Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Mags was going to pace a hole into Lucifer’s favorite rug, partly out of worry and partly just to spite him a little bit.
She was still furious for what he had done to her, but time to process his intentions had cooled her fury into something smaller and easier to tuck away for an appropriate moment.
Now her main concerns were the revelations they had uncovered, and his attempt to bring Foster back from the brink.
“Can you just sit still for maybe thirty seconds?” Remi snapped. Her leg bounced an erratic pattern against the edge of the desk she perched on, subconsciously jostling faster with each revolution Mags made into the carpet.
“He should be back by now,” Mags insisted, cutting an irritated glance at the other woman. “He said an hour, and it’s been two.”
“And wearing a hole in the floor is going to make it better?”
“Leave her alone.” Rag prodded Remi’s side, making her jump away.
“We’re all anxious.” Cami smiled as Remi swatted at her husband, and Rag stepped out of her range. “No reason to ruin the carpets.”
They were more than nervous, but they loitered in Lucifer’s sitting room, waiting for him to return with his son, content to let Mags do the pacing for all of them.
Suddenly, Glory rose from her seat near the doors to the sitting room. “Someone’s coming.”
Rapid footsteps echoed into the room. Multiple people, running.
“Oh shit...” Remi muttered, leaping off the desk. “That doesn’t bode well.”
Bal burst into the room first, his normally carefully tied hair flying loose around his face as he shouldered the door heavily aside. “The King requires our aid.”
Mags jerked out of her cyclical path. “I fucking knew it!”
Sachi whipped around to stare at her in shock. “Since when do you curse!?”
“That is so not the issue right now,” Cami chastised her husband.
Judas was hot on Bal’s heels, almost crashing into his boss as he raced into the room behind the spymaster. “We need to go, now.”
Remi spun on her heel and came storming at Balthazar like a woman possessed. “Bal, I swear on every soul in the Pit, you have one minute to give me more details before I summon the rustiest blade in this realm and start removing parts.”
“You really are a vicious little thing.” Bal gave her an alarmed look, then turned to Rag. “Blink twice if you need help.”
Rag winked salaciously and kissed his fuming wife on the top of the head. “Willing victim, bro.”
Bal shuddered, and Remi snapped, “The point, Balthazar!”
“A call for help came from Michael,” the spymaster said gravely, all levity gone. “The sign Luce said to wait for, I think. I sent Cwall ahead while I came to tell you. I was hoping that maybe...”
He broke off, and then all eyes followed his glance to Gloriana. She tensed, shrinking back into the cushions of the couch.
“What?” she asked defensively, clasping her hands over her chest. “Don’t look at me!”
“You’re the one that makes portals.” Remi started towards her, but was cut off by Mags. She crossed the room in three strides, an impressive pace for someone of her stature, and stopped before the blonde, taking Glory’s hands in hers as she sat beside her.
“Please, Glory. It’s the only way we’ll get to Lucifer in time,” Mags said, her voice barely above a whisper, giving her a beseeching glance.
Glory yanked her hands away as if scalded. “It’s not about wanting to do it!” She jumped to her feet, pacing away and then turning back. “I can’t without Jophiel.”
“Have you even tried?” Remi asked. Rag squeezed her arm, a silent scolding.
“Of course I have!” Glory shouted. “You don’t think I’ve tried to get to Jophiel? To talk to him and convince him to join us here? He’s my twin, Remiel. I’ve tried a million times and each time I fail.” She broke off with a strangled sob.
Remi started to weasel out of Rag’s grip, but Rag stepped in front of his wife and asked, “Would our energies boost yours enough to open one?”
“No, it needs to be Jophiel.” Glory shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she said to no one in particular, as she scrubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms, then sniffed hard.
Mags laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “We understand. We don’t want to upset you; we only want to help Lucifer.”
“I think there is another way, right?” Glory’s gaze flicked toward Judas, her shoulders squaring as hope perked up in her voice.
Judas looked puzzled. “Do you mean...?”
“I’ve heard the demons speak of... tunnels?”
“Tunnels?!” Remi exclaimed. Rag reached for her arm, but she wrenched it away. “What, you think we have time to dig our way to Luci?”
“I didn’t say we had to dig them, did I?” Glory snapped.
“You aren’t even supposed to know about the tunnels,” Bal pointed out. “But she’s right. I hoped a direct portal would be faster, but I have an alternate route, and it seems like we have no choice.”
Mags was going to hyperventilate before they ever got to the mortal plane.
Bal had explained on the way that, due to the static nature of the Rifts, the Eyes of Lucifer had established several smaller portals in addition to the one at the main Gate.
They led to a variety of locations around the mortal plane to reduce the amount of time spent traveling from one place to another, all accessible through a network of tunnels that spanned out from Balthazar’s office.
Fortunately, when Lucifer had asked Cwall to keep a close eye on his son, they had established one which Cwall used to come directly to and from Foster’s apartment.
As soon as Bal had opened the door to reveal the passage, a fresh type of panic superseded the worry for her friend.
When Glory had said ‘tunnels’ Mags had thought of small but neat corridors, something like an unfinished hallway.
She realized now that they were much less established.
The rough-hewn walls seemed to close in on even her petite frame.
Bal and Judas led the way, far ahead, with Glory following close at their heels and Cami and Sachiel strolling hand in hand behind them.
Even Rag was making decent progress as the tallest among them.
Mags barely progressed even with the aid of Remi’s ironclad grip on her bicep, practically having to be dragged along.
“Breathe, Mags.” Remi clicked her tongue in a way that was both soothing and chastising. “Passing out won’t get you out of here faster.”
“I didn’t think...so small?” She panted, squeezing her eyes shut as a familiar fear raced along her already frazzled nerves. “Too small.”
“If Rag fits, you have room,” Remi reminded her. “Look, he’s twice your size.”
Mags peered cautiously up through her lashes.
He paused his progress through the cramped tunnel to straighten as much as he could, trying to demonstrate how much space he had.
Unfortunately, it had the adverse effect of showing Mags how hunched and uncomfortable he was.
Trickles of dirt rained down wherever Rag’s ginger head brushed the ceiling.
She shook her head frantically, digging in her heels. “I’ll go back; I’ll go the other way.”
“There’s no time,” Remi reminded her, gripping the smaller woman by both shoulders as they came to a halt at the rear of the group. “Lucifer is waiting, in who knows what kind of trouble, and he’s going to be so relieved to see you not wanting to string him up by his balls.”
Despite her terror, Mags choked on a laugh at the thought. “I could never really hurt him.”
“Yeah.” Remi smiled tightly. “We know that, but he doesn’t need to.”
“Remi,” Camiel called back to them, and they blinked in surprise at how far behind they had fallen. “Bal says we’re almost there.”
“Hear that? Light at the end of the tunnel, babe.”
Mags smiled faintly and realized her frantically pounding heartbeat had slowed to a slightly elevated thrum. “That’s usually not a good thing.”
“Semantics,” Remi grinned. “Now come on, we have a Devil to save.”
Minutes later they reached the end, where a gleaming Rift stretched across the path.
One by one they stepped into it, slightly dusty but otherwise intact, and stepped out into a scene from a horror movie.
They arrived in an alley across from a lot where a heavily charred building sat in the relative center, blackened and damaged and listing slightly to one side in the marshy soup of waterlogged grass.
“What happened here?” Mags frowned, brows knitting together in concern.
“This can’t be Foster’s apartment?” Rag wondered, and Judas made a strangled sound.
“It was,” he sighed. “I’ve been here once or twice to hang out.”
Sachiel whistled, long and low. “Something real bad happened here, I can feel it.”
His wife nodded, wrapping her arms around herself. “There’s malicious energy here.”
“We were called for a reason,” Bal said, a grim look etched on his handsome face. “I didn’t really think we’d be coming to a welcoming sight.”
“But if he needs us, where is Luce?” Remi demanded.
A crackle of energy swept over them as though Remi had spoken it into existence.
Like birds drawn to a homing beacon, seven heads snapped upwards in unison—just as a vibrant wash of white light came blasting out of an upper floor window like a bomb, until it crashed into a barrier of power that contained and dissipated it.
“He was prepared for the worst,” Bal murmured, crossing the street with the rest following like lemmings. They all hesitated at the edge of the property, as if they weren’t sure they could cross the barrier.
“Luce,” Mags breathed out quietly, and Bal took another step forward. Another violent shock rocked the earth, knocking him on his rear, and Glory hurried to help him up as a strange sound began emanating from the ruined structure.
One moment it was a subtle patter, like a few stray stones had been kicked down a flight of stairs. And then with a loud groan and a sudden shake, the walls crashed down.