"It's not like you have to go often. And if Vincent is in the limbo area, we've got to get him out of it and away from possibly entering Purgatory."
While all the demons were freed from Abaddon, the souls were piling up in Purgatory. I knew that, but there was nothing to be done for it. We had all our Fallen wrangling demons and trying to at least keep them invisible.
The souls that were in Abaddon were another story. I had no idea where they were. Hopefully still in Abaddon, but if they figured out how to get out, they'd become ghosts on Earth. We tried to keep ghosts to a bare minimum because, in this day and age, technology made it too dangerous to have a rogue specter roaming around.
I guessed the cat was out of the bag now, though. Humans knew all about demons. If we could get enough magic, maybe we could reset it all. Change the course of what happened.
Humans were supposed to make their choices without absolute knowledge of what came after. They weren't supposed to be scared into submission. They were supposed to choose to be good, to be noble and honorable on their own. Not because they were terrified of Abaddon.
But now they knew. It was all changed.
I hacked more vines away and increased my speed. We had to hurry. Once again, I tried to move with magic, but Cecilio's wards were too strong. He'd spent years layering them on. Even we would've had to work hard to get past them. Like he said. It was faster to walk.
"They appointed me caretaker, did I tell you?" Michael asked. "When Raphael went rogue, his responsibilities were reassigned." The plane that housed the River was technically the same as the demons while invisible on Earth, but it was sealed off with stronger magic than any of us had. God had been involved with it.
Only a few were able to access it at all. That made it all the stranger that an angel's soul had gone into it. Luc and I of the fallen alone could go there, and of the angels, only Joel and Michael.
Another demon launched at us, this one a flier. He looked a bit like a bat, but I knew. I waved my hand and sent him to Abaddon without a second thought.
The ward's weight lifted as soon as I stepped past its boundaries. I knew instantly we were free. Turning, I grabbed Lucifer's hand. "We'll take Mary home. You guys go check on Jellybean. We'll meet you at the house." They nodded and disappeared.
"Ready?" I asked Mary.
She rolled her eyes. "Come on, Queenie, you've got work to do."
We blinked to her living room, where her grandson lounged on the couch. He didn't even flinch when we appeared out of thin air in front of him. "There you are, Granny. Mama wants you to come for dinner."
Mary reached down and pinched his cheek. "Tell her I'll bring dessert." He jumped up and ran out the door, sidestepping me and Luc.
"Mary, what do you get up to that he didn't think twice about us appearing out of the blue?"
She laughed and walked toward the kitchen. "Wouldn't you like to know?”
11
Jellybean laid in the middle of the kitchen, gnawing on a huge steak when we arrived at the house. "He's fine," Michael said. "He was in the back yard and he fed himself. He did break the back door to get out."
I knelt beside the big beast. "I'm so glad you've not gone crazy like the rest of them," I said in a baby voice. Jellybean stopped gnawing on his steak and cocked his ears at me. His tail wagged, slapping against the refrigerator. "Did you hunt yourself some dinner? That's a good boy." I rubbed his head and he resumed his big treat for being a good doggy.
"Can we send him to Mary?" I asked. "I don't like him being here alone, but if he goes back to Abaddon, we might lose him."
Lucifer stared at me.
"What?" I asked.
"I forget sometimes what a softie you are at heart," he said. "You love that big dog, don't you?"
"Of course I do." I gave him another head rub and spoke to Jellybean again. "Don't I? You big wubby-wub."
"Come on, JB," Michael said. "Let's go see if Mary needs a guard dog."
Jellybean finished his steak then walked to Michael. He sat beside him like the goodest good boy and they both disappeared. "Meet you at the River," Michael said before blinking out of the kitchen.
"Anybody need to do anything before we go?" I asked.
Lucifer and Gabriel shook their heads. They'd both have to hold on tight to me to get into the River plane. Gabe couldn't get in at all without me, and Luc didn't have the magic to do it.
"Here we go." We clasped hands, and I pictured where we needed to go. We'd have to start at the beginning and work our way down until we found Vincent's soul. There was no other option.
As we moved from one plane to another, all three of us spread our wings.
The River's plane was tiny compared to the size of souls that ran through it. There was enough space above them to hover and fly, but if someone came here without wings—like Mary—they'd have to wade through the souls, walking amongst them.
And that was an unsettling experience. Walking through the River meant walking through the souls, and when passing through, their memories inundated us. We'd see whatever they were seeing at the moment, and it was never happy. We'd all tried it once, the curiosity too much to contain.
I was pretty sure nobody had ever tried it twice. I'd jumped out of the River as fast as I could get my wings spread when I tried it.
"Look for a soul of grays and browns. Very dark black, and red. He's done some horrible things on Earth. And of course, you're looking for an
