The Devil You Know by Zahra Stone

Author:Zahra Stone [Stone, Zahra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcane City
Published: 2021-08-08T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

“It’s…amazing.” Levi’s voice was laced with admiration and awe.

I grinned at him.

Shaking his head, he was oblivious of the fact that I studied him closely. “More than amazing. Breathtaking even. I had no idea.”

“No one ever does.” The Gates of Hell weren’t what you’d expect. They stood majestically at fifty feet tall and had an outer black marble circle with a rotating inner band of red marble. In the very center, a void of shimmering blue, continually moving, changing, neither water nor air, but a substance born of the universe. That blue was the beginning of creation itself.

Levi raised a hand, fingers reaching out. I knew the pull the Gates had. They mesmerized you, lured you in with their unique beauty and the sense that something beautiful would be revealed if you just touched it.

I snagged his wrist and held firm. “I wouldn’t. Touching the Gate is a direct invitation to the pit.”

His eyebrows slammed together. “Seriously?”

“Deadly.” Anyone who tried to mess with the Gates of Hell got a one-way ticket to Hell.

“What do the symbols mean?” He pointed to the sigils engraved in the slowly rotating circle. Nine different shapes, each keeping its own secret.

“Part of the combination.” The Gates energy thrummed as the blue material arched through the air toward me, wanting my attention and touch. “I know,” I soothed, stepping closer, reaching in, and letting the substance encase my hand and arm.

“You’re immune?”

“Yes. See the blue? It’s the first molecule Hell was built upon. It’s also in the mark of the key, connecting us all. It makes me immune.” To destroy the gate was to destroy Hell itself. And I’d never let that happen. No matter what my mother threw at me, I wouldn’t let her have this.

“It’s so different to Heaven’s.” Levi stood mesmerized, and his words backed me from the edge of my anger and back to him.

“Yes. The Pearly Gates is more symbolic than anything else.” Sucking in a calming breath, I closed my eyes to communicate with the Gate. Strengthening our bond, I delivered a warning.

They’re coming.

“Does she know? Does Lilith know how stunning the Gate is? The power? For it has to be powerful, right?” He held up a trembling arm. “I can feel it…look. The hairs on my arm are standing on end.”

“Yes. It’s very powerful,” I agreed, running my hand over his skin and soothing down the hairs that were indeed standing upright. “And no, she doesn’t know.”

“What?” His eyebrows shot into his hairline. “How did you keep that from her?”

I shrugged. “It never came up. The Gates are sacred. They are the heart of Hell, the essence.”

“And the key? Obviously, the key isn’t a conventional key, and the Gates aren’t conventional gates. What happens when the key and the gate come together?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“You’ve trusted me with this, Lucy. Trust me a bit more and tell the truth. What happens?”

I opened my mouth to answer and then clamped it shut. I could feel Ashliel’s energy searching for me.

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