“Grandmother,” I said, stern. Over the years I’d learned it was the only way she’d listen. “What do you know?”
She squeezed my hands. “I know that you’re back, and your mother will be so happy.” When I glared at her, she continued, however outwardly unruffled. “It was a sacrifice, dear. There is nothing purer. Lucifer should’ve known better than to believe God would allow an act so pure to be held by Hell.” She sat back and sighed. “Honestly, people have been prayed out of purgatory for less.”
“So she’s a slam dunk?” Bex asked. “We have an unbeatable force on our side?”
“Of course not. She has to do her job. She still has human blood running through her veins, and that makes her fallible, obviously. Not a … slam dunk … by any means.” She said Bex’s phrase like it was inferior gunk in her mouth.
“Eden is … different,” Bex said, trying to say it delicately. “Do you know anything about that?”
“Different?” Grandmother said, looking to me.
I nodded.
“You took a shower,” she said. “Why, aside from the obvious.”
“When I came back, I was covered in … a gel. The smell was putrid. The water only made it worse.”
She seemed annoyed. “Of course. He kept you hidden. There is only one place in Hell with a substance like that. The Bog.”
Bex seemed confused. “I feel like I should know what that is.”
“It’s a secret.”
“You knew,” Bex said, unhappy.
“Discussing it brings—” She looked up, and so did Bex.
Something heavy was coming, with a million smaller somethings.
“Just the word.”
“It’s not allowed.”
I stood up, bringing Grandmother with me, putting one hand behind me to protect her. “Then why did you say it?”
“Because that’s what it’s called, Eden, for goodness sake,” she said, unafraid and a little annoyed. She sat down and brought me with her. “When they realize it’s me, they’ll return to wherever they came from.
“How do you know about it?” I asked.
She shook her head. Soon, the masses of aggression and anger began to slowly fade away until it was gone.
“Whoa,” Bex said, still staring at the ceiling. I haven’t felt that since … since right before Eden was born.”
Grandmother sighed. “Yes, well, they’re quick to react these days, and overstaff if you ask me.”
Gravel crunched in the drive as Dad and Claire’s vehicles sped into the drive and came to an abrupt halt.
“Bex?” Mom called, her voice frantic and cracked. The door slammed. “Bex!”
“Dining room!” Bex called, staring at me with a hundred questions reflecting in his eyes.
Mom rushed in, her hair, nose, and chin dripping with rain. Dad rounded the corner, soaked in someone else’s blood.
“Eden?” she shrieked. Just as she moved toward me, Dad held her back. He stood in front of her protectively, even as she struggled.
“Eden?” Mom said, trying to move around her husband. “Jared,” she said, impatient. “Let me … let me go,” she said, leaning away from him.
“Wait,” Dad said, eyeing me.
I stood. “Hi.”
“Hi, baby,” Mom said, breathing out a single laugh. Tears immediately streamed down her face.
“Hi?” Claire said, bringing up the rear. “Hi? That’s all you have to say to us?”
“Eden!” Ryan said with a stunned smile. His eyes glossed over, but he wiped them before any tears could spill over.
“Let me…” Mom said, pushing at my dad. “Let me hold my daughter!” she screamed.
“Nina, wait!” Dad growled.
“It’s her,” Bex said. He met Dad’s gaze, both their eyes glistening with happy tears. A small, relieved chuckle escaped his throat. “I swear. It’s her.”
Dad released Mom, and had I been human, she would’ve tackled me to the ground. Sobbing as she pulled me, she was unable to hold me tight enough.
“What happened? How? How are you here? Where did you go?” she cried. Her hand grabbed the back of my head, and she held my cheek to her shoulder.
I glanced at Grandmother before lying. “It’s hard to explain. I don’t know where I was, just that it was dark,” I said, trying not to invite back the legion that had just rushed us at full force. I didn’t want to chance them returning with my mother and Ryan present.
“And stinky,” Bex said, his nose wrinkling. “I’ll never forget that smell.”
He’s playing along.
“Smell? What smell?” Ryan asked.
“She was covered in steaming, rancid goo,” Bex explained.
All heads turned slowly toward me.
“I showered,” I said, defensive.
Dad took a step toward me. “You were in the Oubliette?”
I shrugged one shoulder. “It was black. I didn’t see anything. It was like I was underwater. Thick, gelatinous water.”
“You saw no one?” Dad asked.
“She just said,” Claire began, annoyed.
“What are you getting at, Jared?” Mom asked, holding me tighter to her side.
“I was hoping she’d crossed paths with Ramiel.” Dad spoke the language of Heaven to my uncle. Not that demons couldn’t understand it, but it hurt them to hear it, making it extremely difficult if one could get his point across quickly enough. “He’s our one contact there. Maybe we could convince him to help us find Levi.” Dad continued in English, “The sooner the better.”
“I’m sure Levi can handle himself,” Ryan said.
Dad shook his head. “This is a strategy. Eden, Levi, Bex… they’re all connected. Whatever they’re planning will be a domino effect.”
“You think they’ll come after me to kill Levi?” Bex said, raising one brow.
“Or kill Levi to kill you,” I said. “But how can our friend help?” I asked, purposefully vague.
I remembered Bex glazing over the subject of Ramiel when I was nine. Ramiel was an Arch. Now, he was an Arch in Hell—the only one. We couldn’t out him. We needed a way to speak about him freely.
“Anyone can fill me in,” Ryan said. “I didn’t major in theology.”
“Or anything,” Dad grumbled.
“Ramiel is a lost cause,” I said.
Bex’s expression sank as he fell into deep thought. “Ramiel and God will never forgive each other.”
I looked to my dad. “We can’t speak of the contact freely. He needs a nickname.”
Dad nodded. “CAHL it is.”
“CAHL?” I asked.
“Cranky asshole?” Claire asked. When Dad smiled, she laughed aloud. “I knew it.”