Silence. None of us knew what to do.
"What if we can sense her once we're in our ethereal bodies?" Luc asked. "Should we hurry and do it?"
None of us had the answer, but we had to do something. "I think we've got everything tied up here on Earth, at least until we find Ariel."
"Why didn't we think of this?" Lucifer asked. "I feel like such an idiot."
Michael put his hand over his face. "Me, too."
"I don't," Gabe said. "He's always died first. Why would we think otherwise? We focused on killing him, not you."
"Well, I feel like a fool," I said. "It makes perfect sense that I could go first."
I didn't fear dying. I'd done it many, many times. We needed to get home and set things right, anyway. I hate that I'll be parted from Gabe and Michael, but it was only temporary. I'd see them soon, the moment we set everything right in Abaddon.
"Okay, so I'll just release my power." I stood and looked at my husbands. "Wait, let me do it in the bed so my body doesn't hit the ground." So distasteful. I'd never had to plan how my human body would die before.
They stood to follow me upstairs when Joel reappeared in the kitchen. "It's too late," he cried. "Raphael has appeared at the gates of Abaddon."
"What?" We hadn't made it. "What did he do?"
"I don't know. He's there now. And Lilith." Joel put his hand on my arm. "He has a little girl with him."
I furrowed my brow. "He stole a little girl?"
Joel shook his head. "We had an angel watching the gates." Angels could go into Purgatory, and the gates were visible from there. "He said the little girl looks just like you."
My stomach dropped. How was that possible? "But she's only weeks old," I whispered. "Still an infant."
Lucifer put his arm around me. "Sometimes, when creating realms, time moves differently. It could be that the one he created aged her faster there than here."
Tears rolled down my cheeks. "We have to get to her." Waiting was no longer an option.
I stepped away from everyone and lowered the protection that kept my magic from consuming my human body. As soon as I did, everything went dark. This part I was familiar with. It felt like I was being squeezed through a tight, dark tunnel. Almost like a birth would feel, I imagined.
My nerves jangled as the process completed, and I was deposited just inside the gates, my true body filling with my power. I'd spent so long on Earth; my power was heightened. I hadn't felt this good since we first Fell.
When I got my bearings, I realized the gates were open.
Demons poured out of them and disappeared from view. The way the realm worked, as soon as they passed the barrier of the gate, they were transported to the Earth realm.
Running forward, I stopped just in time to keep the portal from grabbing me and looked left and right. There was a small patch of ground outside the gates all the way around the realm that a Fallen could stand on without being moved to the Earth realm, though a demon wasn't strong enough to resist it.
Raphael stood several feet away, grinning his head off.
And holding a small girl with long black hair and big green eyes. I threw my power toward them as fast as I could, trying to use it to grab Ariel and bring her to me. Obviously, she was able to withstand the magic of this realm, or she would've been killed the moment Raphael took her to the gates.
Just as my power neared her, Raphael disappeared. My magic snapped back to me as I screamed. They were gone, either to the Earth realm or to one of Raphael's inventions. I stood in the open gates and lashed out with my power. I grabbed the gates and yanked on them, but this wasn't my realm. Lucifer had been the one with enough temporary power during the Fall to create it. It only responded to his magic.
"Stop!" I cried, using my magic to amplify my voice. It would be heard across the entire realm. "I command all demons to freeze. Do not go out this gate."
They ignored me, running past me by the dozens to go out the enormous open space that should've been blocked by doors of obsidian.
I tried again, putting more power in my voice. They should've listened to me immediately, without question. "Freeze!"
My voice echoed across the realm, but the demons pouring past me didn't even flinch.
As a last resort, I threw up a wall of my power to stop the demons from escaping. It wouldn't work for long, but Lucifer would be here any second. As I thought his name, he appeared at my side.
"What happened?" He asked, disoriented, gaping at the demons snarling and snapping against the invisible wall. The transition from Earth to Abaddon had always been harder on him for some reason.
"Raphael was here, and he had her. He had Ariel! She looked to be about two," I cried, brokenhearted that she'd been so close, and that I'd missed so much of her growth. She hadn't even noticed or acknowledged me. She had no idea who I was. The demons pushed against me as I strained to hold the wall. "I can't close the gates, Luc, do it!"
He turned and lifted his arms, but nothing happened. The demons clobbered at my magical wall, ravenous to get past it. Demons loved nothing more than to antagonize or possess humans. I tried to be patient as he oriented himself, but I couldn't hold off the horde much longer. Hundreds of demons of all shapes and sizes battered me.
"Lucifer!" I cried. "Do it!" A demon slipped past my wall and out the open gate.
He dropped his hands and turned to me. "I can't," he whispered. "My magic isn't there."
