Hell's Gift (30 page)

Something was definitely wrong, she thought. Troy had never been that formal with her.

She was either in big trouble or Rhyan had failed. Troy’s composure was beginning to crack. She could see the tattered edges he was desperately trying to hide from her, but she wouldn’t make the gentle giant tell her something so important.

She took in a shaky breath and then let it all rush out in a loud exhale. “Let us go then. Whatever it is must be pretty significant to take me away from my post.”

The corner of Troy’s mouth turned up in a half smile and he offered her the crook of his arm.

On a sigh, she walked to the almost seven foot tall angel and took the offering before returning to Heaven as ordered.

~ ~ ~

Troy put his palm on the knob of the door, but instead of turning the gold in his hand, he held it in place and took a breath.

“Troy?”

He didn’t look at her. “I suppose ye ken this isnae good news, lass.”

“Well, I didn’t think Isaiah would order a meeting because he missed me,” she said, and Troy shot her a sour look. “Sorry, yeah, I get it’s bad news. I’m only trying to stay upbeat about it so I don’t fall apart on you.”

He let go of the door knob and grabbed her in a big, friendly hug. “We’ll find a wie tae fix this, Jossel.”

She relaxed in the comfort of his big arms and let the first tear fall. She was only mildly surprised when the warm drop ran over her nose and didn’t disappear as it soaked through his shirt.

The door of the Council chambers opened and Josselyn looked up in surprise.

There was a young boy standing just inside; his hand rested on the outside knob as Troy’s had been only moments before. His eyes were scrutinizing as it examined their embrace, then he finally looked up to meet Troy’s equally bitter gaze. “What took you so long? The head guardians are waiting for her.”

Troy didn’t bother answering the kid; he took Josselyn’s hand and led her into Council.

“Come in, guests, and take a seat.”

Josselyn knew there would be sixteen archangels filling the thrones behind the massive table thirty feet in front of her. Counting their heads wasn’t necessary, but she found focusing on something as simple as that helped her stay grounded.

Troy pulled a chair out for her in front of the line of Council and she sat. Isaiah was fourth from the left. She’d found his sad face when she’d counted a moment earlier. She wanted to weep for Rhyan. She’d thought he had been doing so well, and she didn’t want to hear he had failed, but knew there was no other reason for her summon.

“Isaiah felt it imperative you be brought into the conversation and told about the recent events,” Gabriella said as she looked down at Josselyn. “Honestly, I don’t see the point, but who am I to judge—”

“Gabriella,” Geoffrey chaffed with a slight smile. “Isaiah says the girl is important to the case. We should not suggest otherwise. Perhaps she could be of some help.”

Help?
Josselyn thought.
They think I can help Rhyan?
She jumped quickly to her feet. “I will help Rhyan. Just tell me what I need to do.”

“Rhyan is not our concern,” Alexandra responded. “Sit down, girl.”

Josselyn sat as swiftly as she’d stood, her mind racing in a million different directions.
The meeting wasn’t about Rhyan? So, he was okay?
She looked up to meet Isaiah’s stare and he lowered his head. She could feel the sadness radiating from his very soul and wanted to scream out for someone to talk to her, to tell her what had happened.

It was then that she realized the guardian angel of the male she worried about wasn’t present. “Malcolm,” she muttered incoherently, and felt Troy’s big hand slip into hers. “Where is Malcolm?”

Isaiah stood slowly and rubbed his hands over his shirt in a nervous gesture.

He wasn’t looking at her and that made her very uncomfortable. “Isaiah, tell me…” She stopped to take a deep breath and battle her blurry vision as the fresh tears were obstructing her sight from the archangel. “Where is Malcolm?”

“I do not know of his whereabouts, Josselyn. He was possessed by a demon while the portal was open. The exorcism was successful, but the demon stole Malcolm’s soul and—”

“What?” She shook her head and tried to wrap her mind around how a soul could be stolen, let alone an angel’s pure soul.

“I’m sorry, child. He knew Heaven would be at great risk if he stayed here, where Lucifer could locate him. He stopped only long enough to pass Rhyan’s link to me.”

Trying desperately to understand, Josselyn finally shook her head. “You’re Rhyan’s guardian angel now, and you have no idea where Malcolm has gone. That’s what you are saying, right?”

He hesitated for only a moment, then finally answered. “Yes.”

Josselyn studied the whole Council a moment more, realizing there was nothing they were intending to do about Malcolm’s condition. Most of them appeared to even think it humorous. She shot to her feet and started back up the aisle, with Troy right on her heels.

“Whaur are ye gaun?” Troy asked as he caught up with her. “Ye havenae been dismissed yet, Josselyn. We cannae just walk oot o’ Council.”

“Then stay here and get your dismissal, Troy. I’m not really that concerned about what is proper right now.” She grabbed the door knob and let herself out of the big room.

Chapter 38

Rhyan

“What is that?” Phoebe asked, and I looked in the direction she was pointing, but there was nothing to be seen.

I shook my head and handed her the half empty canteen. “There is nothing there. The syde is playing tricks on your mind. Stay hydrated.”

She took a small sip and handed it back. “I don’t suppose there were any envious people in the world. We haven’t seen anybody since we arrived here. How are we supposed to get out? The opposite of envy is to not be envious, right? There is absolutely nothing here to be envious about. I damn sure don’t envy you. That sunburn is going to hurt like a bitch later.”

“Sloth was like this, too. The only thing I can think is they don’t want to chance anyone helping me.”

She nodded in agreement. “You were right, back there—in my syde. They warned me not to talk to you or they would take all my possessions from me. What I have isn’t much, but it’s all I have. I guess I thought having a decent conversation with a sane person was more important. Hell, maybe I was meant to help you so you could help me.” She cleared her throat and averted her gaze, clearly embarrassed. “I’m just saying I am grateful for your help getting me out of there—that’s all.”

I smiled. That had to have been hard for her to say. Being polite wasn’t exactly a requirement in Hell. “I’m grateful, too, Phoebe. I would have probably already lost a life by now and returned to Gluttony with no recollection of what I’d already been through. Thank you for helping me, too.”

She nodded, but didn’t look at me. She had grabbed her pack and was rummaging through the contents. I had a feeling her eyes had gone misty and she didn’t want me to see.

Something was telling me to look up, across the hard, packed dirt of the desert floor. There was a man standing, unarmed, about thirty yards away.

“Phoebe,” I whispered. “Do you see that?”

She looked up from her pack to me, then to the direction I was looking in. “Yeah, I see a man drabbed in a dark gray cloak. Is that what you see?”

“Fallis.”

“Huh?”

“He is the prince of this syde, and he has my object.”

“What object would that be? I don’t think talking to him is a very smart move on our part.”

I shook my head. “It’s not you he wants to talk to. Lucifer agreed to give me an object in each syde to help me on my quest through it. I have to collect my objects from his royalty or I get nothing. I can’t imagine it will be much; I only received a match in the last syde. He isn’t exactly happy with me.”

“I can’t imagine why. You drop in here from Heaven and steal his girlfriend—”

I shot her a nasty look. “She’s my wife!”

She shrugged as she glared across the desert at Prince Fallis. “She very well may be, but he only sees that you are trying to take away what is his. He has no intention of you getting her back, either. He only agreed to this game to prove nobody can escape Hell, not even the holy.”

“You’re not giving up already, are you?”

“Absolutely not. I believe it’s possible to get out. You’ve proven that much by getting through three of his sydes, but if you think he’ll play by the rules you are severely underestimating him. I don’t think any object he will give you from here on out will help you in the least. He gave you one match in the Syde of Pride. You would have had to stay immobile for that to have been any help to you, which would have made it a hindrance, really.”

I agreed with a slight nod when she looked at me, but I just couldn’t walk away and leave it. It was possible the object would prove to be very important. And just because it might be useless to me in this syde didn’t mean it would be in another. I had items on me that had been useful in more than one syde.

I had to get it.

“You’re going to get it?” she asked in disbelief as I walked away from her in the direction of Prince Fallis.

“I am. You wanna come? Doubt he brought you anything, but you might get lucky.” I glanced back at her with a smile on my face and watched as she took the blade from her pack. I raised an eyebrow in interest. “Do you actually think you can defend yourself against a demon prince with that?”

“You think he’s here to make friends?”

I lost my smile. She was right. Velan had been sent on orders to kill me. There was nothing in the contract saying they had to make it easy for me to get through Hell, and losing a life was not an option. I reached behind me to draw my spear from the makeshift pack and rolled my eyes when she giggled.

Fallis made no move to attack as we approached him, but I wasn’t letting my guard down, and from the look of Phoebe’s offensive stance, she wasn’t either.

“Relax,” the fiend prince said. “I truly mean you no physical harm.”

The wind began to pick up a bit, blowing dust harshly against my skin and in my eyes. I brought my hand up to shield them and block any further debris, but when the breeze calmed enough for me to look at Phoebe, she wasn’t there.

“Phoebe?” I began to panic. “Phoebe!”

“Calm down, angel,” Fallis said. “She is just there.” He pointed behind me and I looked to see her walking away from me as if in a daze.

I began to run after her, but Fallis was suddenly in front of me with his hand out. I had no time to stop, and my chest met his palm with great force. The demon didn’t budge, but my body flipped up into the air and I landed flat of my back as if I had been clothes-lined.

It took me a few moments to catch my breath, but I didn’t waste any time getting to my feet and running after her again. “Phoebe,” I choked out, but she didn’t turn. She had even let her pack fall from her back and was walking on without it.

I grabbed it up in my race to her and slung it on my back with my own, but when I looked back to where she’d been, she was gone. I stopped and frantically looked around me. I finally spotted her behind me, twice the distance of what she had been only a moment before.

“Phoebe, stop! Don’t let them win!” I screamed, but she didn’t even acknowledge that she had heard anything. I started running after her again, but it appeared that the faster I ran, the farther away she got from me. It all seemed to move in slow motion. She was twenty feet away, then thirty, then fifty. I stopped and bent at the waist, dragging in breath after breath of hot, dusty, unsatisfying air. I looked up to see she was only a small blur in my vision.

“Dammit!” I kicked at the ground and realized the feeling had come back full-force in my blistered feet.

Jesus, where is Malcolm?
I thought, then stood upright and turned to face Fallis.

What I saw nearly took my breath away. Fallis was there, but the desert no longer was. It was Heaven. The bright, vivid colors of the ground, water and sky were there before me, only a few feet away. All I had to do was take a big step and I could drop to my knees on the soft, green grass. I could hear the birds singing and see the smiles on every face present.

I watched as Josselyn and Malcolm stepped, hand and hand, from behind the great fountain in west courtyard. I realized in that moment that had been his problem with me. She had confessed to being in love with me and Malcolm had been in love with her the whole time. I could feel the smile stretch across my face. They looked perfect together.

I was just about to take a step forward when my heart stopped and I froze. It was Abbi. She was there, in Heaven, with all my friends and loved ones.

“Your object, angel.”

I pried my eyes away from my wife’s excited expression at seeing me. I wanted to run and take her in my arms, but this demon was rudely interrupting my plans. Ripping his arms off and beating him to death with them was on my mind when I finally looked back to him.

“What?” I snapped.

He gestured behind me and I turned back to the vast desert to see a blue door.

“It’s the door to the next syde, angel. You may enter it now. I will do nothing to stop you from your wishes.”

Was going through the door what I wished for still? I thought. I knew I needed to, but I couldn’t think of one solid reason to back up or support the thought. Everything I had ever wanted was already there with me.

I saw movement off in the distance to the right of the door. It looked like a female just standing there, lost maybe, but the blinding light from the suns was in my eyes, so I couldn’t be sure if it was an enemy or ally. It didn’t matter who it was, Abbi and my friends were waiting for me. Everyone important to me was only a few feet away.

Putting the desert at my back again, I smiled at my wife. I was home.

“Angel? Do you not wish to continue your quest? You have a mission to complete. Remember? Do you give up your quest to stay here?”

My quest is complete. I am finished. I can stop here and be happy for all eternity with my wife and friends in Heaven. It’s what I deserve after all I’ve been through.