The halls of the prison were dark and smelled like mildew, which was not as bad as what I expected. The prisoners were moaning in agony from inside their cells, and I felt bad for them, until I remembered they were demons and probably deserved what they did.
"They're not all demons," Zyn whispered to me.
"I hate when you read my mind," I said.
He took my hand. "Some of them are people's souls.Some people did somuch wrong while they were alive that they were put into this prison, the most secure prison anywhere in the universe," he explained. "We've got some famous people down here."
"Like who?" I asked, wondering what famous people did enough wrong in their lives to warrant being placedin the same prisonas LUcifer.
"Adolf Hitler, for starters," he replied. "We've also got John Wilkes Booth."
"Remind me again who that guy was," I said.
"He was the guy who shot Abraham Lincoln," Asabeth replied from behind me.
As we kept walking down the dank halls, we began to get noticed. Not just by the inmates, but by a little bit of security. A pair of demons with ugly tangled black hair and deep dark eyes turned around a corner. I channeled the same power I'd used to weaken Lucifer and turned the demons into dust with just a little concentration.
"Nice!" Asabeth applauded.
"Thanks," I replied.
We walked some more, until it seemed like we'd been walking for hours. We began to see some more security guards, meaning we were definitely getting closer to Lucifer's cell.
"We're almost there," Polly whispered as we ducked around a corner to avoid being spotted by a demon. "Liz and I will keep the security guards distracted while you get to the cage. Zyn knows the way."
I nodded, which was practically useless in the darkness of the prison. There was hardly any light, only enough for us to see around and to know when a demon was approaching us.
"You got this, Jenny. Don't worry about us," Liz said.
Polly jumped out from around the corner and yelled "Who's gonna catch me?"
As all the security guards in sight ran after Polly in the direction we'd just come from, Liz following quietly behind them. Zyn grabbed my hand and Asabeth's and dragged us out of our hiding spot. We rand in the opposite direction Polly and Liz went.
We ran until we decided we were a good distance away from the guards that we could just walk. We slowed ourselves and took a breather.
"How much farther?" I panted.
"Not much," Zyn huffed in reply. After just a few seconds, we straightened ourselves out and kept walking.
Zyn led us as Asabeth and I walked behind him. "I have to ask," she said, "did you mean what you said at your house?"
"What did I say at my house?" I asked, knowing the answer but desperate to keep it to myself. Fortunately, she didn't have her powers anymore and couldn't read my mind to know that.
"You know, when they were asking about...us," Asabeth replied.
"I never said anything," I replied.
I heard Zyn chuckle ahead of us. I knew he was listening in on our conversation. "You know, when you said you wanted to kiss me," Asabeth said.
"I don't remember anything like that," I answered quickly.
"Okay. Just wondering," she said.
To be honest, I wasn't sure if I meant it. I may have just blurted something to shut my friends up, but I also may have revealed my deepest inner secret. One I kept even from myself.
I sighed. "I'm not sure, Asabeth," I replied.
I could tell Zyn was getting uncomfortable with the situation. After all, he was my boyfriend. Hearing me tell a girl I may have had feelings for her may not have been easy for him to hear.
"If not, that's fine," Asabeth said, kind of loudly. I heard a few prisoners stirring in their cells.
"Good," I replied almost instantly. "Yeah. We'll just be friends."
I could suddenly hear Zyn's thoughts. Yeah, sure, he thought.
"Shut up, Zyn," I said.
"I never said anything!" he argued.
"No, but you thought it," I replied. "Maybe don't think too loud."
He glanced over his shoulder at me. "We're about five minutes away," he said, gesturing to a hall coming up.
We rounded the corner, and immediately, the hall flooded with security guards. I ported Polly and Liz to our location.
"We need your help," I said, pointing down the hall.
Polly nodded, and she and Liz ported to the group of guards. "Hey, guys. What's up?" I heard her ask. Then I heard punches being thrown, grunts, and noises sounding slightly like the fairy wands from old movies.
"What's that noise?" I asked Zyn.
"She's killing them," he replied, glancing down the hallway.
Liz and Polly ported back to us. "You're welcome. See you around," Liz said as she and Polly disappeared again.
Zyn rounded the corner, Asabeth and I following, our senses on high alert. The slightest drip of water or shuffle of a prisoner caused us to go into full-on fight mode.
At the end of the hall, I could see a bright light. As we got closer, I saw it was coming from a room, not unlike the interrogation rooms in police stations. However, this one was circular and had glass completely surrounding it. A chair sat in the middle, a dozen spotlights shining on it.
Then I saw the figure sitting in the chair.
Finally, we got to the room. "This is it," Zyn said as I looked at Lucifer, chained to his chair in the middle of the bright room.
"Can he see us?" I whispered.
"No, but he can sense us," Zyn replied.
I'd lost my connection to the angels and demons, but I could feel Lucifer's aura like Florida heat in July. It literally made me want to murder someone.
"I do have that effect on people," his voice thundered through the halls. "Nice to see you again, Jenny Moore."
"Wish I could say the same," I replied, my voice shaky.
I circled the round room, looking for the door. There were three doors I'd found, and I had no idea which was the secret one. "It doesn't look like a door," he replied, looking at my thoughts.
"Stop doing that," I replied, shuddering at the thought of literal Satan knowing what I was thinking. I needed to keep my mind off Asabeth, or he'd know how I really felt about her. I wasn't sure I was ready to know then either.
"I know why you're here," he said. "I wish it was just to keep me company. That would've been nice."
"Shut up, Lucifer," I growled under my breath as I looked around for anything that could possibly have been a door.
"LIsten to me," he said. "That door you're trying to close, it can't be closed from out there. It's in my cell."
I exchanged a worried look with Zyn. "One of us has to go in there," I whispered.
"How can we trust him? He's Lucifer!" Zyn argued. "We don't have any idea what the door is, where it is, if it can even be closed! We don't know anything!"
"It's the floorboard about five feet to his left," Asabeth interrupted. I looked where she said, and noticed one of the pieces of floor was slightly peeling.
"That's it," I said, suddenly feeling a rush of energy. "How are we supposed to close it?"
"We can't open the door, or Lucifer will absorb a lot of power," Zyn said.
Then we both got the same idea.
"Unless somebody ports in there."
"I'll do it," Zyn volunteered without hesitation.
"No, I can't let you," I replied, grabbing his hand. "This whole thing is my fault. Let me do something good and restore the natural balance."
"Yeah, and then you get to spend the rest of eternity with the devil. Do you really want that?" Zyn said, pulling me a little closer to him.
I kissed him. "If it means saving the world, I don't care."
Zyn locked eyes with Asabeth, who was standing behind me. I looked over my shoulder at her, and she nodded. She locked eyes with me, mouthed something I couldn't quite make out, and ported into Lucifer's cage.