"What else explains how this was blocked off?" I pointed to the area where the souls from the River normally spilled into Purgatory. An invisible wall held them inside the River of the Damned. We saw them there, reliving their lives over and over. They pulsed with the pain of their memories as they pressed against the space that should've let them into Purgatory and the relief of unconsciousness.
The magic of Purgatory put the souls into true Limbo. The ones on this side of the magical blockage weren't aware. The souls in here weren't being tortured. They were asleep, in a sense. But I felt horrible about them being here at all. This place was meant to be ever-changing, souls constantly going in and out. These poor people deserved to reach their final destinations, for good or evil. They deserved their rebirths or their eternal damnation. Whichever direction they went, they'd earned it.
"This is a travesty," I whispered. "How can Raphael leave things like this?"
Michael shook his head as we looked across the vast landscape full of floating souls. The colors of their auras flashed as their subconscious energy still worked, even with them asleep. They went on as far as we could see. Roughly fifty-five million souls perished every year. In a good year, only about a third went directly to Elysium.
Lucifer and I processed the rest. Of those souls, the vast majority were moved back, reborn, given another chance. They weren't evil. They'd made some bad choices, hadn't been their best selves. We took only a few million into Abaddon every year, and though that sounded like a lot, looking at the big picture, it was a smaller percentage than went elsewhere. People were better at their cores than they thought they were. They were flawed, imperfect, and made choices that caused themselves a lot of grief, but they weren't usually bad.
We gazed out in frustration. The magic of the realm buzzed in a way it didn't usually. It didn't like having the souls stuck. Magic had a purpose, a job, and this place's job was to carry the souls gently toward judgment. Not hold them indefinitely.
"We'll never find him in here," Lucifer said.
Gabe shook out his hands as his navy wings kept him in the air. Purgatory wasn't nearly as creepy as the River, but he still didn't like being here. None of us did, even when we didn't have guilt to add to the mix. "There are millions of souls here."
Oh, the guilt was just me, at least I shouldered it the most. I was the one that gave our baby away. Would we even be in this mess if I hadn't? Lucifer's magic would've still been gone, but what about the rest? The course of events might've been drastically different, if for no other reason than our focus wouldn't have been split.
I nodded. "You're right." But I had to try. If I didn't get him out of here, there would be no righting the flow. The River had to be able to spill into Purgatory. Not far from the River was the exit from Purgatory to Abaddon. A large expanse of soft grass separated the two realms. It never needed to be trimmed or seeded. It simply was. The gates of Abaddon stood wide open, as we'd left them. I focused, using magic to sharpen my vision. As I looked, three demons ran out of Abaddon and vanished.
Headed to Earth, to the spectral plane to torment humans, no doubt.
With a rock in my gut, I turned toward the wall where the souls pressed against it, the flow building up more and more. "When the River is full, then what? Will they stay on Earth to haunt humans?" The souls crammed against the magical wall looked denser, more plentiful just since I'd last looked at it.
Gabe looked horrified. "That would be terrible."
Michael's eyes filled with tears. "It would. This is terrible already."
If the souls were released on Earth, they'd be ghosts. They'd go to a familiar place. Either where they died, or their former homes, or their loved ones. None of those options was good for humans. Sometimes ghosts were connected to a location or person enough to be able to push through and be seen or heard. And that would be torture to a grieving relative of the dead. Best they moved on. On to the next great adventure.
Enough brooding about the insurmountable job. We had no choice but to try to find Vincent. "He's the only angel in here. We should be able to find him," I said. "Cast your magic. We'll all go in different directions."
They nodded. "I'll go that way," Gabriel said, pointing to the area past the gates of Abaddon.
"Then I'll go there." Michael nodded in the opposite direction. They both gave me a soft kiss and went left and right.
"We'll go straight." I looked out toward the never-ending crowd of souls and tried not to feel disheartened. We'd had setback after setback and blow after blow. Even with all the magic we had, it couldn't find Raphael or break into his realm.
But until I had my daughter in my arms, I wouldn't stop trying. I pumped my wings and rose in the air to fly higher over the souls.
Luc followed me, searching the masses of souls with his eyes as I spread my awareness throughout them. He pointed out colors that could possibly be Vincent, but I quickly figured out how to dismiss human souls. I didn't really need him helping visually, but he needed to feel useful, too. His daughter was missing, and he didn't even have the magic to help look.
I kept one feeler on Michael and Gabe so I wouldn't lose my sense of what an angel felt like in the mass of human souls. Plus, if they found
