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Chapter One

Ace

The screa sound, but hollowing it out, intensifying it

It was a familiar sound

A hellish sound

I tried not to let any sort of hope swell We'd been through this half a dozen times for the past year with no results

None of the spots ended up having enough energy left in them for Lenore to open up the Hellmouths like she'd been able to once before

The night we lost Red and soot stuck with the deeonly older brother

Since then, though, nothing

We'd traveled across the country, up into Canada, down into Mexico And while Lenore claiy she could sense, none of the spells she'd tried could break through the earth, open up way down into the depths of hell

So there we all were, standing in a deep canyon in Utah in thearound, or layers of clothing seemed like they could chase the chill away It had burrowed through ans, and was deep insensation

"Keep going," I de it when he thought I was getting pushy with his woman

The ground tre a few feet in front of Lenore, the earth cru down inside as the heat rose up I only barely resisted the urge to place ht with a campfire

Minos stood back froo back, that he was stuck on the hu a break from his misery

That was part of the reason we needed to get back so badly I'd already lost two ofI couldn't afford to lose Aram, Seven, Drex, and now Daemon and Bael

It seeer ere on Earth, the more susceptible we became to pesky human needs and desires

None of us ever could have known that, prepared for it, since there had never been any records of de stuck in the hu as we had Or if anyone had, they'd never made it back to hell to tell their stories

Who knehat the fuck could happen to us if we stayed another hundred years Two hundred