I blinked at him, managing to close my mouth again, but felt it starting to unhinge once more. How did anyone respond tothatrevelation? Humans had ripped a hole intoHell? I didn’t like the taste, but I had a feeling I was going to need more wine, so I took a big gulp of it.
“What do you mean humans ripped a hole into Hell? How?”
“Poking around with things they shouldn’t have been. I don’t understand the science behind it, and most of the people who knew exactly what they did to make it occur, are now dead.”
“Did they die in the war?”
“No. They died when they tore open the gateway and a horde of demons slaughtered them.”
I didn’t ask if he was one of those demons; I preferred not to have that answer. “What do you mean? I saw the planes, and I saw the bombs on TV. Another country attacked us.”
“No,” Kobal replied. “No nation attacked another one. Your own government released those bombs in an attempt to stifle what they’d set free in your country. The same bombs were dropped by other countries on the other side of the world. Your country wasn’t alone in their ignorance. Multiple countries were messing around with things they had no business messing around with. The bombs killed some of us but ultimately they didn’t work. Hell absorbed the radiation that didn’t have any effect on us anyway.”
I propped my chin on my hand to keep my mouth closed; it would be a lot easier than trying to figure out a way to relocate my jaw later. I couldn’t comprehend everything he was telling me. My mind spun, and the wine curdled in my stomach.
“Why are you telling me all this?” I whispered.
“You would have learned it all today anyway, if you had agreed to go with the others. It’s part of your first day of training.”
My stomach still felt sour, but I lifted the goblet and downed the contents in one swallow. I hated the tremor in my hand when I set it back on the table, but I couldn’t stop it. “So Luci—ah, Satan is walking the earth right now?”
“Call him Lucifer, I do,” he said with a smile that couldn’t hide his dislike of said demon.
“You said he hated that.”
“He does.”
“I’d prefer not to piss off the king of Hell if I can help it right now.”
Kobal’s fingers tightened on his goblet, and his muscles rippled in such a way that his tattoos appeared to move. “Lucifer is not the king of Hell, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“But—”
“No, he is not walking the earth right now,” he interrupted brusquely. “He remains in Hell, gathering his troops and trying to figure out a way to free the abominations who have been trapped behind the seals for many millennia. Thankfully, for all of us, he hasn’t been successful at it and won’t be if we can find a way to defeat him. Demons were not meant to walk freely on this earth; there were strict rules set in place for those who did come to earth in the past. However, this is not where we belong, and our battles against Lucifer and his followers, who we call the Craetons, never should have become a war that the human race fought too. Thanks to the actions of humans, there is no longer a choice in this. They upset an intricate balance, existing since the dawn of time, and are now reaping the consequences of their actions.
“All demons enjoy and thrive on agony and vengeance in our own way, but there are those of us who will punish any human they come across. There’s a reason why humans were only able to freely cross the boundaries of Heaven and Hell as souls before. If the Craetons have their way, they will murder or enslave every human they encounter.”
“Why wouldn’t they kill us all?”
“If all humans were to die, there would be no new babies for souls to be born into. We have no way of knowing what would become of those souls. They may simply vanish, which is something no one can risk.”
I blinked at him; my throat was beyond parched as my heart hammered in my chest. “Aren’t souls supposed to last forever?” I croaked out.
“Yes, in a way. A soul’s sentence in Hell depends on their crime or crimes. When their time is up, they’re sent back to Earth to start again, in a new life. The soul would be theirs once again to do what they would with it, a fresh start. They are reborn with no memory of who they had been before. If they were sent back to Hell, theyremembered.”
He said remembered in such a way it caused goose bumps to erupt on my skin. I didn’t want to know what they remembered.
“The same for Heaven,” he continued. “Souls float around with their harps, or at least that’s what I imagine they do, until all of their loved ones arrive. Once they’re all reunited, those souls have a happy little reunion. Then the oldest of those souls one day are sent back to Earth. However, all souls must go through this transition of life and death.”
“How come souls don’t get to stay in Heaven with their loved ones?”
“That’s just the cycle of our dimensions; it’s the way it has always been. And just because a soul makes it to Heaven once, doesn’t mean they won’t eventually make it to Hell a time or two also. Humans are able to create new souls—you’re the only species who can—but new souls are born into this world every day then make their way to one of our planes. Without this life cycle, we don’t know what could happen, but there is a reason things were balanced the way they were before.”
“I see.” Lifting my necklace, I pulled at the shells lining it, moving them back and forth as I tried to digest his words. I had a feeling that later, I’d probably do a whole lot of banging my head against the wall and maybe some hugging myself, but right now, I felt strangely calm. I must be in shock; that had to be it. Kobal’s gaze went to my necklace, and his forehead wrinkled as he stared at it. Releasing it once more, I leaned toward him. “It seems like all of the religions got at least a piece of it right.”
“They did, but anything or anyone that is 100 percent certain they’re right, is bound to be wrong.”
I couldn’t help but smile over his words. “Probably. So, if Heaven gets harps—”
