Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
“Okay.” Kristy gets a distant look in her eye, and she nods, curling her lips in over her teeth. A few seconds pass and then she looks at me again. “What do we do? The gang’s all here.” Her lips curve into a half smile. “We’re ready to help.”
Fuck, I’m so grateful for my friends. “I need to get to the Underworld. That’s step number one. Then I’ll, uh…honestly, I gotta suss things out when I’m there.”
Kristy reaches out, softly running her finger over Juliet’s little fist. “You said Lucifer used to visit you in your dreams, but it was actually more you projecting to him, right?”
I nod. “Yeah. It just looked like we were in my house because I didn’t know how to project the surroundings of Hell.”
“And Paimon is able to astral project out of Hell, even though the doors are shut.”
Our eyes meet and now I’m smiling. “If I can figure out where to go, I can astral project to Osiris.”
“It would be a hell of a lot safer than actual Hell.”
“You up for some research then?” I raise my eyebrows.
Kristy puts her hand on top of mine. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter
Four
“Thanks, Devin,” I say when the Academy librarian brings another stack of books to the table.
“No problem.” He steps back, eyeing us curiously, but doesn’t ask. Most of the coven knows I’m a nephilim, and I’m positive everyone knows I’m married to a vampire. I’m a member of the coven though, and we have a mutual respect for each other even though more than one member has made it clear it’s wrong for a witch to marry a vampire.
If only they knew there were two vampires in the Covenstead at the moment. Eliza is up in the room, unable to walk around during the day. There are a select few rooms with enchanted windows for Lucas’s sake, but there’s no way we could make the whole place vampire-safe.
And the vampire in the basement housing a demonic spirit…yeah. The less people who know about that the better.
“I think this is everything we have about Osiris and the Underworld. It’s not a popular subject,” he says almost apologetically.
“It is considered ancient magic,” Naomi notes. “Which is a shame. Some of these spells are delightfully violent.”
“Stop looking at resurrections spells,” Nicole, her twin, hisses. “You know how that went last time.”
“I think this is one of those things I don’t want to know,” Devin says.
“You really don’t,” I reply, though right now, slaughtering a horde of zombies sounds like a good way to channel my anger. “What about portals?” I ask and Devin stiffens, cheeks reddening a bit.
“What about them?”
“Do you have any books that mention a portal, say to, oh…ya know…Hell?”
Devin raises an eyebrow. “Not that I’m familiar with. Mrs. O’Hara will be back this evening. She might know.”
“I’ll ask. Thanks again.”
“No problem. Glad I could help with…” He eyes all the books spread out on the table. “…whatever you’re looking for.”
“I feel bad lying,” Kristy whispers when Devin goes to help some students find books on potion mixing.
“I don’t,” Naomi says without looking up from her book. “It’s almost a privilege at this point to live in ignorant bliss.”
“Yeah, well, it won’t be bliss for long if we can’t figure out a way to get to the Underworld,” I grumble and pick up another book. “Julian said something about an oracle, but he made it seem like an object, not a person, so I have no fucking clue what it could be.”
“Language,” Kristy chides, raising her eyebrows.
“Juliet isn’t here,” I remind her. “And she’s too little to understand anyway.”
“I meant the students.”
“Oh, right.” I stretch my arms up over my head and lean back. Great. This book is in Latin. And our best Latin speaker is trapped in the Underworld wearing a very unflattering brown robe that I can’t wait to strip off of him. Panic starts to rise in my chest and I quickly squash it down. I don’t have time for a freakout right now.
I flip through the pages of the book in front of me, not understanding what is written but instead looking at the few and far between sketches, hoping something sticks out to me.
“Didn’t Lucas have a lead on…on something?” Kristy asks, looking up from a large book that smells like mothballs. “About the torn corner of the scroll, maybe?”
“Um, yeah, someone at the American Research Center in Egypt,” I say, thinking back. “He was going to make some calls or send emails or both and I…I don’t know where things are standing with that.”
I blink and realize I don’t know where Lucas’s phone is. Did he have it in his pocket? If he did, does Hell get reception? And if it did and I called, would he answer?
“I’ve been through this one before,” Evander mumbles, moving a book to the center of the table. “And this one.”