“I don’t. It wasn’t a demon. Or, well, I don’t think it was. It was something more.”

“How do you know?”

She twisted the leather straps at her wrist. “Mostly because I knew its name.”

I froze for a moment before saying, “Come again?”

“Do you remember what I told you about my accident?” She glanced at me, her brows drawn together.

“Sure I do.” Pari had died when she was six in a car accident. Thankfully, an industrious EMT brought her back. After that, she could see auras, including those of the departed. She’d learned that if she saw an aura with a particularly grayish tint and no body attached, it was the soul of someone who’d passed. It was a ghost.

“When I died, my grandfather was waiting for me.”

“I remember,” I said, “and thankfully he sent you back. I owe him a fruit basket when I get to heaven.”

She reached over and squeezed my hand in a rare moment of appreciation. Awkward. “I’d met him only once,” she said, wrapping both hands around her water. “The only thing I remembered about him was that he had Great Danes taller than I was, yet I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he was my grandfather. And when he told me it wasn’t my time, that I had to go back, the last thing I wanted to do was leave him.”

“Well, I for one am glad he sent your ass packing. You would have been hell on wheels in heaven.”

She smiled. “You’re probably right. But I never told you the strange part.”

“Most people find near-death experiences pretty strange.”

“True,” she said with a grin.

“So it gets stranger?”

“A lot stranger.” She hesitated, drew in a long breath, then rested her gaze on me. “On the way back, you know, to Earth, I heard things.”

That was new. “What kinds of things?”

“Voices. I heard a conversation.”

“You eavesdropped?” I asked, a little amazed such a thing was possible. “On celestial beings?”

“I guess you could call it that, but I didn’t do it on purpose. I heard an entire conversation in an instant, like it just appeared in my head. Yet I knew I wasn’t supposed to hear it. I knew the information was dangerous. I learned the name of a being powerful enough to bring about the end of the world.”

“The end of the world?” I asked, gulping when I did so.

“I know how it sounds, believe me. But they were talking about this being that had escaped from hell and was born on Earth.”

My pulse accelerated by a hairsbreadth, just enough to cause a tingling flutter in my stomach.

“They said that he could destroy the world, he could bring on the apocalypse if he so chose.”

I knew of only one being who had escaped from hell. Only one being who had been born on Earth. And while I knew he was powerful, I couldn’t imagine him powerful enough to bring about the freaking apocalypse. Then again, what was? I totally should have paid attention in catechism.

“And so the night of the séance, in all my teenaged wisdom, I decided to summon him.”

I gaped, but only a little. “Right. Because that’s what we want to do. Summon the very being who can destroy every living thing on Earth.”

“Exactly,” she said, spacing my sarcasm. “I thought I might convince him not to. You know, talk some sense into him.”

“And how did that work out for you?”

She stopped and pursed her lips at me. “I was fourteen, smart-ass.”

I tried to laugh, but it didn’t quite make it past the lump in my throat. “So, for real? This being is going to bring on the apocalypse?”

“No, you’re not listening.” She pressed her lips together before explaining. “I said he is powerful enough to bring on the apocalypse.”

Okay, well, that was a plus. No prophecies of mass destruction.

“And so that night during the séance, I summoned him. By name.”

Goose bumps crept up my legs and over my arms in anticipation. Either that or Dead Trunk Guy had found me again. I glanced around just in case.

“But, like I said,” she continued, “he’s not what you think. He’s not a demon.”

“Well, that’s taking a frown and turning it upside down.”

“From the gist of the conversation, he is something so very much more.”

He was more, all right. “Pari,” I said, growing impatient, “what’s its name?”

“No way am I telling you,” she said with a teasing sparkle in her eyes.

“Pari.”

“No, really.” She turned serious again. “I don’t say it aloud. Ever. Not since that day.”

“Oh, right. Well—”

Before I could say anything else, she grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled onto it. “This is it, but don’t say it out loud. I get the feeling he doesn’t like being summoned.”

I took the paper, my hand shaking more than I’d have liked, and gasped softly when I read the name. Rey’aziel. Rey’az … Reyes. The son of Satan.

“It means ‘the beautiful one,’” she said as I read it over and over again. “I don’t know what he is,” she continued, unaware of my stupor, “but he caused quite a stir on the other side, if you know what I mean. Chaos. Upheaval. Panic.”

Yep. That would be Reyes. Damn it.