Page 30 of Saving the World and Other Bad Ideas (Grave Concerns 3)

Chapter Seven

Grant looked a bit more put together than he had the last time I’d seen him. He’d had his hair trimmed, his face shaved and he had no blood on his clothing.

It was sad thatthatwas an improvement.

The dark circles beneath his eyes said he still wasn’t sleeping well, but then again, neither was I.

“So, purgatory,” he said, as if that opened our conversation up.

I nodded. “It’s the place I see in my dreams.”

He sat on the countertop of the kitchen island in his hotel room. “I figured your dreams weren’t just dreams. I’m pretty sure you don’t actually sleep—not the way we think of it, at least.”

I thought about that choking sensation, and no matter how much I wanted to deny it, it made sense. “I’m actually in purgatory when I sleep?”

“I think a part of you is there, the part that’s reaper. It’s your connection to purgatory, like a tether.”

I thought back to Gran, to her saying I’d be the one to deal with this.

Lilith was in purgatory, and only someone with access there could deal with her. It looked like I was the lucky volunteer for that.

“So how do we get there? When I saw her, I don’t think I was really there.”

“You weren’t. You followed Hunter’s trail—think of it like astral projection. In order to deal with Lilith, we’ll have to physically go there.”

“And how do we do that?”

He swung his feet, his heels striking the front of the island. “I’ve been researching all night. Purgatory is the sort of place the living and the dead don’t just stroll into. It is entirely toxic to us, as you saw from Hunter’s reaction. Not to mention the entirewhereit is thing is complicated.”

“More complicated than hell?”

“Much.”

I blew out a slow breath. “Why is nothing ever easy? Just go here, kill this person, then you get congrats-on-saving-the-world sex. Instead, everything has all these steps and nuances and problems.”

Grant chuckled softly, as if my complaining charmed him. “Maybe saving-the-world sex is like make-up sex. It’s only good if youreallyfucked up.” He kept speaking before I could snark back. “Purgatory is in the space between the living and dead world, and it’s surrounded by a layer of protection that helps keep it from spilling into the living or dead realm.”

“The void?” At his look, I went on. “When I followed Rachel’s spirit that first time, I fell into…” I shuddered when the words wouldn’t come at first. “It felt like this deep ocean, freezing and empty and massive.”

Grant nodded. “That sounds about right. Normally, when people die, their spirits pass through that abyss in a blink. If they fight it, though, if they have unresolved issues, they get stuck there and it’ll drag them into purgatory. Worse, we’ll have the same risk.”

“Not me. I don’t fight anything.”

He lifted an eyebrow as if he knew he didn’t need to call me out on that bullshit. I’d fought every last thing, anything I didn’t like, didn’t want to deal with.

“Fine,” I muttered. “I get your point.”

“The area surrounding purgatory, the path to it, can possibly get us stuck, too.”

“Possibly?”

He shrugged. “As far as I know, no one has ever gone to purgatory. All we know is through seers who have managed to peer in. All of this is a best-guess thing, just taking theoretical knowledge and trying to apply it to something no one has ever done. Purgatory traps those who are conflicted, so there’s a good chance that when we try and get through, if we’ve got anything holding us back, we’ll end up stuck.”

“What do we do if that happens?”

“Try to get unstuck? Look, I know you want all the answers, but I don’t have them. All we can do is try and figure it out as we go. No one has gone there, no one knows the details.”

“So how is Lilith there?”

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