“Focus, Salem,” Holly said.
“Oh! I have to stay here while Azrael makes sure that evil doesn't seep into Heaven.”
All the mothers looked at Azrael, but it was his mother who demanded, “What's Jerry done now?”
The J-man snickered.
“Dad will fill you in,” Az said. Then he looked at me to ask, “Carus, could you make a guest room for Salem?”
“Oh, I can sleep outside,” Salem said. “Just don't let it rain on me.”
“No problem.” I waved toward the front doors, then preceded him outside. “I'll make you a bed out here.”
“Salem!” the twins shouted as soon as we stepped outside. They came whizzing over to circle his head like a couple of crazy bats.
“Hey, kids.” Salem nosed them hello. “We're having a slumber party!”
The other children ran over, shouting Salem's name. They'd all met the dragon before, but Brevyn knew him best since Salem had visited Faerie a few times to go flying with us.
“Salem, why are you here?” Brevyn asked after the hellos had been made.
Salem glanced at me, and after I shook my head subtly, he said, “Home renovations.”
“What are home renovations?” Lesya asked.
“It's like when I change things around the palace,” I explained. “Salem doesn't have territory magic so he has to hire someone to change his home for him and that takes time. He's going to stay with us during that time.”
“Yay!” the children shouted.
Then came the demands to play and take them flying and breathe fire. On and on. You'd think they didn't have a dragon for a mother.
“Can I take them flying?” Salem asked me.
“Only if you carry them in your talons. I don't want them on your back. They could fall off.”
“Sure thing, V,” he said. To the children, he added, “Okay, two at a time.”
Another round of yays was shouted as I strode over to a meadow beside the play castle. I crouched to lay my hand on a rock, closed my eyes, and summoned my territory magic once more. With a rush of energy and an image in my mind, I changed the rock into a massive, pillowy mattress large enough for a dragon to curl up on. Then I went back inside to find everyone else still in the foyer.
“What's going on?” Persephone whispered to me.
“Jerry has commanded the Avenging Angels in Shehaquim to stop torturing wicked humans,” I said.
Hekate asked, “Isn't that a good thing? Live humans shouldn't be in the God Realm, much less tortured.”
“It's part of the myths,” Holly said. “When a territory is tied to a religion with such strong beliefs, it must adhere to them or things can go wrong.” She shifted her worried look to Az.
“Like what?” Sephy asked as she absently grabbed Deme's little hand before she summoned Astie's toy away from her.
Azrael shrugged. “We've never veered from the myths before. But it's all right; I think I've averted the crisis. I was able to sever the dark land and encase it in a ward.”
“What about Salem's house?” I asked.
“His cave is just outside of the ward. I shifted it closer to the Gates to Hell, but that's the best I could do without totally rearranging Shehaquim.”
“We want to give it a week, maybe more, and make sure the ward holds,” Michael said.
“Because if the ward falls and something goes wrong, Salem's cave will be hit first,” I concluded.
