I’d armed myself for bear, even though I wasn’t sure weapons of any kind would do anything in Hell. Kanesha had sword and gun as well. Hans preferred an axe, slung over his back.

Not a weapon I was interested in, particularly, but I wanted to see how he used it. And maybe after this was over he’d be willing to spar.

Anansi wasn’t joining us, or at least not in any form I recognized. He was probably doing something else. I didn’t ask.

Coyote took us across into the spirit world, and I had the same sense of not quite right I’d had in the church.

I couldn’t put my finger on it, but Kanesha was shivering. “Something’s wrong.”

“I know.”

Could Loki getting kidnapped have really started all of this?

“Angels and demons. Any excuse to go at each other,” Coyote grumbled. “Unfortunately there’s a lot of them.”

I nodded. “And everything’s off balance.”

He nodded.

“I tried to find us an angel ally, but I think he’s too busy going at demons.” Which was unfortunate. I thought it might have helped.

“Well…we’re going to have to go through here.” He didn’t sound happy about it. “Jane…”

I almost corrected the name, but decided Jane was as good now as it had ever been. “I’m trying.”

Trying to make myself and Kanesha look like demons. Hans I oddly wasn’t worried about. He could handle himself.
And Coyote had already shapeshifted into one. He’d picked a particularly ugly, thuggish kind. I wasn’t going that route, simply because that was more effort.

Nope. I was going to be a pretty demon. I could manage that.

The portal opened and…the expected rush of brimstone and heat didn’t come. I gave Coyote a skeptical look.

He grinned several rows of teeth and headed through it.

Oh, no. No brimstone and heat. Just a sense of wrongness that increased as the door closed behind us.
Would this escalate the problem? We weren’t supposed to be here. But we were here to fix it. That had to count for something.

If there was any logic to it.