Page 86 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“Best to keep out of sight. I agree.”

“Where are you?” he asked, and oh, boy, wasn’t that a long story.

“I’m either in the Middle East or Northern Africa. Connor was captured by a demon named Kimaris.”

“Kimaris? Why do I know that name?”

“I guess he’s sort of a bigwig in Hell. They’ve got Connor trapped in a black salt cell—did you know black salt can hurt, even kill a hellhound?”

His face dropped as he raked his hand through his ethereal hair. “I had no idea. Shit, it’s a good thing?—”

A huge explosion ripped through the air and a hand grabbed my arm. I couldn’t tell if I was asleep or awake until Shafira's wild eyes met mine. “Run,” she whisper-shouted. Definitely awake. Bricks from the wall, ceiling, and roof partially blocked the gaping hole in the side of her home. Shafira yanked hard on my hand to help me up after I stumbled when rubble shifted and slid under my feet. We paused only long enough to get a bearing, then she and I ran, dodging behind buildings and at one point under a truck so as not to be seen.

Demon attack? Mortal attack? At this point, neither of us knew. Men could kill us just as easily as demons. Bullets worked just as well as magic. I opened my senses to find us a portal to escape through.

A giant dust cloud plumed into the nighttime sky above where her home had been. Her home? Dammit.

“I think we’d be safer in Hades,” Shafira teased with sadness, but she wasn’t wrong, and that got me thinking.

“The portal I came in through is lost to us now. I don’t remember exactly which building I left and it’s too dangerous to go back into the city to look.”

“I’ll keep an eye out. You find us a portal if you think one is close by.”

“Oh, I have no doubt.”

I opened up my senses, feeling the power radiate away from my body like fingers reaching for the empty space in front of us as we walked. It was nighttime and we were in a desert, but a niggling feeling kept telling me we were heading east.

Just as the sun started to peek above the horizon line, we stumbled into a ghost town, one of those places that years ago held a population, but they’d all left now. The moment we stepped into town, I felt the portal draw me to it.

“Over there.” I pointed to a partially crumbling building on the perimeter of the town. “It’s inside. I feel it.”

“Lead the way,” Shafira offered, and I did. We ran along the perimeter of the town to the building in question. The pull of the portal grew stronger with every step. “I feel it too,” she said.

Shafira had to have power running through her because as I’d learned during my first encounter with one, most witches didn’t feel a portal. She wasn’t a Lilium, though. She reminded me of Agatha.

Once we reached the building, I felt around the ground finding a stone, I picked it up throwing it inside. We listened as itskittered along the floor, and then we waited a bit longer to make sure no one came to check on the noise. When no one did, we walked inside. The portal opened right up for us. We never even had to search for it. Shafira gripped the back of my shirt as we descended the stone stairs. She gasped at the red, glowing walls. Having recuperated well enough, I cloaked us near the bottom step. When we emerged, it was business as usual.

“Keep hold,” I whispered to her, and I felt her give my shirt a tug in the affirmative. The demons working around us looked terribly unhappy. The offices looked exactly like what one expected offices in Hades to look like. I felt like I’d been through this office before. And then it hit me. Connor had navigated us through here once. This office belonged to Satan. It had to. Where had Luc said Satan ruled? Well, I wouldn’t dare speak until we cleared this place.

My current partner in crime picked up on my cues and stayed completely silent. But hey—plus side, I remembered how to maneuver us through this nasty quadrant. If I turned us left at this hallway…Holynowway! I did it! I got us to the stairwell that led down into the catacombs.

And the air grew damper, smelling stronger of sulfuric, rotten eggs with each step down, but I confess, I jumped up and down once we reached the bottom.

“We’re here,” I whisper-shouted. “This is the catacombs.”

“This place is horrible. It smells.”

“I know. But at least we found it. So where did you live? Hades has quadrants. If I remember correctly, Satan’s quadrant is Africa—and that office building we passed through belonged to Satan.”

“I don’t live in Africa. Couldn’t you tell by the surroundings?” she asked and I sort of shrugged in embarrassment.

“I’m not really familiar with this area of the world. When I first saw you, I thought you were Egyptian.”

“I amnotEgyptian. I’m Iraqi.”

Crap!Could I have been more insensitive? Not to say there was anything wrong with being Egyptian. But they’d originated from completely different peoples. Now that I knew where we were, something about this bothered me. Iraq was located in the Middle East—the Middle East was located in Western Asia. What demon ruled Asia? I thought about it, and then I thought some more.

This made no sense. At least not when I remembered who ruled Asia. Beelzebub. He ruled Asia. Gluttony. Gluttony in this quadrant? Nope. I was getting nothing. It didn’t fit Iraq, or many of these Middle Eastern countries. So much fighting. Baghdad had once been one of the most beautiful cities in the world. So… it hit me. Luc once told me that several of the big seven continuously fought for control over quadrants. What if Satan had taken over that section of the quadrant? Wrath. How much more wrath could you get?

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