Lotus laughed. “Wel , I’l be damned. Talk about the weirdest family reunion ever.” She looked up at Vayl. “You do realize I don’t believe a word of this shit, right? I mean, I’m a stunt driver. I spend most of my time traveling around the world doing motorcycle tricks. And when that gets boring, I find… other ways… to fil my time. Most of them il egal. Or, at least, immoral. It’s how I rol .” Vayl shook his head. “We were always so different, you and I. Never understanding one another, never able to come to a meeting of the minds. Now I believe I see why. And I wish it were not so.” He crouched before her, his expression ful of the earnest desire of a daddy trying to figure out what his little girl real y wants for Christmas. “I wish to know you better. Is that al right?” She sat back, her cheeks hol owing like she’d just discovered a lemon seed stuck in her molar.
Then she said, “Nope. I’m outta here.” She lunged to her feet only to find Raoul’s blade at her throat.
“No, you aren’t,” he said, his voice rimmed with the thunder that had often brought me to the edge of consciousness. “Your destiny has lost patience with you, and selfish pride is now a choice with consequences you must face. You wil join us. Now.”
Final y, something other than sarcastic prickishness crossed that lovely face. Was it bad that I enjoyed seeing real fear? I glanced at Vayl and was reassured that he felt the same. Sometimes that’s the sign—that inside the actor there’s stil a real soul that can be saved. We had to hope it was true for Vayl’s firstborn.
She whispered, “Join you? Where?”
Raoul said, “The demons who tried to kil you today meant to land you in hel . We do too. It’s up to you to decide whether or not you stay there.”
He nodded to me. I leaned over Jack and whispered in his ear. “Okay buddy, if you ever understood anything I said, now’s the time. I have to go. It’s only so I can come back for good. So rest easy. Miles is getting a doctor to make you better and I’m coming back as soon as I can.” I stroked his head just like he liked it. “Love you, poopmeister.” Then I turned and strode into the bathroom, not looking back because if I did, no way would I be able to take another step away from my family and toward the potential end of my life.
I was leaning on the tub, waiting for the portal to appear, listening to Raoul, Vayl, and Lotus breathe behind me. I knew the rest of my crew was huddled in the doorway, with the exception of Miles—and Astral, of course. She had decided to sit between my feet. I couldn’t speak, not to any of them. The moment was too big, the potential for disaster too real. What do you say to people you wil probably never see again? I had no words.
Then Dave cleared his throat. “We were talking. Remember, before? About Kyphas and her prophets and how they knew you might be coming?”
I nodded as Vayl said, “Yes. Cassandra thought there might be a way to set them onto a false trail.”
“It’s too late,” I muttered.
Cassandra sat on the tub beside me and leaned until she could look into my eyes. “Never,” she said so adamantly that I felt a little shock run through me. “I have lived forever, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been married and widowed and seen my children die before they were born. I’ve been a slave and a priestess and everything in between. And I’l tel you this, girl. It’s only too late when you’re dead. You”—she circled her finger at me like I was three and she was trying to make me giggle—“are stil kicking.”
I stood up, the flames from the portal coming to life like a frame around my body. Hel ’s citizens suddenly appeared in my peripheral vision as they walked their endless hike of pain, and I wondered if the gate stood that close to my original landing zone, or if the portal had only opened that pathway because it was so strong in my memory from the last time I was there. With no answers to that question readily available, I asked one that could be answered: “Cassandra, what the hel does that mean?”
She pul ed a handkerchief out of her pocket and unwrapped it enough to show me that inside sat my engagement ring. Her smile, so delighted, made my lips twitch. “We did it!” she said.
“It’s ready!” Dave echoed her, like he’d been the one toiling over it for the past hour. “My wife is a genius! You should al bow down to her!”
“Or not,” Cassandra said, though her smile hinted that she kind of missed those days. “I’ve imbued Jaz’s ring with a spel that makes al the emotions it’s absorbed over time more vivid. The prophets who are looking for her wil find it first.” She held it up to me. “Al you need to do is get somebody in hel to put it on and wander around with it while you run the other way.”
“Or, more practical y, force them,” said Dave. “I was thinking if we shove it down their throat, we probably have a good twelve hours before the prophets clear their heads.”
“Too risky,” said Cole, leaning against the door frame and shining his clicky vamp teeth against his shirtsleeve like they were covered in jel y stains as he spoke. “Half of you could be dead before you get within ten miles of the gate.” He cocked his head to one side and grinned as he set the teeth on the floor, aiming them toward Aaron, who stood just behind him and jumped satisfactorily as they came trundling toward his feet. Cole said, “I have a better idea.” Before we could stop him he lunged forward, grabbed the ring from Cassandra’s hand, slipped it on his pinky, and waved happily at us as he leaped through the portal, cal ing, “See you on the flip side!”
“Shit!” I reached for him, but Vayl grabbed me before I could step through. “Cole! You son of a bitch! Don’t you dare—!” But he had. And the portal had suddenly gone black.
“Open it up, Raoul,” I said grimly.
He spoke the words that cleared the door. Cole was not on the other side. In fact, the section of hel had changed completely. Now we were viewing the oceanic part that Kyphas had landed in during our fight in Marrakech. “This isn’t helping,” I said, trying to keep my voice level, sticking my hands in my pockets before they punched something.
Raoul inspected the portal’s frame, watching how the flames jumped and what colors they turned when. He said, “Hel does not want us to know where Cole dropped. But I can contact the Eminent.
We have scouts everywhere.”
I looked over my shoulder at Vayl. He said, “Cole made a choice. For you. Do not let it be in vain.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to feel as if everyone I cared about was fal ing away from me.
That next I would have to watch Raoul bleed his last drop into hel ’s river, or see Vayl’s spirit waft away into its fiery skies. I said, “Okay. Raoul, quickly contact your guys. And then, for God’s sake, let’s get this over with.”
