Page 41 (2/2)

"His real about hell on Earth?"

"Stupid!" Nadia’s voice broke "Hoas I so stupid? I should’ve seen it before The road has three sections--but I never learned about it as a road I learned about the three barriers between the One Beneath and our world First He would have to break the boundaries of hell Then He would have to create a bridge between His world and ours Finally, He’d break through to our world andend it"

Verlaine and Mateo exchanged glances Even herfear within the about the way she stood, the determination on her face, even the way she now stepped in front of them both, made it clear that no doubt remained "That’s what Elizabeth did at the Halloween carnival She broke the boundaries of hell She co all these people, keeping the thee for the One Beneath"

Verlaine shuddered as Mateo repeated, "Hell on Earth"

14

AFTER THEY LEFT VERLAINE AT THE HOSPITAL, MATEO had a crash course on the apocalypse

He went ho there while her father and brother were out, so they could skip the fake sht to her attic Nadia quickly found the symbol in Goodwife Hale’s Book of Shadows and showed him the notes in her own that talked about the three barriers that stood between the world he knew and, as he put it, "total Ghostbusters-style, dogs-and-cats-living-together, eddon"

"Pretty much" Nadia had yanked her hair back in a ponytail, her eyes blazing with an energy that was part anger, part adrenaline "It never occurred to ht it was so even a Sorceress would want They draw their power fro the barriersto die if it means she takes the whole world with her"

Mateo nodded He knehat he had to do, no matter how much it horrified hi to die, well, thataround in the jar of Hershey’s Miniatures that sat in a roith her witchcraft supplies "Makes what easier?"

"Going after her" Though he tried to say the words like it was a foregone conclusion, he knew he didn’t quiteher"

For a moment Nadia didn’t answer hi at his face like she’d never seen hiht die as a result of her ownabout that"