The amulet he’d made burned against my chest, warming the skin beneath it as he looked over us all. His eyes finally landed on me, and I read the emotions there.
He knew perfectly well I wasn’t going to turn back. Not when we’d come so far, and not when we were so close to being with Lucifer and Vyra again.
Tascius and Belial stood fast with me. Azazel’s gaze shifted to Michael and Haru. “Neither of you need to do this.”
Michael gave him a crooked grin. “I’m already here.”
“I’m not turning back.” Haru’s words were quiet, but steel determination underlaid them. “Open the door.”
A muscle flexed in Azazel’s jaw, but he didn’t ask again. We were all ready for this.
The shadows around him thickened as he turned, stepping up to the doors. He placed both of his hands flat on them, his fingers spread wide, and I felt a sudden tug through our bond: pain speared through him, a phantom echo of it lancing through my arms and chest.
I gasped, and Belial immediately touched me, concern on his face. I just shook my head, straightening up. “It hurts him,” I said, dropping my voice for his ears only.
The pain was intense for Azazel, but the mate bond blocked most of it for me.
He pushed against the doors, his arms shaking as dark magic poured out of his fingertips. The air pressure around us seemed to drop, my ears popped a little, and a prickling sensation ran over me.
With a sound so low I couldn’t hear it, but felt it in the air and the ground beneath my feet, the doors to the Between began to crack open.
The earth vibrated. Azazel took a step forward, pushing with all his might, and they moved another inch.
I couldn’t fathom the amount of magic he was pouring into them. His perfect, pale features had vanished, replaced with the crackle of lightning in his eyes, his face morphing into the smoky form he took when he was at his most dangerous.
Michael straightened up at the end of the line, his eyes narrowed as Azazel grew in height until he towered over all of us. “What the almighty fuck is he?”
Tascius glanced at him before returning his attention to the doors. “A death god. That’s why he’s the only one who can open the doors.”
“Good times,” Michael muttered. I held back a smile. It was nice to see him disconcerted for once.
The being pushing open the doors no longer looked like the Azazel I was used to, but I couldn’t feel afraid when looking at him, either.
They moved another inch, and then another. He kept pushing, putting everything he was into opening this place.
The spot right between my shoulder blades itched like someone was watching me. I glanced over my shoulder, but the barren, rocky landscape was empty.
And no one else saw anything. Maybe I was losing my mind, but the sooner we were in the Between, the better.
Azazel released the doors with a groan. They stayed open, seeming stuck in place despite how hard they had been to open. “Go,” he said, his voice crackling. “Get inside, stay together, and keep Irkalla in mind every second that you’re in there. The Between will know where to take us.”
Without waiting for the rest of us, Haru plunged forward into the darkness. Michael stepped forward after him, going through as soon as the rust-red tips of Haru’s tails had vanished.
“Let’s go together,” Belial said, lacing his fingers through mine.
I reached back for Tascius, and we approached the doors. Wind gusted outwards like the Between was letting out a sigh of relief, blowing my hair back from my face.
I instinctively held my breath, but I’d have to breathe in there eventually. I inhaled deeply, tasting the scent of a place that hadn’t been opened in millennia.
It smelled ancient; the smell of old stones and magic, the incense of gods, the coppery tinge of something monstrous that had passed this way long before.
For the first time, genuine fear pricked at me, but it was far too late to turn back. All we had to do was make it through. We had the amulets and the willpower to travel this way.
Belial squeezed through the crack in the door, and the darkness swallowed him whole. It looked like his hand was sticking out of solid blackness.
“Come on, Azazel,” I said.
The Watcher had lessened in height by a foot, but he was still terrifying to look at. He straightened himself, and when I was sure he was coming, I stepped through.
It felt like walking through liquid. The air grew thicker for a brief moment, and then I was in open air again.
And it was no longer dark.
Haru and Michael waited for us, their hands on their weapons. Belial already had a sword out.
We were in an antechamber of stone. The ceilings were so high overhead they were impossible to make out. Alcoves lined the walls, with ancient candles still upright in them, surrounded by tarnished coins and flowers that had long since turned to dust.
“Altars to the gods,” Belial said. His voice echoed down the long corridor ahead of us. “They made sacrifices here.”
I still smelled incense in the air, like someone had been here only minutes before us. There were stains on the floor that looked too fresh, somehow. “Are we sure no one’s been here recently?”
Azazel spilled into the antechamber, taking the form of a narrow whirlwind of smoke. He was taller again despite how much magic he’d put into opening the doors. Clawed hands reached out of the shadows and vanished again just as quickly.
“No one has been here in a very long time.” His voice buzzed and crackled, all trace of his genteel exterior lost. “Stay together. Remember my warnings. It will all look real, but it’s only the past.”
I nodded, still gripping Belial’s hand so tightly it felt like all the blood had left my fist. Azazel exhaled, breathing out a cloud of tiny stars and mist. “Follow them.”
He moved down the hall, moving with predatory grace, his stars following him in a little trail.
My feet didn’t want to move. Now that we were inside, it was as plain as day: we didn’t belong in this place. It wasn’t made for demons and angels. It looked almost normal, but there was a creeping sensation down my spine, a feeling that we’d walked into a place where we were distinctly unwelcome.
I looked back at the door we’d entered, but it was gone. Only a blank wall sat behind me.
Somewhere behind that wall, a pair of doors were lying open in wait. I hoped they closed before some poor demon wandered in and found themselves stuck here.
Haru and Michael followed Azazel first, and the rest of us took the rear. My Spear was reassuring against my back as we passed an alcove with an ancient, crumbling skeleton draped over the altar within.
Azazel’s stars provided an easy path, but once we moved through the hall, it became obvious that the Between was not, in fact, as benign as it had looked at first.
The hall ended in a large, empty room. Azazel waited for us to catch up, and when we turned around, the hall was gone. In its place was a simple plank door.
“What the fuck?” someone whispered.
Azazel turned his shadowy head. It was impossible to make out his expression, but I imagined he’d be giving his most dry smile now. “What did you think this place was? This is the mildest thing you will see in here.”
He pushed the plank door open.
There was a new hall in front of us. We stepped in, staying so close together I felt multiple arms brushing against me.