Page 132 of Surrendering Hope (The Hope Legacy)

“Man boobs,” Zee says, looking down and making his pecs dance.

Jed quirks an eyebrow at Zee. “You have a great rack.”

“Oh, baby, you say the sweetest things to me,” Zee says, kissing the air. Jed returns it. Why me?

“Come on, Princess, let’s get our badass on,” I tell him.

Jed devours the last of the Panini. Will I get fed in Hell this time? Although I might not want to be. I have and haven’t connected the dots about what the next day is going to hold for me. Hell leaves a smudge on your soul, I hope I can disconnect enough to get through it unscathed. So long as they don’t throw my own family in my face again, I can manage anything else.

The five of us meet in the center. “You got this,” Duncan says.

“No, we’ve got this.”

Zee grins. “Hell yes! This god hasn’t even imagined all the fire we are going to rain down on his ass.”

“No fire for you, you’ve not had enough training,” Duncan says.

Zee huffs as Duncan continues. “Unless it’s life or death, then you can burn the world to the ground.”

He rubs his hands together. “Life or death?”

“Don’t fucking wish for it,” I mutter.

Jed snorts. “ Are you teleporting yourself?” he asks.

I blink at him. “It’s December.”

He tilts his head.

“In Seattle,” I add.

He squints at me like I’m a specimen. “It’s too cold to fight naked!”

They all chuckle. “Ride aboard the express train,” he says, reaching out to grab my hand and Zee’s. Poor Aaden gets dumped with Duncan’s teleporting.

We arrive in front of the warehouse, white puffs of air leaving our mouths, and the frosty ground shines like diamonds under the moonlight. Zee scans the building. “It’s dark and lifeless.”

“Maybe we are dealing with the ‘hide in the dark and surprise us’ type demons?” I say.

Jed chuckles. “Like a surprise birthday party?”

Duncan shakes his head. “Except we aren’t surprised, and it’s no one’s birthday.”

“It’s someone’s birthday,” I mutter.

He snaps his head to me. “Who’s?”

I shrug. “Someone in the world will have been born on this date, in fact a lot of someone’s.”

Duncan’s lips twitch. “In through the front door?” he asks.

War bangs on my mental shields. I roll my eyes.“We have the other entrances surrounded. Nobody has come in or out in the past thirty minutes.”Zac tells us. I guess the mental link is handier than a comms device.

“What’s the range on our comms?”I ask. I once contacted Archan when I was hurt. He was miles away.

“About one hundred yards,”Zac answers,“So if everything goes to plan we won’t be able to hear you butchering songs in hell.”

I store that nugget of information away for dissection later, the hundred yards, and Zac’s poor taste in singers. The metal hinges creak as Duncan pulls open the door, he steps inside followed by Aaden. Zee and Jed wait behind me.“The point is for me to get kidnapped,”I say.

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