Gates of Death

by Rae Foxx

  She nodded. "I know all this."

  "The problem is that we don't know if she's human. Or, purely human at least. If she's mostly human or has a human body, she will have to live on Earth when we get her back. Human bodies don't survive the entrance to Abaddon."

  "I wondered about that," she said. "You want me to raise her?"

  "Yes and no. Originally, I planned to let a human family raise her, but she's too vulnerable for that. I would like to have you live with her, yes. One or more of us would be around as much as possible, but we have duties to perform. There might be times none of us could be around."

  Mary stood and walked over to her counter to an electric kettle. "Tea?" she offered.

  "Sure, thanks." She put bags in two mugs and poured hot water over them.

  A container of honey sat in a decorative glass in the middle of her table. I helped myself when she put the mug in front of me.

  "I will help your daughter. When you find her, and if she must remain on Earth. If the need arises while she’s here." She sipped her tea as if what she'd said was nothing more than an observation on the weather.

  My heart soared. "Thank you," I whispered. "Truly, you are a blessing."

  "Are you planning on dying soon?" Mary asked with eyes far too shrewd.

  "I hope to," I said. "That will solve half our problem if Lucifer and I can return to Abaddon. We can make sure Raphael never opens the gates."

  She sipped her tea. "I have a lot to learn about the differences in the Fallen and the Angels."

  "They aren't so great, not really. We have different jobs to do, for sure, but we all want the same thing. For humans to have good lives and gain entrance to Heaven. And thanks to the Fallen, humans have the free will to choose their paths."

  "I still don't like demons," she said with a grumpy expression.

  I burst out laughing. "Truth be told, neither do I."

  When Lucifer finished setting up the game, we said our goodbyes. I told her human lawyers would be in touch when our bodies were found, though I wasn't sure how long it might take.

  We went straight to the lawyer Lucian always used and arranged our wills. He asked about the baby, and we told him we'd put her up for adoption and she'd been adopted already. His surprise was palpable, but as a professional, he didn't pry. By the afternoon, we had everything set up to leave to Mary.

  We returned home, desolate and feeling rather hopeless.

  I poked around the kitchen, bored out of my mind and trying not to think about how worried I was and how much I missed Ariel.

  My mind tried to conjure any possibilities of either finding my daughter or a way to return us to Abaddon, but I came up blank every time. I wanted to make sure Ariel was safe before returning, but that looked less and less likely as the hours passed.

  When the kitchen was spotless and a casserole was in the oven for dinner, I ambled into the living room to find Lucifer splayed out on the couch with his laptop open on his legs. "What are you doing?" I asked.

  "Looking online for any credible information about Relics. It's all fiction or incorrect, though." He shut the laptop and slid it onto the coffee table with a sigh. "It's all useless."

  Gabe and Michael came back just in time to eat the chicken casserole, of course. They loved when I cooked.

  "Anything at all?" I asked.

  They both shook their heads. "We've got the librarian helping, but there's so many books to go through, and it's not organized in Heaven like they are now on Earth, with keywords and an internet search."

  "You should make Heaven come into the technological age," Lucifer suggested, bringing a chuckle from everyone at the table. Most of the older angels were no better than older humans with technology. We'd embraced it together, my husbands and I, and learned as much as we could about it. It helped that Luc and I had an Earth cycle during the time the majority of society became technologically adept.

  Joel appeared without warning with an excited look on his face. "I found something," he said. "I was looking at the original book about the Fall.

  "What made you check that?" Luc asked. "Doesn't seem relevant."

  "But it is. The prophecy about you two, it's worded very specifically."

  "What do you mean?" I set down my fork and stared at him. "I know the prophecy well."

  It said that if Luc died, I died.

  "Do you?" he asked. "Do you know the specific words spoken?"

  I opened my mouth to say yes, but then I considered it. I hadn't been present when the prophecy was spoken. Only when God cursed us. "No, actually."

  "It specifically says you shall be bound together through eternity, living and dying together." He raised his eyebrows and held out his hands. "Together."

  "Yes," I said blankly. "We knew that. What of it?"

  Joel threw his hands up in exasperation. "You've always died after Luc, right?"

  I nodded. Never, in our many Earth cycles, had I ever died first.

  "I think that's a coincidence. I think you can kill yourself. It's known in Heaven that Luc has to die first. That's how the prophecy was handed down, but nobody read the original. It just says “together."

  Which meant if Raphael believed it had to be Luc, he hadn't cursed me. My jaw dropped. "We can kill me."

  Michael, Lucifer, and Gabriel's gazes all moved to me. "No," Gabe said. "What if it doesn't work?"

  Oh, geez. Their overprotective natures, of course. Nevermind that I was more powerful than two of them. "So? It didn't work on Luc, and he's fine."

  Lucifer shrugged. "True."

  Joel cleared his throat. "I gotta run. The trial for Uriel is starting, and Heaven is in an uproar. Good luck."

  He disappeared, leaving us staring at each other in amazement.

  "I have to die."

  17

  "Okay, all I have to do is release my magic," I said. "And Luc and I will return immediately to Abaddon."

  "Now hang on," Michael said. "Do we have all our loose ends tied up?"

  "Oh, wait." I'd forgotten to tell them about Mary. I explained what I'd worked out with the Voodoo Priestess. Luc had heard us discussing it and already knew. Michael and Gabriel were happy with the idea.

  "So, make sure the authorities find our bodies. I'm sure it'll be an aneurysm or something that gets me when I release my magic." They nodded.

  "We'll stay here until it's sorted, then return to Heaven," Michael said.

  "You need to go to Luc's lawyer's office as Adam and leave your property to Mary as well," I said. "And whatever you guys did with the body, put it back in the house."

  "What else?" Lucifer asked.

  "This needs to be timed right, but once we're there, we will be overwhelmed with things to do," I said. "If there's any way we can find Ariel first, that would be ideal."

  They agreed but stared at me at a loss. "What avenues haven't we explored, besides continuing to search the library?" Michael asked.

  Silence. None of us knew what to do.

  "What if we can sense her once we're in our ethereal bodies?" Luc asked. "Should we hurry and do it?"

  None of us had the answer, but we had to do something. "I think we've got everything tied up here on Earth, at least until we find Ariel."

  "Why didn't we think of this?" Lucifer asked. "I feel like such an idiot."

  Michael put his hand over his face. "Me, too."

  "I don't," Gabe said. "He's always died first. Why would we think otherwise? We focused on killing him, not you."

  "Well, I feel like a fool," I said. "It makes perfect sense that I could go first."

  I didn't fear dying. I'd done it many, many times. We needed to get home and set things right, anyway. I hate that I'll be parted from Gabe and Michael, but it was only temporary. I'd see them soon, the moment we set everything right in Abaddon.

  "Okay, so I'll just release my power." I stood and looked at my husbands. "Wait, let me do it in the bed so my body doesn't hit the ground." So distasteful. I'd never had to plan how my human body
would die before.

  They stood to follow me upstairs when Joel reappeared in the kitchen. "It's too late," he cried. "Raphael has appeared at the gates of Abaddon."

  "What?" We hadn't made it. "What did he do?"

  "I don't know. He's there now. And Lilith." Joel put his hand on my arm. "He has a little girl with him."

  I furrowed my brow. "He stole a little girl?"

  Joel shook his head. "We had an angel watching the gates." Angels could go into Purgatory, and the gates were visible from there. "He said the little girl looks just like you."

  My stomach dropped. How was that possible? "But she's only weeks old," I whispered. "Still an infant."

  Lucifer put his arm around me. "Sometimes, when creating realms, time moves differently. It could be that the one he created aged her faster there than here."

  Tears rolled down my cheeks. "We have to get to her." Waiting was no longer an option.

  I stepped away from everyone and lowered the protection that kept my magic from consuming my human body. As soon as I did, everything went dark. This part I was familiar with. It felt like I was being squeezed through a tight, dark tunnel. Almost like a birth would feel, I imagined.

  My nerves jangled as the process completed, and I was deposited just inside the gates, my true body filling with my power. I'd spent so long on Earth; my power was heightened. I hadn't felt this good since we first Fell.

  When I got my bearings, I realized the gates were open.

  Demons poured out of them and disappeared from view. The way the realm worked, as soon as they passed the barrier of the gate, they were transported to the Earth realm.

  Running forward, I stopped just in time to keep the portal from grabbing me and looked left and right. There was a small patch of ground outside the gates all the way around the realm that a Fallen could stand on without being moved to the Earth realm, though a demon wasn't strong enough to resist it.

  Raphael stood several feet away, grinning his head off.

  And holding a small girl with long black hair and big green eyes. I threw my power toward them as fast as I could, trying to use it to grab Ariel and bring her to me. Obviously, she was able to withstand the magic of this realm, or she would've been killed the moment Raphael took her to the gates.

  Just as my power neared her, Raphael disappeared. My magic snapped back to me as I screamed. They were gone, either to the Earth realm or to the one of Raphael's invention. I stood in the open gates and lashed out with my power. I grabbed the gates and yanked on them, but this wasn't my realm. Lucifer had been the one with enough temporary power during the Fall to create it. It only responded to his magic.

  "Stop!" I cried, using my magic to amplify my voice. It would be heard across the entire realm. "I command all demons to freeze. Do not go out this gate."

  They ignored me, running past me by the dozens to go out the enormous open space that should've been blocked by doors of obsidian.

  I tried again, putting more power in my voice. They should've listened to me immediately, without question. "Freeze!"

  My voice echoed across the realm, but the demons pouring past me didn't even flinch.

  As a last resort, I threw up a wall of my power to stop the demons from escaping. It wouldn't work for long, but Lucifer would be here any second. As I thought his name, he appeared at my side.

  "What happened?" He asked, disoriented, gaping at the demons snarling and snapping against the invisible wall. The transition from Earth to Abaddon had always been harder on him for some reason.

  "Raphael was here, and he had her. He had Ariel! She looked to be about two," I cried, brokenhearted that she'd been so close, and that I'd missed so much of her growth. She hadn't even noticed or acknowledged me. She had no idea who I was. The demons pushed against me as I strained to hold the wall. "I can't close the gates, Luc, do it!"

  He turned and lifted his arms, but nothing happened. The demons clobbered at my magical wall, ravenous to get past it. Demons loved nothing more than to antagonize or possess humans. I tried to be patient as he oriented himself, but I couldn't hold off the horde much longer. Hundreds of demons of all shapes and sizes battered me.

  "Lucifer!" I cried. "Do it!" A demon slipped past my wall and out the open gate.

  He dropped his hands and turned to me. "I can't," he whispered. "My magic isn't there."

  Thanks For Reading!

  Don’t worry… the next book is just days away, so one click your pre order and prepare yourself….

  Nothing is going to keep Lilith from her baby.

  Even the Devil.

  Check out all the Books By Rae Foxx

  Bloodwood Academy

  Year One: Shifter, Ivy’s Story

  Semester One

  Semester Two

  Semester Three

  Semester Four

  The Misfit Shifters

  Bloodwood year Two: Scarlet’s Story

  Zero Fox To Give

  For Fox Sake

  Fox Chance in Hell

  The Queen of Abaddon

  HellBorne World

  Birth of A Demon

  Gates of Death

  Blood Dawn

  Pirate Cove Academy

  Under

  Breathe

  Fire

  Wolf Pack Biker Boys

  Prick of the Knife

  Thrust of the Dagger

  Stab in the Back

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  About the Author

  Born and raised in Atlanta, Rae Foxx moved to Arizona when she reached adulthood. When Rae isn’t writing, she works part time at a Pilates studio. Her favorite spot is on the couch watching horror movies while sneaking cinnamon rolls. She’s endlessly searching for the perfect cup of coffee.

  Rae Foxx writes salty, sarcastic heroines and alluring men who love them. Her books revolve around paranormal and supernatural harems where a girl can have all the men and romance she wants.

  Adventure? Check. Romance? Check. Hot heroes? Double check.

  Oh, and Hufflepuff all the way.