The humans were looking in the right general direction, but only the demons could see the actual gate. Shadrach took a deep drag of the brimstone air, sighing like he’d missed it. Malachi, Wolf, and Storm stared with varying degrees of intensity. Halflings, as far as Valac knew, didn’t particularly care to return to Hell. They weren’t born there and likely had few good memories of it, if they remembered it at all.
“When were you last in Hell, Shad?” Talon asked lightly.
“I came up in the early fifteen-hundreds,” Shadrach replied, not taking his eyes off the gate.
“Right, right. I remember now,” Talon said.
“What does it look like?” Isaac asked, looking in the direction of the gate.
Shadrach tilted his head. “It looks like the world has been ripped open. Reality is blurred and ragged at the edges, sparking like a wire that’s been cut. Energy burning the edges with nowhere to go.”
“Black smoke inside a dark tunnel,” Malachi added.
“You cannot see Hell from here,” Valac said. “I must pass through Purgatory before I reach Hell. I can use my power to travel more quickly, but it’ll be tiresome.” He sighed, stroking Julian’s cheek with his thumb. “I’ll return as soon as possible, my jewel.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
He couldn’t resist stealing in for one last kiss, and then pressed another to Julian’s forehead. Parting from him ached like a physical thing, but he forced himself to go. The sooner he went, the sooner he could return with a sin eater and take care of the paladins who would do harm to his jewel once and for all.
The darkness enveloped him, and he turned around as the portal knitted itself back together, staring at Julian’s handsome face until he finally disappeared.
And then, he flew.
Chapter 25
Julian
With Valac gone,Julian found himself alone once again.
Except—not really.
When he turned away from the dance floor where Valac had disappeared, there was no chance for that old, familiar loneliness to creep back in, because Nathan was there, slinging an arm around his shoulders and guiding him to the bar.
“How about breakfast? Have you eaten?” he asked.
“I’m not sure I could eat,” he admitted.
Nathan tutted.
“Nonsense,” Alex said, pulling out his phone. “We’ll order food, have it delivered.”
Julian tried to swallow around the lump forming in his throat. “You guys don’t have to do that.”
“We promised him we’d take care of you,” Luke said. “We’ll have your back until he returns—and that doesn’t just mean in battle. You’re one of us now.”
He’d been alone for so long. When he’d left the guild, he’d mourned for the loss of his squad and his friends as surely as if they’d been killed in action. Even though he’d chosen to leave, he’d still somehow felt abandoned when all was said and done.Now, he was surrounded by people who wanted to feed him and spend time with him and make sure he was okay.
The emotion reached a boiling point, and Julian turned away, hiding his face in Nathan’s shoulder. “Ah, fuck,” he hissed.
Several of them chuckled good-naturedly, and Nathan rubbed his back.
“I forget how young you are,” Nathan said.
“Hey, we’re the same age,” Alex protested. It was true; they’d graduated together.
“Yes,” Nathan said pointedly. “Young.”
“Sorry, I know it’s stupid,” Julian said, sniffling. “It’s not like I won’t see him again. It feels childish to be upset about missing him for a few days when there’s so much going on.”
