He disappeared, leaving us standing in the middle of a field. "Where are we?" I whispered.
Gabe took my hand. "Ireland," he said. "Still the Earth realm."
"Why did we come here? Why not where Ariel is?" I cried. "How is this happening?"
"She must've been here when Mary connected with her," Lucifer said. "Let's go home and regroup."
Gabriel gathered me in his arms and took us home, landing us in the living room again.
Joel followed a few seconds later as we stood in the middle of the room and stared at each other in dismayed shock. "When Michael grabbed Raphael's shirt, this fell out." He held out a key.
I gasped. Lucifer reached out and snatched the key from Joel's palm. "How?"
Joel shrugged. "I don't even know what it is, only that it feels horrible. Pain radiates from it."
"Well, it would," I snapped. "It's the Key to Hell." My heart sank as I realized the implications of Raphael having this key. Things kept getting worse and worse.
Joel's jaw dropped. Michael leaned forward, studying it. Lucifer’s arms tightened around me.
"Explain," Gabe said.
"We've searched for this thing for centuries," I whispered. "Since the death of Christ."
Studying the heavy iron key, I marveled at it. Talk about a Relic. "Raphael having it is confirmation of all of our suspicions and fears," Lucifer said. "Raphael wants to open the gates of Hell and release Hell on the Earth Realm."
Chapter Seven
Joel agreed to help us. That was a cheering thought because he was a dang social butterfly in Elysium. He'd recruit more help. With Lucifer and I both nearly powerless, we needed all the help we could get. Michael and Gabe couldn't handle all of it alone.
The three of them left to notify Elysium of the latest on the Raphael search and demon hunting.
We sat on the back porch to wait for them. "Do you think she's something more than human?" I asked.
Luc shrugged. "I don't know. I hope so."
"If she's not, when all this is done, we can't bring her back to Hell." The thought made my heart ache.
"Why can't we stay here with her?" he asked. "We could take turns in Hell taking care of business, and Gabriel and Michael would certainly help."
I considered the possibility. "We'd have to move constantly."
He agreed with a grunt. If we stayed in one place in our ethereal bodies, we'd have demon hunters all over us constantly. Something about our magic had shifted and changed when we Fell. It was detectable now by the human hunters. They couldn't find angels, but they sure found us easily enough. It was one reason Fallen and higher-level demons no longer spent any significant amount of time in the Earth realm. Humans didn't need us to tempt them into sin. They handled it on their own just fine.
"God doesn't get involved. But he wouldn't have allowed this baby to happen just to punish us by taking her away," Luc mused. "He sees some reason for all this, something to make it worthwhile to allow Raphael to continue this course."
"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "I didn't think she was anything but human."
The weight of his gaze burned into my profile, but I didn't look at him. I couldn't stand to see the look of disapproval. "I know you meant well," he said. "And I'm trying so hard to understand your pain and the pain you were in. But if we don't find her, I'll never gaze upon my only offspring's face."
With those words, he stood and walked inside, leaving me on the porch steps with tears rolling down my cheeks. The worst part was how right he was.
Gabe and Michael came back soon after. I had just enough time to compose myself and cool off my face in the bathroom sink so they wouldn't know. "Joel is working on recruiting more help to find Raphael and Ariel," Michael said when he walked in. Luc heard him and came from wherever he'd been hiding in the house. "But asked us to continue the demon hunt. Most angels are out of Elysium right now, anyway, hunting demons."
"What are they doing when they find them?" I asked.
"They either kill them, which returns them directly to Hell," Michael said. "Or taking them to purgatory to re-enter that way."
"Either way, they could just get back in and leave again," I said. "It would be better if one of us stayed here. Have the angels bring the demons directly to us. The other can continue city-hopping to send them back en mass," I suggested.
