did he feel that way. He was terrified of more than just losing his mother. “She’s a wife of Satan. If you can’t save her, she won’t just be punished by God and go to Hell. She’ll be punished by Satan for helping us. She’ll go straight to the Oubliette. Do you know what they do to humans there?” He cleared his throat. “I can’t let her suffer that way.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s why I mentioned … why I mentioned the blade. Gehenna is Plan A, a sacrifice is Plan B, and Gehenna would also serve as a last resort.”
It took him a few seconds to process what I meant. “That’s your plan? To use the blade to end her existence.”
I clenched my eyes shut in disbelief that I could say those words to him. “If it were my mother, Levi, I would prefer that to her suffering for eternity in the Oubliette.”
His brows pulled together. “We can’t decide something like this now. We need time to think it through…”
“I wish I could tell you differently,” I yelled over the howling wind and the screams of demons. “I wish it weren’t a risk. I wish I could promise you that it will work out fine…”
I watched as Levi looked high above me and stepped back, pulling me with him. I turned to see a winged creature twice the size of the one before.
In reaction, Levi held out his arm across my chest like a braking soccer mom.
I stepped around him, staring up in awe. “Wait.”
“Wait for what?” Levi said, positioning to attack.
I pointed at a man riding atop the monster’s back, only visible when its long neck moved to the side. The man’s appearance was disturbing; not because he was one of the billions of deformed, hideous beings that resided in Hell, but because he didn’t belong. He was beautiful, reminding me very much of Eli. Blond, tall, with a perfect jawline, a chiseled chin, and bright blue eyes like mine. Not even the dirty rags he wore or his worn sandals that didn’t quite house his long, filthy toes as they curled over the front of the soles could hide his beauty.
“Ramiel,” I breathed.
Chapter Ten
Levi
Ramiel balanced atop the creature while it bent its legs enough for him to leap down, and even then, it was a good thirty-foot drop.
He didn’t look happy to see us.
“I’m not at your dungeon,” I said, hoping to thwart a fight. “That was the warning, correct?”
“I don’t have much time,” he said, walking past me. He turned on his heels, crossing his arms. “I’ve been sent here to advise you.”
“By who?” I asked.
Ramiel shook his head. “I can’t say. But your mother is in danger.”
I frowned. “I know. That’s why we’re here, to devise a plan.”
“You’re not going to like what I have to say,” he said.
Before I could respond, he gestured to the creature above, who spread one wing. A gust of hot wind and sand blew against and over its singed feathers, but we were protected for the moment.
Ramiel could speak more softly now, protected from the noise of the wind. “If you leave the protection of the Ryels, you both—along with Bex—will die within the day. Petra is human now, one that’s been tagged for twenty years. She won’t survive the separation.”
“You don’t know what we’re capable of,” Eden said.
Ramiel wasn’t impressed. “You’re immensely powerful, Eden, but those powers are limited by your station. The Keeper of the Balance cannot complete anything that will cause inequity.”
Eden scoffed “I can do what I want. Maybe the penalty is death, but I’ve died before.”
“More times than you know,” he said, holding his hands to his sides. “Try it.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Try what?”
“Phase. Try to kill a human—even an evil one. One so full of filth and evil that he’ll be a celebrity down here. Hitler, Stalin, Himmler, Hussein, Kim Jong-il, Xi Jinping. All responsible for thousands of deaths on Earth just in the last century. Do you think you’re the first Keeper of the Balance? Or are you just the best one?”
Eden stuttered over her answer.
Ramiel sighed as if he were bored, and he stated his next words with even less enthusiasm, “Disconnecting a tag Satan placed on a human who gave her soul with informed consent is contrary to the laws. Petra will die. You will die. Levi will die. Bex will die.”
“No,” I said, feeling my entire body tense. “You … you came here to advise us, so what do you advise? There has to be another way.”
Ramiel walked over to the cliff’s edge, his creature becoming restless as the master glowered down at the monsters below. “I hate them,” he said under his breath. “I hate this place.” He turned to Eden, the same expression on his face.
She instinctually reached back to place her hand on Gehenna. “Don’t,” she warned.
Ramiel paused. “For the first time in many, many lifetimes, I have a chance to see my Lizeth. The same chance you have to see your mother again,” he said, looking to me.
“What do you mean?” I asked, dubious.
“Petra must die. The question is, where will she go? Eden can’t use the blade to end Petra’s existence. Anyone else who uses the blade on your mother, Eden must send to Hell. Petra will go to the Oubliette. There is no other way, Levi.”
“The sacrifice.” Ed
en blinked. “Lizeth. You’ve made a bargain. With who?”
One side of his mouth turned up. “I tell you—or anyone—and the deal’s off.”
“So, you have help? Someone on the inside?” Eden looked over her shoulder. The screams of the minions were getting closer.
“What are we talking about here?” I asked.
“They can get her through,” Eden said, excited. She grabbed both of my arms, her eyes dancing as she processed hundreds of thoughts.
I shifted my feet, looking to Ramiel. “You’re sure? You can guarantee her passage?”
Ramiel simply nodded. “You have my word that someone will be waiting at the twelfth gate of Zebulun to let her in before your father can reach her.”
“How?” I’d always feared my mother’s death, knowing where she was destined to go. Each time I visited Hell I wondered if she would reside in the Temple, but it was still a miserable existence. After warning me, her destiny was sealed. But maybe that was part of a bigger plan. For the first time, I allowed myself to hope for her a better afterlife.
“We’ll worry about the how,” Ramiel said. “You make sure she exits your plane, after a sacrifice, without the tag. That’s the only way she can enter Heaven.”
I felt a twinge in my chest. “Thank you.” It was all I could manage.
“I must go.” Ramiel climbed up his winged creature, and its enormous legs bent before launching itself off the cliff and surging upward with one flap of its wings.
The tears in my eyes welled up and spilled over, vaporized before they could get to my jawline.
“Huh,” Eden said, watching them get smaller and smaller until they disappeared into the darkness. “I thought that thing lived inside this… Oh, shit.”
A new creature stepped forward with a guttural snarl. Eden and I raised our chins slowly to see its head glowering down at us.
“Is this a pet too, I hope? Like Ramiel’s?” Eden asked.
“It’s a daeryx.”
“In summation, how do we beat it?”
“For starters, it’s not a pet.”
“Summary, Levi,” she said, impatient.
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