No. Her heart was still beating. She was breathing — more rapidly with each passing moment. She could feel the tropical breeze on her skin. This had to be a dream.
It felt too real to be a dream.
From the corner of her eye she noticed a man approaching her. He wore white pants and a white shirt and walked steadily down the beach toward her. As he drew closer, she realized that she recognized him.
“Lucas,” she managed, her voice breathless.
“Glad you could make it, Eden.”
“Am I dreaming right now?”
“No.” He glanced at their surroundings. “This is real. I wanted to talk to you privately. I thought you might like this.”
Her head hurt. She looked down at the marble sitting innocently in the palm of her hand. “And this is—”
“Not a marble.”
“It looks like a marble.”
“It does, doesn’t it? But it’s not. It’s a summoning crystal created especially for you.”
She flexed her right fist, ready to will black magic into it, but nothing happened.
“You can’t use your magic here,” Lucas said. “This is a neutral zone.”
“Who the hell are you?” she demanded.
He smiled. “I’m your new neighbor. The substitute teacher.”
“Yeah, right.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“Strangely, no. Take this. I don’t want it anymore.” She held the marble out to him.
He shook his head. “That’s how we’ll communicate.”
“And why would we want to do that?”
“Because you’re going to help me solve a problem I have at the moment. Someone wants to destroy me. And you’re going to help stop him.”
She looked around. “How do I leave? I need to get back.”
“Darrak will be fine without you for a few minutes. Don’t worry. This isn’t far enough to strain your bond. It’s a metaphysical location rather than a physical one.”
She looked at him sharply. “How do you know anything about that? Tell me who you are, or we’re going to have a problem here.”
His smile didn’t falter. “You’re still welcome to call me Lucas. I like it.”
“But. .”
“But my full name is”—he raised his gaze to hers—“
That knocked the breath right out of her. “You’re joking.”
“Nope. No joke.”
Her mouth went as dry as the sand she stood on. “Lucifer. As in
“
She didn’t speak for a moment. She
Just as she was about to freak out as fear and panic spread through her, she forced herself to remain calm. This
Of course he would have.
And wouldn’t the Prince of Hell give off some sort of important vibe? He felt 100 percent human to her. Not even a wisp of magic.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” she asked, forcing herself to sound as skeptical as she felt.
“Seriously?” He stared at her for a moment. “You need proof?”
“Well, yeah. Of course.” She nervously poked her big toe into the warm sand. What she really wanted to do was turn and run away, but since she had no idea where she was, she knew that wouldn’t help.
“You need to take my word for it.”
She crossed her arms. “Why would the real Lucifer be concerned about anyone trying to destroy him? Wouldn’t you be all powerful and all evil?”
He raked a hand through his short brown hair. “This meeting is not going nearly as well as I’d anticipated.”
She was losing her fear the more she spoke. “Lucifer wouldn’t need my help.”
“Oh, really?”
“That’s right. And if I refused to help, he would have already killed me. I’ve seen the movies, you know. I know demons.”
“You think so, do you?”
She glanced at the beach around her again. “Maybe you’re that wizard master Stanley was talking about. Maksim. And you’re trying to mess with me. He said you were at a resort right now on vacation. Is this it?”
Lucas rolled his eyes. “And to think you own a private investigation agency. You’re no Nancy Drew, are you?”
She drew close enough to poke him in the chest. Even that felt completely human to her. More proof that’s exactly what he was. “Okay, Maksim. Enough. You have no damn idea how close I am to the edge this week. You do not want to piss off a black witch who doesn’t come with an instruction manual. You think PMS is bad? Guess again.”
“I’m not Maksim,” he said patiently.
“Then who are you?”
“Lucifer.” He gritted his teeth. “Like I already said.”
“Sure you are.” Still, her voice shook a little.
“You want proof?” he asked. “Take my hand.”
She looked down at his outstretched hand for a moment and then grabbed it. “Fine.”
The next moment the beach and ocean were gone. Eden now stood on a rocky precipice that jutted out from a cliff side. She looked down into bleak horror below. Flames undulated like a terrifying ocean hundreds of feet below. It was fire for as far as her eye could see. She felt the heat reach up and wrap itself around her, oppressive, making it hard to breathe. She couldn’t see anyone else, but screams of terror and pain pierced her eardrums.
A rock shifted and fell to the canyon below, and she shrieked as she almost lost her balance. Lucas grabbed her arm before she fell.
“Welcome to my home,” he said. “As a living human, you normally wouldn’t be able to visit here, but much like the beach, this is only a representation.”
“What is this place?” she managed.
“I’ll give you three guesses, but the first two don’t count. Let’s just say it’s a nice place to visit, but you probably wouldn’t want to live here.”
“Hell.”
“Part of it. There are many other areas, but this is the place that looks the best on the postcards. Do you believe me now?”
She couldn’t think straight. “I. . I’m not sure. .”
“Fine,” he replied. “Have it your way.”
He pushed her off the side of the cliff and she fell, head-first and screaming, into the ocean of fire.
Back to the beach. Lucas sat beside her, dragging his fingers through the sand. A warm breeze wafted through her hair. Her heart jackhammered in her chest.
“Theo will require your help to find a weapon here in the human world,” he said evenly. “He believes it has the power to destroy me. For now I only want you to observe, but eventually I’ll need you to bring it to me.”
She stared at him. He was Lucifer, wasn’t he? No matter how much she tried to deny it, it didn’t change anything.
“Why me?” She fought the urge to scramble away from him. He looked so harmless, but he wasn’t. Looks
