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"Corine!" Booke rapped sharply on the door
"I’ht," I answered
By the ti "Is this some residual sickness from your trip to Sheol? I’ve never known anyone entand returned"
"Gods, I never thought of that" Maybe I’d caught so have you been ill?"
"A day or so I’ a hand, I dismissed the concern in his eyes
He didn’t like it but he let e the subject "You were about to tella breath to brace, I related the gist of events since I’d talked to him last: how demons had kidnapped Shannon to draw me into a trap, at which point I followed her to Sheol, and a latent deed a coup in hell, and then it all went sideways My throat was hoarse by the ti back tears when I concluded hat happened to Chance Shan had ht before, but she hadn’t provided context I ended with, "And nowI think I burned it out with de that for anything but sus"
While it was true that I still had Soloood idea to suht have dreadful consequences, to say nothing of the cost to my soul But if Booke asked that of me, wellat this point, what did it matter? He’d helped ive back Justnot like this I had soick, but I couldn’t use deick to break the curse; I could only summon
"That’s a potential solution," he said, after a long pause I could see he eighing the cost toincarceration
But it wasn’t the price Hell, other practitioners already thought I was a black witch What was one more deal with a demon to help a friend?
"I have a contact, but I’d rather not call her, as she tends towell, devour people’s souls"
Unfortunately, I didn’t have Maury’s true name, or I could summon him to make a deal But I didn’t know if he had the power to break the spell, and I was unclear on what kind of energy his mate, Duy, but what about spells? It seemed like a bad idea to summon her until I did a little research Fortunately, Booke had an iertips
"Take your time It’s rather nice to have company after all these years"
"You don’t ?"
"Help yourself Are you hungry?"
"Not really"
"You should eat" Now he sounded how I ione to Sheol in ht my father abandoned my mother and me Instead, he went to the demon realm in my place to protect me from the demons anted to useto make the ultimate soulstone from the Solomon line; with it, they would’ve had the power to use it to open the gate to this world repeatedly No liained for e
That was another loss, so e Kel--a fast-healing, super-strong Nephilim who claimed to be God’s Hand--had said I was destined to be "important," and I didn’t want that either On two separate occasions, his archangel had assigned hiuard me, which meant the boss intended to use me in some spectacular fashion There was only one future for ain
"Later," I pro into the office
The room was clean, despite the clutterno dust anywhere I iined Booke had plenty of time for household chores You could only read, pace, sleep, and eat so often No wonder he was on the co for a chat or chess irl had been worth it
Hours passed while I dug through his library He had obscure spell books, to treatises, whole volumes dedicated to various herbs Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything helpful According to the clock, it was lateby the ti," she said in greeting
"Try it here by the desk Stand on this side of the sigils I think you should be able to call Jesse"
It made sense that Booke would’ve selected this spot to i contact with the modern world Otherwise, he would have to cast a spell each time he wanted to make a call or use the Internet
She stepped over the symbols on the floor "Hey, two bars Cool! Is this crazy or what?"
"I alondered what his deal was, but this? I didn’t guess this I thought he "
Shan nodded "Me too I alondered if he was young or cute I thought hefor you"
"Nah He was just lonely Dunno if you noticed, but he was just as happy to talk to you or Chuch or pretty h I don’t kno he’s not coine spending ten years alone, talking to yourself?"
She shivered "Don’t even joke Uh We’re not stuck here, are we? Jesse is gonna think this is the hed despite myself "No Even if I can’t shatter the spell, Booke can weaken the barrier enough to let us out, like he did so we could come in"