“Yes. She’s right. She did us a huge favor, and now she’s asking for help, and I think we should give it to her.”
“But what about Murmur?”
Lily shrugged and glanced at Suyin. “She said we won’t be in danger.”
Iris looked at Suyin.
“I swear,” Suyin said.
Iris blew out a breath. “Does it have to be right now?”
“Yes.” Every minute they waited was a minute closer to the window of opportunity closing. For all she knew, it had closed already.
“All right. I’m in too. But I’m telling Meph about it as soon as we’re done. I don’t like keeping secrets.”
“You can write a whole book about it if you want. I hope it’s a bestseller.”
“Fine. So what do you want us to do?”
Suyin took a breath. “I think it’s better if I show you.”
Bel stood in his office staring at the summoning seal still inscribed on the floor. He’d kept the door closed since leaving the room yesterday, and his brothers knew better than to snoop in his house behind closed doors.
No one but him knew it was here. No one but him knew what he was about to do.
He pulled Murmur’s now-crumpled letter from his pocket and tossed it onto the desk. “I swear to god I’ll kill you for this,” he growled at the paper, as if the writer himself could hear him.
And then he stepped into the seal.
The world spun and flipped over, and then Bel found himself standing … in chaos.
He was in a library, but that was the least of his concerns. The room was black, save for the orange glow of fire that shone from the tall window across the room. As if the world outside was on fire. Roaring could be heard in the distance, and there was a faint rumbling that felt vaguely like an earthquake approaching.
But again, that was the least of his concerns.
There was a complex sigil in the middle of the room, surrounded by a shitstorm of scattered paper and spilled blood. Some of it had been used to draw the sigil, and plenty more had pooled around the outside.
In the center of the design was a giant black-and-purple spinning vortex.
The portal.
Cursing inwardly, Bel took two steps toward it, intending to get this over with as quickly as possible, so he could return home and prepare for the aftermath. But he stopped abruptly.
He was in Hell for the first time since he’d escaped with his brothers. Mist, Meph, and Raum had all been back briefly since they’d escaped, but Bel hadn’t. He blew out a breath and felt some of the ever-present tension leave his shoulders.
The air was foul, the sky was red, and there was nearly constant war and violence, but … it did kinda feel good to be back. Just knowing he could lose control and burst into flames without the same consequences as on Earth was a relief.
It didn’t matter now anyway. He was about to shake thingsup in a major way. After today, all the shit he’d been worrying about for the past year was going to be the least of his concerns.
He took a breath and continued toward the spiraling vortex of doom.Let’s get this over with.
The three witches stood in Suyin’s living room, two of them with their mouths hanging open.
“Oh my god,” Lily breathed, staring at the enormous sigil, candles, herbs, cage of pigeons, and “sleeping” demon on the floor.
“What in the fuck?” Iris said. “Is that—”
“Murmur,” Lily gasped.
