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“Absolutely not,” Cyn said, turning back to the sink.
Even if the guys weren’t leaving, I wouldn’t want Cyn to help me cook biscuits for Grandma. I didn’t want to be alone with the guy. He looked at me as if he wanted to both kill and eat me. I’d wager he’d do both, given his claws and fangs.
Ash swallowed his food and looked at Ezra, changing the subject. “Find anything new while we were asleep?”
“From the few entries that I can understand, this book reads like an assortment of enchantments to manipulate fate. Oddly, the entries don’t alter existing paths—only timing.”
Ash passed his empty plate to Cyn. “So you’re saying we were supposed to end up here?”
“If the other pages are any indication. I’m not sure if it means we were meant to end up on Earth, or just this town—”
“We’re meant to meet Rae?”
Ezra cut his eyes at Zeke. “No. That wouldn’t be possible.”
“But she’s the one who summoned us here. What could it mean?”
They exchanged a look I couldn’t understand before turning to me.
When they said nothing, I heaved a frustrated sigh. “What?”
“Well, shit,” Ash said, glancing down at the counter.
Zeke dropped his gaze when our eyes met. Cyn’s natural scowl deepened as he turned back to cleaning up, while Ezra’s chilly gaze betrayed nothing.
“Someone tell me what’s going on or so help me…”
“The only way you’d meet us is if you were tangled up with lesser infernals, Rae.” At Zeke’s ominous words, I turned to him. He gave me a pitying look. “We never interact with humans unless infernals interfere on Earth. Even then, they never know who or what we are, and most of the time, they die.”
“How? Why?”
“Because damned and lesser infernals seek to create chaos and death in your world when they escape from Moicae,” Ash said.
“Escape? Is that like a prison?”
“No, it’s a volcanic land of fire in the outer reaches of Niemna and Feranzis.”
Zeke added, “It’s the closest thing to what humans call Hell.”
“So, these bad infernals want me dead? What’s gonna happen to me if I die?”
“Humans can’t summon us at will, so I’m not sure what they want, or even if this is an issue involving lesser infernals,” Ash said.
My head spun. If humans couldn’t summon infernals, then why were they insisting I summoned them? I mean, I did—by accident.
What struck me hardest was hearing that lesser infernals caused death and chaos on Earth. They’d haunted me my entire life. Why hadn’t they killed me yet? Why hadn’t these guys stopped them if that was their job?
“As for what happens when you die…” Zeke glanced at Ash, then at me. “When humans die, they don’t go to what you know to be Heaven and Hell. No matter what a human does in their life, they go to Elyrdin—the heart of Niemna.”
“But am I supposed to die? Is that what the book means by manipulating fate and timing? Did I speed up my death?” A shiver traveled down my spine.
Ash sighed when Zeke looked at him for help. “I don’t know. You’re not supposed to know about us. About our kind.”
“I don’t know about that,” I mumbled.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
