Page 59 of Death Trap

She stared at me in disbelief. “Not to bring Tamara back, I hope.”

I hadn’t planned any more rescue missions. “No…”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Marla let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll be the first one to tell you she needs to stay there.”

“Speaking of, I was hoping I’d find you here. I wanted to see if you had any spells that could help me get through this in one piece. A protection spell powerful enough to work in Hell? Maybe a location one, too? I need to find the reaper who I replaced. He’s also not in the soul database, so I’m pretty sure he was sent to Hell for some reason.”

Marla opened her mouth but clamped it shut again, looking disappointed. “I was about to say yes, absolutely, but I forgot I was…you know, dead. That kind of throws a wrench in things.”

“But a supernatural’s powers crosses over with them,” I said.

Marla held out her palm, and within seconds, a grapefruit-sized fireball appeared out of thin air. The same feat had been a challenge for Laurence, since it was level two magic and he was still on level one. But for Marla, an accomplished and powerful level three, conjuring a fireball was nothing.

“You’re right. It does transfer over, but my books don’t. My ingredients, herbs, spices, and crystals don’t. All those magical items I would need to perform my most powerful spells. I can do a simple chant for a safe journey and maybe something for clarity or persuasion, but I doubt they’ll be strong enough to carry over into Hell, which is densely saturated with dark magic and who knows what.”

“Well, I’ll take all I can get. Just in case,” I replied.

Marla tapped her chin, thinking. “Unless…”

Uh-oh. “Unless what?”

“Unless you could get to my shop and ask Arianna,” she said. “She’ll know exactly what to do.”

“Arianna?”

“My niece. The one I told you about to help your sorcerer friend?”

Oh, so that was her name. I probably should have asked that sooner.

“Right,” I said, trying to recover.

“That’s your best bet. Go to Divine Magic and talk to Arianna. Tell her the truth about who you are. Don’t lie like you did to me.” She lifted her brow, likely to tell me she was still a little bitter about that fact. “Tell her I sent you. If she needs more proof—and knowing her, she will—tell her rubber duckie.”

“Rubber who now?”

“Rubber duckie,” Marla repeated with a sad smile. “It was our little inside joke growing up. She’ll know I sent you if you say it.”

I sighed, rubbed a hand over my face. Did I go back to the living world and risk running into another Halfling? Worse yet, did I go and risk Eli finding me again? If he did, I’d never get back to Hell to fulfill my side of the deal, and that could cost me more than an angel lecture.

Going back into the pit to find Benjamin meant I’d need all the help I could get. Without Eli or my gun, I would need extra protection. It looked like I had no choice but to visit Marla’s niece at her shop.

The next issue was how I was going to be able to interact with her. I hadn’t zapped back into solid, living form since the fight with Xaver, and my guess was that was because I hadn’t used my light power since then. One seemed to trigger the other.

So that meant that if I wanted to become “alive” again, I would need to unleash my power. That meant I would have to deal with a good bit of pain—and maybe another fainting episode before that.

This was going to suck.

“Okay, I’ll go,” I told Marla. “Thank you for the advice.”

“I just wish I could help you more. I hate not having full access to my power anymore. It’s degrading.”

I could see why she would feel that way.

But now, how was I going to handle the little problem of Eli?

“You know what, Marla? There may be a way you can help me,” I started. “You see, there’s a man in my apartment—”

“Oooh?” Her face instantly lit up, eyes sparkling with mischief.

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