Immortal (Fallen Angels #6)(23)
Author: J.R. Ward

Or maybe calculating the very good odds that this was going to fuck all of them in the ass.

As nobody else was going to answer the question, Adrian figured, What the hell. “There are two portals that we are allowed to use—and both were brought into existence by the Creator. One leads to Heaven, the other to Hell. They’re how we go back and forth—how she gets down and back.” He stopped and faced the fireplace even though there was no flame in it. No logs to watch as they were consumed. No heat to warm his cold hands and feet. “For us to try to make one? For our own purposes? It’s a violation of the laws of the universe.”

Devina shrugged. “What’s the Creator going to do to us?”

“Not sure I want to find out,” Ad bit out. “Not sure we got a choice.”

“This could indeed get us into serious trouble,” Colin tacked on. Then he looked at Ad. “It’s on a magnitude of the stunt you pulled that got you punished.”

“Which one.” Adrian shrugged. “And I don’t know why you’re giving me the hairy eyeball. I don’t have that kind of power—that shit is going to need to be between you and her.”

Colin glanced at the demon and muttered something unintelligible under his breath. And yup, she looked equally disenchanted.

At least they were taking the risks seriously.

Devina nodded over at Sissy. “Open to page three hundred forty-one and a half.”

Sissy flipped pages back and forth. “Okay.”

“What does it say?”

“Which passage?”

“Start from the top.”

Sissy opened her mouth and started reading … but fuck all if Ad could understand what she was saying. The words were gibberish—and not any kind of Latin he recognized. Hell, he’d even been around when the guys in togas and sandals had been doing their jam, and whatever was coming from between her lips? Not it.

When she finally stopped, Devina nodded. “So I’m correct.”

“Yes,” Sissy said. “I think you are.”

In the silence that followed, Colin looked over pointedly, but Ad had to prioritize panic buttons at that moment—he couldn’t worry about whatever connection the two females in the room might be forging. “Look,” he cut in, “I don’t have a clue what you just read. But the portal idea, while batshit crazy, is probably our only option. If we can create a portal and keep it open long enough … maybe Jim can jump back.”

“But wait,” Sissy said. “If he killed himself to get over there, doesn’t one already exist?”

“It’s not one that is open to free use,” Colin said. “That particular portal is regulated by the Creator, and He has been very clear about its purpose and its restrictions.”

Ad glanced at Sissy. “Yeah, the Big Guy ain’t too happy with the idea that someone would disrespect the gift of life. You take your own? You’re going to get a proverbial slap on the wrist. Purgatory’s also where righteous souls who can’t let go of something or someone they left behind end up because their sorrow won’t let them transition upstairs. Not a pleasant place. It’s like Hell.”

“Fuck that,” Devina bit out. “Hell is much worse.”

“True. You’re there—”

Sissy interrupted. “So how do you make a portal?”

There was another long silence, and again, Adrian was surprised Devina didn’t jump in with a whole lot of chatter—and he wasn’t sure whether the fact that she didn’t was a good or a bad thing.

“Well,” he prompted the demon. “What do you think?”

Devina’s black eyes ceased to glitter, and her expression, for once, grew remote. “We’d need a tremendous amount of focused energy. Colin and I could face off and each cast an attack spell. In theory, assuming we are of equal strength, the opposing forces will become so great, this plane of existence will not be able to support them, and a tear will be created in the veil between here and there.”

Sissy frowned. “How can you be sure the door it opens will be into Purgatory?”

Man, she was no dummy, Ad thought. “We give it a tracer.” He glanced over at Jim’s motionless remains. “Yeah, maybe if we give it a direction…”

Devina bared her teeth like a dog growling. “You’re not throwing his body in there. It’ll be destroyed and he’ll have nothing to return to.”

Right, right, right. And if this didn’t work, she wouldn’t have a new toy to play with.

Ad shuddered at the thought of how she’d use those remains. “Blood, then. His blood.”

Colin nodded. “That is logical. The death, such as it was, was very recent. As a soul passes unto another plane, it is never a completely clean transition. Tracers remain in the flesh. In the blood.”

There was another long silence as the magnitude of what they were all thinking hit home.

“How can we trust you?” Sissy said to the demon.

“You can’t.” Devina shrugged. “But Colin would jump at the chance to destroy me—isn’t that right, archangel?”

“Oh, aye.” Colin’s eyes narrowed. “The satisfaction would almost make up for my loss.”

Devina’s mouth lifted in something close to affection. “And I will never let myself get hurt. So when he hits me, I’ll hit him back. Likewise, he won’t fail to defend himself either. Satisfied, little girl?”

To Sissy’s credit, she didn’t take the bait. She just nodded.

After which there was still more silence, which Devina filled by murmuring to “Jim.” Shit, considering how well the demon was getting along with the corpse, you had to wonder why she wanted him to come back.

“There’s only one remaining problem,” Ad said. “Aside from the whole what-if-this-doesn’t-work.”

“Agreed.” Colin scrubbed his face. “In fact, I shall be more concerned if this does function according to plan. It is precisely how the Dead Sea was created.”

Sissy glanced over at the archangel. “I thought that was from tectonic plates shifting or something.”

“Lassiter,” Ad and Colin said together.

At the sound of the name, even Devina rolled her eyes. “Oh, Christ. Him again.”

“So at least this has been tried before?” Sissy asked.

“Yeah, and look at how well it turned out.” Ad shook his head. “A three-hundred-mile, one-thousand-foot-deep hole in the earth.”