“So why is Ramiel so significant to our story?” Ryan asked.
I pulled my wet hair into a bun and tucked it into itself so it would stay. “He’s not, except that Ramiel is a fallen angel like Papa Gabe. His wife, Lizeth, was human. She was made an example of, murdered, and when Ramiel asked for a second chance, his prayer wasn’t heard. He begged, he bartered, he offered his life for hers, but God was stubborn about the first rules.”
“I thought God listened to all prayers?” Ryan asked.
“Human prayers,” Claire said.
I shook my head. “Ramiel wasn’t human.”
“And he decried God,” Bex said.
“Decried?” Ryan repeated.
Dad rolled his eyes. “How can we explain it within your understanding? He cursed at the Creator of the Universe like a spoiled teenager.”
Claire frowned. “Lizeth was an innocent, and she was murdered. That is rule number one, Jared,” she said, holding up her index finger, “and guess who broke it.”
“Careful,” Jared warned. “That’s not for us to speak of. Besides, we don’t know the whole story. It’s been told for generations. Things get repeated wrong, lost in translation…”
“Was Lizeth his Taleh?” Ryan asked.
Claire shook her head. “Ramiel’s Taleh was Abel, son of Adam.”
“Abel,” Ryan repeated, stunned. “Like Cain’s brother, Abel?”
Claire nodded, uncharacteristically quiet.
Bex finished the story for her. “Ramiel was separated from Lizeth forever, sentenced to guarding the Oubliette for eternity.”
“The oobie what?” Ryan asked.
Claire chuckled.
Dad rolled his eyes.
Claire patted Ryan on the back. “Dungeons,” she said.
Grandmother stood on the other side of me, hooking her elbow around mine. She patted my arm, but she was trying to console my mother more than me. “Eden is home. That’s all that matters. We don’t need to send her back for answers. Nothing is coming.”
“Yet,” Dad said. “You know as well as I do Lucifer is going to call on every legion he has when he realizes she’s gone. And if Levi is down there—”
“He is,” I interrupted.
“Then we need to get him out, home, and form a plan. Hell is another world. It would be like us trying to search Earth for one person. The most efficient way to find him and get him out alive is our contact, who—to protect his identity, we’ll refer to as Cahl.”
Claire stifled a laugh.
“I’ll go,” I said, glancing at Grandmother. “I feel things differently now. Sharper. I can feel Levi now. I know the general region he’s in.”
“You want her to go back?” Mom cried. She hugged me to her, shaking her head. “No. No, that is exactly what Satan wants.” She looked at me. “You’re staying here, and we can figure this out together.” She looked to Grandmother. “You agree, right, Mother?”
Grandmother pressed her lips in a hard line. She knew the answer, and my mom wouldn’t listen to reason.
“I should be the one,” Bex said.
“You’re half human, Bex. You can’t bounce planes like I can,” I said. I looked to my worried family.
“So are you,” he grumbled.
“Not anymore,” I said. “I’m different. Stronger.”
Mom hugged me tighter. “What do you mean, different?”
I hugged her back, taking care not to hold her too tight. “I died.”
Dad finally allowed tears to fall from his eyes. He enveloped me then Mom, and even pulled in Grandmother, holding us tightly against him.
Not one to appreciate an overabundance of affection, Grandmother quietly and smoothly slid from Dad’s grasp and stood to the side.
Claire gave us a few moments, and then she covered her mouth. For maybe the fourth time ever, I witnessed Claire lose to her emotions. She hugged me, too, and then Ryan. Bex joined in shortly after. We were a heap of red-faced, sobbing Ryels, and Grandmother watched us with a detached expression.
Claire handed me a phone. “I found this on the ground after you… I picked it up before we left. Call your grandma. She’s worried.”
I nodded, dialing the numbers. I sought her out as the phone rang, easily picking up her essence despite the hundreds of souls between her and me. She was expecting my call.
“Eden?” Grandma Lillian answered.
“Hi,” I said cheerfully, as if I’d just arrived home from a training.
She hesitated. “Did it hurt, my love?”
“It didn’t,” I lied.
“I’m so … I’m so glad, honey. We’ve all been a mess. I’m glad they… Well, I’m just glad to hear your voice again. I love you. Come see me as soon as you can, so I can hug you,” she gushed.
“I will. I’ll come tomorrow. Love you, Grandma. So much.”
We hung up, but before I could return to a conversation with Mom and Dad, a presence nearly overwhelmed my senses.
“What is it?” Mom asked.
“Eden?” Bex said, grabbing my arm.
I looked down at his fingers around my skin, then back at him.
“You okay?” he asked.
It was Levi, that much I knew. His sorrow, his anger, his vengeance was so loud it was hard to focus on anything else. He could sense me, too, but he didn’t know why. He was searching for me, but in the wrong dimension.
“He’s here,” I said, reaching out for him.
“Who’s here?” Mom asked.
“Levi. He’s close. But he’s so far away.”
“He bounced,” Claire said, looking to my dad. “I bet he went to find her and bring her back.”
“What does that mean? He’s in Hell? Without dying? Can he … can he do that?” Ryan asked, pulling out a dining chair to sit.
“He’s the son of Lucifer,” Bex said, always the most patient with Ryan’s questions. “In theory he can, but I doubt he thinks he can just walk out with her,” Bex said.
“So why’d he go?” Ryan asked, settling in at the dining table.
“His mother, Petra,” Grandmother said, touching the bandage on her forehead. She sat, leaving an empty chair between her and Ryan. “She bore a son of Lucifer and is still alive. That speaks volumes. Maybe the Devil is scared of something after all.”
Mom sat next to Grandmother, checking her bandage and whispering questions as to her wellbeing.
“Why would Lucifer be afraid of Petra?” Claire said. “She’s just a human.” She glanced at Ryan. “No offense.”
“None taken,” he said, staring at Bex and waiting for an answer.
“She’s a mother. Satan has no power against a mother’s love, like when I protected Eden as a newborn.”
Bex thought for a moment. “Petra isn’t protected by God, Nina. Petra is likely a vulnerability, a chink in the Devil’s armor. She knows something, too much, or maybe she has something special now like Kim did, a power that could somehow hurt him or his plan.” He shot Mom an apologetic half-smile. Even after eighteen years, just the mention of Kim sent my mom into a shame spiral.