“Revenirs,” he replied.
“Some of the lowest forms of life in Hell,” Bale said.
“That means there’s more spilling out of Hell than we realized,” Morax said.
“I know,” Kobal grated from between his teeth. “The first seal has been broken.”
“Which is?” I inquired.
“The dead will walk the earth, or revenirs will anyway,” Corson sneered.
I swallowed heavily at those words.
“What of the hounds, Kobal?” Verin asked.
“I don’t know,” he tersely replied. “If some had fallen, I would know; something else has happened to them.”
“How do you know that?” I inquired.
“If Lucifer has broken a seal, that means not only has he figured out how to, but something has happened to the hounds defending it,” he replied. “I will find out what and get them free of whatever it is.”
I recalled his words about his kind of demon rising with the first hounds from the fires of Hell. His bond to the creatures must run deep if he would somehow know if one or more had fallen. “How many seals are there?” I inquired.
“A couple hundred, and each one holds back an abomination no one wanted to see loose in Hell, never mind Earth.”
I tried not to concentrate too hard on all the possibilities. “Why would Lucifer set them free then?”
“Those things he sets free will be loyal to him. They will help him fight his war and they will search out what he is seeking. You.”
I stumbled but Kobal’s arm around me kept me briskly walking forward. “How would he know about me?” I demanded.
“The same way we did.” His words were brusque; he didn’t look at me, but his thumb slid over my skin again in a motion I found comforting despite everything that had happened. “Someone had a vision.”
“Why would he want me?”
“No one knows what you may be capable of, River. Just as you could be a big asset to our side, you could also be one to his.”
“Or, if he feels you’re a threat to him, to kill you,” Morax said.
Kobal’s lips skimmed back. The sound he emitted caused Morax to take a hasty step to the side.
“Great,” I murmured. “I may have become number one on Lucifer’s hit list.”
“Not going to happen,” Kobal vowed.
The hair all over my body stood up as I recalled what the dead man had said to me. “I felt something watching me,” I told him. “Through the eye sockets of the man who was killed. He… he spoke to me.”
Amber flooded his eyes when they met mine. The corded muscles of his arm swelled against my back. “What did he say?”
“It’s you. I see you.” I shivered at the memory. “And it felt as if something were trying to draw me in.”
“Lucifer,” he snarled.
“Or one of his flunkies,” Shax said.
“Did you connect with him?” Kobal asked.
“No,” I said tremulously.
