Turning to me, Locke continued, “And you wouldn’t have been able to convince him to leave his family behind. Both because you didn’t want to hurt your brother and because you know he wouldn’t have left them for any reason.”

  “Family is important to me,” I said just above a whisper as my gaze dropped to the ground. I thought about my parents and how much they meant to me. Lily popped up in my mind as well, surprising me with her mental connection to the premise of family.

  I could see Locke glance over at the patiently awaiting Meli, who was staring up at the building clouds.

  “It was her, wasn’t it?” Locke asked somberly, as if the question was hiding a nuclear bomb behind it.

  When Depweg didn’t answer, I nodded my head as Locke looked back at me with a consternated expression.

  “What are the odds of that happening?” he asked rhetorically.

  The three of us understood what he was really asking. Someone of celestial origins had manipulated the tapestry so certain threads fell precisely where they had.

  Without looking at me, Depweg unclenched his fists and coldly said, “You took everything from me,” before abruptly walking toward where Meli stood.

  It was my turn to clench my fists as I stared daggers at Depweg’s back.

  Sucking in a sharp breath, I lifted an index finger as I prepared to unleash my sharp tongue on the were.

  Locke placed a quick hand on my chest, halting me in an instant.

  Turning furious eyes toward him, I prepared to shift targets and verbally berate the thin man when he spoke. “You can be right…or you can be happy.”

  His words bounced around in my skull as I processed his meaning. I could feel myself deflating with each passing second as I pondered what he had said.

  “Recognize that he is in pain and give leeway to his words.” Thunder rolled again as a raindrop landed on my extended index finger. “Besides, we have more important things to worry about right now.”

  I glanced at Locke, and we both began slowly raising our eyes to the angry sky above.

  As guilt weighed heavily on my heart, my mouth spoke without my brain having to give it approval to do so.

  “I need to see Father Thomes.”

  2

  LILY

  “By the old gods, the smell!” Greg the Shaman heaved while bending over at the waist and clutching his knees.

  Lily strode just past where the half centaur, half human was intermittently spitting on the ground in a useless attempt to get rid of the taste of sulfur from his mouth.

  With such a daunting task ahead of her, Lily dropped the minute focus she had over her eyes and let them flood with the natural purple that all vampires shared.

  A cacophony of wailing reverberated off the stone walls, sounding more like applause from a stadium full of rowdy fans, all cheering to be heard over the rest of the crowd, rather than the laments of the damned.

  Eyes the color of sunset glided over the cavern walls, which were illuminated by obsidian sconces perpetually burning with hellfire. On a thick, jagged pillar in front of the damned gateway were rusted shackles that hung from anchors imbedded in the stone.

  “So, what now?” Greg asked as he straightened himself and anxiously peered around the cavern. Shadows danced from the flickering torchlight, creating the illusion of writhing figures in his peripheral vision no matter where he looked.

  In answer, Lily located the exit and strode to a door that looked like it belonged in an ancient castle. As she neared, she could see the wood was rotted and curling at the edges. Lifting her hand, Lily grabbed the rusted ring that acted as the handle and pulled.

  Beneath the moan of heavy wood on worn hinges was a slight hiss that Lily’s preternatural hearing picked up on.

  Greg attempted to move through the door but was stopped by Lily’s arm as she continued to hold the handle. He looked over to see a quizzical expression on her face, and followed her gaze to the ancient-looking door.

  Without stepping through, Lily closed the door again, her head tilting in such a way as to give her ears better positioning.

  “Guards?” Greg whispered, thinking she had shut the room off to remain out of sight.

  Adding to his feeling of unease, Lily slowly opened the door once more, her eyes closed this time.

  “Illusion,” she muttered to herself. Greg picked up on the word and shifted his focus back to the decaying door.

  Slipping a hand into the single long pocket of his thick hoodie, Greg riffled around until his entire forearm was swallowed by the deceptively deep container and pulled out an unremarkable pair of black sunglasses.

  Setting them on his nose, the shaman gasped in surprise as his gaze flew around the room in quick jerks.

  Lily stared at Greg, wordlessly asking him to explain what she already knew.

  Glancing at her, the shaman lifted the sunglasses off his nose; only, the original pair didn’t move. Instead, a second identical pair appeared in his hands, like some sort of parlor trick.

  Snatching the conjured pair from Greg’s hold, Lily placed the dark glasses on her face and smoothly looked all around.

  They were standing in a modern room that looked like it belonged in a commercial building of some sort. The first image that came to Lily’s mind was an asylum, with bland brick painted white—like in most American schools—and naked concrete floors with dark stains all over that ended at a drain in the center of the rectangular room.

  Greg lifted the glasses while staring with wide eyes at the illusion of the vast cavern. Lowering them again, he could tell that only the portal at the end of the rectangular room and the chains imbedded in the brick on the opposite wall were real.

  Looking at the only door leading out of the room, Lily touched a blank pad and watched as the metal slid sideways with a hiss of hydraulics.

  “Sounds like Star Trek,” Greg threw out while turning to face Lily.

  Stepping toward the frame, Lily placed a single hand on the door and slowly leaned her head into the hall to see if the coast was clear.

  Glancing the other way, the pair cautiously made their way down one side of the hall, eyes and ears open for patrolling guards.

  “This is stupid. This is stupid. This is stupid,” Greg muttered to himself over and over again in a mantra that annoyed his queen…former queen. Without her crown, Lily was once again just Mistress Lilith, and that stung in a way that surprised her.

  The hallway resembled that of a medical facility, with rooms on either side that were identical to one another.

  Approaching a corner, Lily could see a desk in the middle of the passage on the left. Taking a step forward, she was stopped by a hand on her arm and Greg whispering, “What do you plan on doing? Asking him nicely where Ulric is?” To emphasize his point, the shaman made a show of looking Lily up and down.

  Jerking her arm away from the shaman, Lily scowled while correcting the man.

  “I will make him tell me whatever information I wish to know.”

  “Forgive me, Mistress. I am confident in your capabilities to take down a demon or two. But might I suggest another solution to outright combat? We are in Hell, after all. How many demons are within earshot of this one?”

  Lily’s expression softened as she considered his words, which was hard to do as her mind tried to shine a light on being called Mistress instead of Queen.

  “Alright. What do you suggest?”

  Greg mumbled something under his breath while slowly running his hands over his entire body. Lily didn’t see anything change until she moved the glasses down her nose with an index finger.

  Where Greg’s fingers touched, pale skin was replaced with reptilian scales that looked like they had been coated in black paint.

  Once finished, a full-blown demon stood before Lily. Pushing the glasses back into place, she could see the normal Greg standing in front of her.

  Seeing the microexpression of approval cross Lily’s eyes, Greg reached toward her with palms open.

  In a flash, both of his wrists were tightly clasped in viselike fists.

  “Ooooooooowww!” Greg hissed as quietly as he could while rising to his tippy-toes and bouncing back and forth like a child who had to really, really use the potty.

  Seeing how hard she was holding the shaman’s arms, Lily let go while shifting her gaze back down the hallway toward the desk.

  “I don’t like to be touched,” she explained without apologizing.

  “Then what do you suggest?” Greg asked harshly while alternately rubbing his sore wrists.

  Lily didn’t respond minus a deep exhale and slight head shake.

  “Do it.”

  Greg cautiously lifted his hands as if he were reaching for an electrified fence and began mumbling as his flesh came into contact with hers.

  As quickly as he could manage, Greg cast his spell over Lily’s entire body, trying to be as careful as possible to not offend. Once it was clear the job was almost done, he noticed that Lily’s more personal regions had been excluded.

  The shaman asked an entire question using only a single syllable.

  “Um…?”

  Looking down, Lily waved a hand over her torso, and a thick cloak covered her entire body below the neck, obscuring her feminine features. Unlike Greg’s illusion, Lily’s spell actually reconfigured her clothing to fit their needs.

  “I just saved your life,” Lily said with a slight smile.

  “How’s that now?”

  “John would have ripped your arms off had he found out where your hands could have been.”

  “Ah,” Greg agreed, not liking the implication. Changing the subject, the shaman looked down at his own modern clothes and gestured in a wordless question.

  With a wave of her hand, Greg’s clothes remade themselves into an identical robe to Lily’s. All except the pocket from which Greg had miraculously pulled the illusion-cutting glasses. In its place and over the robes was a brown leather satchel.

  “I hope this is able to go back to normal after this. I loved my hoodie and the Pocket of Holding,” Greg said while repositioning the container to his side, the leather strap swooping over his right shoulder.

  Lily took a step forward, only to once again be stopped by Greg.

  “Hang on a sec,” he said as he touched either side of her sunglasses near her ears. After mumbling a few words, Lily could feel the material grab at her skin as if superglue had been applied.

  He repeated the process on his own pair before snapping the fingers of both hands, making the sunglasses disappear from view.

  “Neat trick,” Lily mused before registering the word she had used. Neat.

  John…

  With a focus of will, the building thoughts about the man she loved evaporated, leaving her mind free from distraction.

  Now it was Greg’s turn to step forward, only to be stopped by a quick grab of his arm.

  Looking at the hand that held him and then to the eyes of the demon-cloaked figure by his side, Greg shrugged his question.

  “Don’t you find it odd that there was no one guarding the portal room to Faerie?”

  “Don’t look the gift centaur in the mouth,” Greg countered.

  “Thought your people didn’t like being compared to mundane horses.”

  “Well, as you can tell, I’m no ordinary centaur, so I tend to make as many jokes as I can,” Greg replied with a forced smile that didn’t touch his eyes while waving a hand at his two legs.

  Lily thought about the guards in Faerie that had snickered at the half breed that was Greg the Shaman.

  “Shall we giddyap?” Lily suggested with her own smile.

  Greg seemed to relax ever so slightly at the silly joke, like an employee forced to spend time with the CEO, only to realize they are just a normal person beneath the professional facade.

  With both disguises in full swing and the illusion-breaking sunglasses camouflaged from view, the pair confidently made their way down the hall and to the awaiting workstation where a single demon sat.

  3

  MAGNI

  An infinite expanse of nothingness filled Magni’s vision, like being adrift at sea in a dead boat at the witching hour. Only there were no stars when he looked up, blending the horizon and skyline together into one horrifying canvas of the deepest black. Only a faint ripple could be seen, but Magni couldn’t tell how near or far the movement was.

  The young man screamed with the sheer power that only someone swallowed by unbridled panic could manage. Even though he was only a mental projection of himself trapped within the Ether’s prison, Magni’s vocal cords still managed to hurt with his hopeless cries.

  Hot tears slipped down his cheeks to drip off a quivering chin as red-rimmed eyes searched the darkness for something…anything.

  As with most people experiencing a traumatic event, there was a singular moment of clarity that Magni desperately latched onto.

  “What are you doing, son?” a familiar voice called out from seemingly all around.

  Frantic eyes flicked around in a head that jerked left and right, desperate to find the source of the voice.

  Realizing who it was, Magni clenched his eyes shut and sent all of his hopes out before him, wanting nothing more than to see his dad again.

  “Very good,” Ludvig said. His voice sounded only a few feet in front of him instead of all around, and Magni’s eyes shot open to see the man who had raised him standing with a broad smile before him.

  “Daddy!” Magni cried out as he lurched forward, wrapping trembling arms around his father. Once more, he began sobbing uncontrollably, but this time from joy instead of panic and helplessness.

  “Oh ho! Careful dere, Magni. You almost knocked me over!”

  Tired eyes lifted to meet Ludvig’s, searching for what Magni knew wasn’t there.

  Dropping his gaze away from the large man, Magni let his arms fall back to his sides as he stepped a few paces back.

  “You aren’t real…are you?” he asked flatly, as if it were a statement that didn’t need an answer. Without telling them to do so, his arms folded across his chest in an unconscious defensive gesture.

  “I am.”

  “Prove it.”

  “Prove dat you are real first.”

  “Of course I’m real!” Magni retorted, offended by the notion.

  “I know,” Ludvig replied softly, his already broad smile widening further.

  Magni caught on to what his teacher was trying to share, and his arms loosened but did not fully fall away from his chest.

  “Tell me something that only the real Ludvig would know.”

  “You have a sister.”

  The arms across Magni’s chest tightened in an instant at catching the falsehood. “Ha! Liar. I don’t have a sister!”

  Ludvig took a step closer and rested his large hands on Magni’s shoulders, his toothy smile fading to just a curve of his lips, though it still touched his eyes.

  “You have a sister, and she is going to need your help, son,” Ludvig said softly as he gently squeezed Magni’s shoulders.

  “Wha-what do you mean?” Magni asked, letting his arms fully drop to his sides as he stared up at the much larger Ludvig.

  “We can talk about dat later. But for now, you have a problem to solve, eh?” He gestured around the abyss with his square jaw.

  “I…I don’t know how to get out.”

  “Getting out is not de problem.”

  Magni thought for a moment, unable to decipher what was being said.

  Sensing this, Ludvig’s face shifted to thoughtfulness as his eyes stared at nothing.

  “Ah,” he spoke, snatching an idea and returning his focus to Magni. “You asked if I could prove dat I was real.”

  Magni nodded, following along.

  “Whenever a demon used de Effer to make deir bodies, dey were every bit as real while on Midgard.”

  “You’re made of the Ether?” Magni asked, worried at the prospect.

  “You made me, Magni. You control de Effer.”

  It took more than a moment for Ludvig’s words to percolate Magni’s mind, and then the meaning became clear.

  Without warning, the scenery of lightly rippling blackness was disrupted by a wave that shot throughout everything Magni could see. It was as if a boulder had been plunged into a lake.

  From somewhere in the distance, thunder rolled, sounding like a growl of warning.

  Ludvig looked off in the direction of the sound. All joy melted from his face, replaced by a scowl.

  “Wha-what is it?” Magni whispered, unconsciously taking a step closer to his father.

  “Dey are coming.”

  4

  JOHN

  “Want me to come with you?” Locke asked as I brought up my watch and hit the charge button on the teleportation feature.

  “One of these days I’m going to charge this damn thing before I need it,” I lamented as I dropped my watch hand and raised my face to the dark sky.

  “John?”

  “Hmm? Oh, right. Um, nah, man. You go to Faerie and see what you can do.” I thought a moment longer before adding, “Or maybe have a chin-wag with the Council?”

  “Actually,” Locke mused, “that’s not a bad idea. The Elders are already aware of Magni. But…” there was a pause as Locke’s brow creased in thought, “I get the strong impression they can’t interfere.”

  “Can’t…or won’t?” I asked harshly. It was more of a backhanded statement directed toward the Council rather than an actual question.

  “Whichever the case may be, I feel we’re on our own.”

  “Just do what you can, man. Maybe there’s some wizard who’s willing to step up to the plate and swing for the freaking fences. Someone like Warden Broadway.”

  My face went slack as I thought about how Hayley had been after our battle in Germany, which for me felt like months ago. Stupid alternate time line mumbo jumbo.

  “How’s—” I began before Locke cut me off.

  “Nurse Isaac told me she’s fine…for now.”

 

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