Page 6 of Infernal

“I can make the pain go away,” he insisted, his voice barely above a whisper, and I knew he was right.

Hecouldmake me feel better, and for a second, I seriously contemplated it. But I knew that taking the easy way out—escaping into Dominic and leaving this unbearable pain and darkness behind me—was only a temporary fix. It would not heal the hurt inside of me, and when it was over, it would only bring me closer to Dominic and farther away from Trace. And that was something I couldn’t allow to happen.

No matter how tempting the escape was.

No matter how much the bloodbond begged me for it.

“Just get out of my way,” I said, my voice shaky as I forced my way around him.

His raised his palms to me, expressing his innocent indifference, but the dark glint in his eyes said otherwise. There was nothing innocent about that man, and everyone in the room knew it. “I’m only trying to help you, love.”

“I don’t need that kind of help.”

His eyes narrowed. “You should know by now that pushing me away is only going to make it worse for you,” he warned, but I chose to ignore him entirely.

I had no other choice.

Instead, I turned to Gabriel. Sobering, constant Gabriel. I could always rely on him to put me back in the game. “How do I get him back? Tell me everything you know about Lucifer’s vessel.” If I had any hope of finding Trace and stopping this so-called apocalypse, I was going to need a major crash course in all things Lucifer.

“I wish there was a simple answer,” he said as he ran a hand through his ebony hair and took a small step towards me. “I’ve read the Scripture front to back more times than I care to remember, and while there’s always been plenty of information about the apocalypse, there’s never been anything about the vessel or the soul that previously occupied it.”

Previously? I swallowed a mouthful of blades. I couldn’t stomach hearing him speak about Trace in the past-tense—as though he were merely just some vehicle for the Devil.

As though he didn’t even exist anymore…

“You have to understand, there is no precedence for this,” he continued.

“I don’t need to be reminded.” I was well aware of the fact that I was the one and only village idiot to release Lucifer from his tomb. “I just need to know how to get him back.”

His expression pinched. “I’m not entirely sure that’s possible, Jemma. There might not be anything there to bring back.”

“Come again?” I said, nearly choking on my own breath. “Are you saying he might not be alive?”

“It’s hard to say one way or the other. As far as I can understand, Lucifer should have full control over Trace’s body—much like a typical demon possession. But make no mistake, this is not a typical demon possession.IfTrace is somehow still in there, it won’t be long before Lucifer takes over completely and eliminates the link entirely.”

IfTrace was still in there?

His words replayed in my mind like the music score to a Shakespearean tragedy. I decided I wasn’t going to focus on the big, fatif. I was going to dig through the smothering darkness and hold onto that tiny fragment of light. “But there is a chance he’s still in there, right?”

I mean, it wasn’t as if he was just some run of the mill mortal. He was a Descendant of Angels—a Reaper for crying out loud. That had to mean something. It had to.

“Theoretically, yes. But not a very good chance, and that’s assuming they’ve translated the texts correctly.”

That was good enough for me. There was only one thing I needed to know now: “How do I kill him?”

Gabriel’s shoulder’s slumped at my question.

“Thereisa way to kill him, right?”

“Yes,” he said, but the hopeless look never left his face.

“Then what is it?” I pushed.

His eyes skirted away for a moment before meeting mine again. “I don’t know that we can kill one without killing the other.”

The air thinned in the room as I shook my head at his words.

No. Nope. Just no! That couldn’t be the end of it. There had to be another way…

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