If the fate of our lives hinged on one of Shea’s crazy ideas… we were screwed.

Eighteen

“What? No way! Too much could go wrong,” Lincoln told my bestie as the demons advanced on our bulletproof bus.

“I’m a master at portals. I got this,” she reassured him.

Lincoln gave her a quick ‘I call bullshit’ look. “We haven’t tried out the technology Metatron left us, and we don’t have one for Emberly.”

Shea wanted to open a huge portal to Hell and have us drive through it with the demons following us inside, then close it before opening a new one for us to get out, trapping the demons there. It was a crazy bananas plan.

“Oh, I’m fine. I mean, it hurts to be in Hell, but it won’t kill me,” Emberly offered.

Grace’s head reeled back at her daughter. “And how exactly do you know that?”

Emberly’s cheeks burned. “Mel and I tried it once. Don’t worry, I started by putting my foot in. I’m not stupid.”

Grace buried her head in her hands, clearly at a loss for words with her wild teen. I guess the fact that Emberly was half human allowed her to enter Hell unharmed.

“Let’s do it,” Tiffany, of all freaking people, chimed in from her place at the back of the bus. “I think it’ll work, and the more demons we trap inside, the fewer casualties the Fallen Army will endure once they arrive to back us up. It’ll also serve as a distraction until help arrives so no more free souls are injured.”

We all looked at her in shock for agreeing with Shea. The only thing breaking our silence was a thump on the roof.

Michael?

The demons were shooting at the bus now, en masse, and I was worried about the tires blowing. We needed to do something quick, and getting out of the bus to fight wasn’t smart right now.

“All right, start the portal while I talk to Michael about it,” Lincoln told Shea, then jumped up from the driver’s seat with Noah quickly replacing him.

My mind whirled as I took a deep breath. Maybe I could erect my shield to cover the entire bus, protect the tires and windows from further damage while we did this portal thing…

My plasma-like wall began to rise up off my body, and I pushed it outward, covering Shea and then Noah.

“Umm… what the hell is that?” Tiffany’s shrill voice came from behind me.

Ignoring her, I focused on my breathing.

“Oh, Emberly told me about this. I’m excited to experience it.” Grace walked headfirst into my shield fearlessly, as I thinned it around her body to make room for her.

“Tickles, huh?” Emberly commented, stepping inside as well.

“Don’t touch me with that thing!” Tiffany scrambled toward the back of the bus, retreating from my advancing shield.

I rolled my eyes, pushing the plasma film out even farther. Lincoln stood on one of the seats, his head popped out of the roof while talking to Michael, as I covered him as well.

Tiffany screamed in fear as my shield came for her, just as a fresh round of bullets hit the side of the bus.

“Oh, shut up already!” Shea growled, trying to keep her concentration on opening a giant bus-sized portal to Hell. The film finally engulfed a freaked-out Tiffany, and moved on to Mikey, Luke, and the others, who didn’t seem to mind as my protection wall passed over them.

Once I was convinced that I’d covered the entire bus, I looked out the front window. A slight panic rippled through me at the sight of the desolate wasteland of the underworld. My time in Hell had left its mark on me, and going back there was always my least favorite thing to do.

“All right, listen up.” Lincoln jumped down from his perch. “Brielle, good job on the shield. Try to keep it going—Michael says he’ll help. Noah, Michael and I are going to attach the discs now, and we’ll go ahead with Shea’s plan. Michael says Metatron would never give us something unless it worked 100 percent.”

That was only slightly comforting, because if it didn’t work, then my husband, his best friend, and Michael, were all going to die instantly.

As he and Noah attached the discs to their forearms with leather wristbands, I focused on keeping my shield strong. At least a hundred demons had reached our bus now, and were shaking it, shooting at it or trying to slash the tires. At least we’d distracted them from killing the humans, and that’s what mattered.

Noah revved the engine as Shea pulled the portal wider.

“Can I help?” Catia stepped up next to her.

My bestie looked at the Light Mage and nodded, directing her on how to utilize her energy to assist in keeping the portal open.

“What if they just come right back out?” Noah asked his fiancée.

“Shhh, I got this.” Shea’s forehead was slick with sweat, hands out before her as she chewed her lip in concentration. Catia looked strained now as well, and I decided that being a Mage was probably one of the harder magical gifts.

I was staring through the portal into Hell when I saw another portal opening on the other side. It looked like it led back to this world.

“Shea, are you doing two portals at once?” I asked, completely dumbfounded.

She didn’t answer, all of her concentration on the task at hand. Even Catia, standing next to her, looked completely focused.

“Go. Fast. Now,” Shea ordered calmly, and Noah gunned the bus so hard that I flew backward into Lincoln’s outstretched arms.

Mikey and Luke grunted as we mowed down a few demons, and we shot right into Hell. Lincoln’s body tensed against me, when we sped through the portal and into the Devil’s homeland. Catia and Shea held onto the railing at the front, while they kept throwing their magic at the portal.

Please God, keep them safe, I sent up to the man upstairs, just in case.

The bus was fully in Hell now, and the demons were running in after us, just as planned.

“Are you okay?” I looked over at Lincoln, whose brows were pinched together.

“Yeah. It’s… tolerable.” He seemed in awe.

Relief poured through me, but it was short-lived.

“Okay, stop!” Shea instructed Noah, and the bus came to grinding halt. We were in Hell, in the middle of nowhere. Red misty fog rolled across the dirt ground, and there were a few mountains off in the distance, but that was all.

I peered behind me to see the demons had followed us in here. A good-sized crowd was still waiting at the portal opening on Earth, but we’d lured about half, which could be the game changer we needed.

Shea took a deep breath and clapped her hands together. In that moment, the portal behind us closed, trapping the demons inside with us.

“Sigillum,” Shea whispered, causing green light to flare inside of the bus, then looked at Noah. “Go!” she roared.

Noah didn’t question her as he gunned it, rolling our huge bus across the hellish desert toward the second portal she had opened, which looked like it led to the other side of the park on Earth. The demons were running and flying after us, but we were faster. Bullets and magic spells crashed against the bus, yet, I held my shield strong.

“Faster!” Shea screamed, and Noah pressed the pedal down to the floor.

As the front of the bus went through the portal to Earth, Shea and Catia started to shrink it around us. “Sigillum,” Shea said the second we were fully through, and that green light flared out once more.