Eleventh Grave in Moonlight (Charley Davidson #11)(95)

The glass had devoured two preternatural beings in my presence—a demon assassin and a god—but I had yet to see the reaction Reyes was getting from the glass. Lightning crackled around us, but it did more than that to Reyes. It … caressed him. It explored him. Tiny spider-webbed currents of electricity pulsed over his skin, traveling over every curve, every line of his body. As though seducing him. As though luring him inside.

He sucked in a sharp breath. Threw back his head. Let the sting wash over him.

Then he leveled a hard gaze on me. “Say my name.”

I wiped his blood on the surface of the glass, drew in a lungful of air, and sent my husband to hell.

*

Scared beyond measure, I kept my gaze riveted to the clock on the wall. The one with a second hand.

I’d said his celestial name. His godly name. His true name and the only one that would work to send him through the portal.

“Rey’azikeen.”

The bolts of electricity had danced around him, had jumped as though in joy at the prospect of pulling Reyes into their domain. They’d curled and arced all the way to the metal rafters overhead in a joyous symphony. He’d offered me one last glance and winked a microsecond before he was gone.

I’d closed the pendant and my eyes, wondering what I’d just done.

I looked at the clock again. Fifteen seconds. It’d seemed like hours. I couldn’t wait any longer. I opened the pendant, held the raging storm in my palms, and offered up a little prayer to the God I may or may not meet on the battlefield one day before saying his name.

“Rey’azikeen.”

Then I waited. Not sure what to expect. Winds whipped around me, lightning crashed and traveled up the walls, but nothing else happened.

Alarm started a slow, agonizing ascent up my spine.

I repeated his name. “Rey’azikeen.”

The storms seemed to grow stronger. More furious. I screamed it so I could be heard above the roar.

Nothing.

Fear shot through me so fast I almost passed out. Panic closed my throat. I tamped it down and tried again. With every name he’d ever gone by that I knew of. He’d been alive a long time.

“Rey’aziel.” His celestial name, the one he used in hell.

Nothing.

“Reyes Alexander Farrow.” His human name.

Nothing.

“Razer.” His godly nickname. The one they called him in Uzan, a prison from my home dimension.

Nothing.

This was not happening. This could not be happening.

I sank to my knees. No clue what to do. Perhaps the glass had to be clean and blood-free to bring someone out. I scrambled up and ran into the kitchen. I cleaned it with soap and water. The lightning bolts punishing me. Water and electricity didn’t mix.

I dried it and tried again.

I said his name.

I screamed it.

I whispered it.

I held the god glass so close to my face the electricity scorched my eyes and said it again. “Rey’azikeen.”

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

Bombarded with idea after idea, I tried everything I could think of. I tried versions of Razer in every language that came to mind. I tried chanting it. I tried opening and closing the pendant, in a sense, rebooting it.

Nothing.

An hour later, I lay on the living room floor, clutching the god glass to me, the storm as strong as ever. I could hear nothing else but the howling winds. Could see nothing else but white hot flashes of lightning behind my closed lids.

I could break it. I could break the god glass, but what would that accomplish? It would either set everything inside free—including a malevolent god and a demon assassin—or lock the only gate to the hell dimension in existence.

Kuur had told me. One way in. One way out. Of course, the fact that he was an evil demon and an assassin kind of transferred anything he said into a folder called Reasonable Doubt, but …

Then it hit me. I sat up. The perfect plan. I would go in after him. I would have Cookie say my name and send me inside.

Sadly, I would have to trick her. She’d never do it if she knew the truth. But I could leave her a note explaining how to get me back out. In theory. Obviously the whole process was a little flawed.

I hurried to the bedroom for my robe. She would be asleep. Actually, I was a little surprised my screaming didn’t wake anyone. Or the tempest currently residing in my apartment.

Just as I was about to head out the door, the storms changed. They became darker. Thicker. Angrier. Heat welled up around me. Energy. Power. It rushed over my skin like an electrical shock wave. Fierce and raw and furious.

The pendant became too hot for me to hold. I dropped it and stepped back in anticipation. Something was happening. It was just hard to say exactly what after the earsplitting explosion.

It threw me against a wall, almost knocking me unconscious. I lifted my lids but didn’t dare move. Thick black smoke pooled around me. I looked up just in time to see a dozen souls rush into me, wanting only to escape. Wanting to be free.

I gasped as life after life flashed before my eyes.

A widow with two children. She’d spurned the priest’s advances.

A man who refused to sign over part of his land to the church.

A young boy who saw the priest in a compromising situation.

On and on. Life after life destroyed by one man.

I knew the priest had been locked inside as well by a group of monks who took him to task for his evil deeds. But I didn’t feel him. Of course, he would never have gone to heaven. Perhaps he was already in hell.