“Is that what I think it is?” I ask softly, feeling myself drawn to it. My gaze zeroes in on the book, and I hear indiscernible whispers around me. I can’t tell what they’re saying, but I can feel them.
Desperate.
Scared.
Angry.
Sorry.
“It holds the names of everyone you’ve made a deal with, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” Lucifer tells me. “Never mind that. It’s of no concern to you.”
“Right.” I tear my eyes away and look at the doors. “The souls are in there?”
“They are.” He sweeps his hand out. “After you.”
Picking the door that’s closest to us, my heart speeds up when my fingers close around the cast-iron latch. It opens with a creak, and the whispers get louder. What I was feeling wasn’t coming from the book. It’s coming from in here.
From the souls.
“Fuck,” I mumble, blinking to help my eyes adjust. The souls move around inside little glass spheres, appearing as glowing ethereal mist. Most glow dark red, and I can feel the hate and rage coming off in waves. Others are a darker blue, some are jet black, and a few don’t glow at all.
“Would you like to pick or should I?” Lucifer asks, but I’m already striding forward. I reach for a soul that’s blood red, mist hitting the glass over and over.
“Do they know where they are?”
“Eventually. Some deny the fact that they are in Hell for an impressive amount of time.”
My fingers sweep over the glass, taken aback to find it icy cold. A vision enters my head as soon as I start to pick up the sphere, and I see a man sitting in his car watching young boys play soccer. He has one hand in his pants and is holding a camera with the other. I can sense his emotions—and his intentions. I let go of the sphere when I get another vision of the man dragging one of the little boys behind the bleachers.
It clatters to the ground, and I gasp, thinking it’s going to shatter. But it lands with a thud and doesn’t even roll.
“I should have warned you about that.” Lucifer picks it up. “Ah, let’s not pick this one.” He runs his fingers over a line of glass balls and picks one filled with blue mist. “This will do.”
“Okay,” I tell him and give one last look at the shelves. Like the library, this room seems endless. Lucifer puts the soul into a pocket inside his jacket and leads the way out. We meet back up with Julian and then follow Lucifer down yet another maze-like hall. We wind our way through the castle and stop in a greenhouse with decor that looks like it might have been updated in the late 1920s.
“Get things set up,” Lucifer tells us. “I’ll get the rest of what you need.”
“So, Hell,” I start, pulling the needle out of the notebook’s binding again, “is, uh, not what I thought it was like.”
“Everyone who is sent here has a personalized experience created uniquely based on past life experiences,” Julian says.
“You sound like you’re selling a timeshare and I might just buy,” I say back. Julian tips his head up, confused by my sarcasm. “Never mind.” I stab the needle into my forearm, just next to the spot where I stabbed myself before. I get a drop of blood and use it to reveal the spells in my mother’s book.
“That’s interesting,” I muse as I read the spell. “I recognize some of this.” I tap the page. “When I was still a student, I had to come up with an original spell, and I chose to create my own for astral projection. It’s very similar to this, but with elements of circle casting, which makes sense in a way I’d never think of.” I read the rest of the spell, hoping I can pull it off seamlessly. It’s a complicated spell, and getting just one thing wrong could be disastrous.
“Your mother was a witch when she cast this spell,” Julian notes. “You’re a Nephilim.”
I look up, needing a minute to figure out what he’s implying. “I’m more powerful than her.”
“Yes. This portal is meant to be closed after the passengers have crossed through. The spell itself seems like it would burn out rather quickly. But with your angel power, it could stay open much longer, if not permanently.”
“Fuck,” I sigh. “Maybe…maybe I can alter it.” I shake my head. “And then transport us back to the Middle Ages.” I put my hands on my head, mind racing. “Okay…so the portal will open from the place I cast the spell. What if we cast it in one of those fail-safe rooms that demons can’t get into? There has to be something all angels can get into but not demons.”
“Perhaps, but don’t forget this will be a two-way portal as long as it’s open. If we can get out, something can get in.”