When she finally let him go, he looked at her with shock.
“Do you have the key?” she asked.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” He blinked at her. “I . . . uh . . . wasn’t sure you’d be here.”
“Forget about me. What about the key? What about Reggie? Is he okay?”
“I couldn’t find him. But he’s fine. I’m sure he is. The party’s still going strong, so he’s fine for a while.”
“You couldn’t . . .” She took a shaky breath. “We need to go back.”
“Excuse me?”
“We have to go back. To the mansion. We have to find Reggie.”
“You’d risk your neck for that rodent?”
She glared at him. “He’s not a rodent. He’s human. I never should have brought him along in the first place. It’s all my fault. All of this is my fault.”
He sighed. “Honestly Valerie, I’ve never met anyone so vain.”
Her mouth dropped open. “I can’t believe you’ve got the nerve to call me vain. After everything I’ve been through today.”
“See? I, I, I, I. It’s all about you.”
“But—”
He grabbed her arm. “Do you seriously believe that everything that has happened, from
Julian’s theft of the key to Reggie’s current unknown location, is all your fault?”
She nodded. “Of course it is.”
“And that’s why you tried to get Julian alone? In the hope of stealing the key right from underneath his nose?”
“I almost had him.”
“No you didn’t. You’re fooling yourself. Had you tried to take the key from him, he would have ended you without a second thought. I have no doubt of that.”
She stared at him fiercely for a moment before her shoulders dropped. “You’re right. But at least I would have tried. Instead of being a big old chicken who runs away at the first opportunity.”
“A very beautiful, incredibly annoying chicken,” he said, with a small smile.
She eyed him warily. “Are you trying to cheer me up?”
“Is it working?”
“Not even close. So what are we going to do now?”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re asking me?”
“At the moment I’m extremely open to suggestion.”
“Very well. Here’s my suggestion, my little angel. I will return to the mansion, find your friend, and deliver him back to the earthly realm where he can work out his domestic issues with his girlfriend.”
“Okay. So what about me? What am I supposed to do?”
“You will go back to your home.”
“The motel?”
“No.” He paused. “Heaven.”
“Oh, that home. Right. And how exactly do you propose I do that?”
Nathaniel pulled a long gold chain out from underneath his gray-striped shirt.
Val stared at him, gaping at the golden key the demon now wore.
Nathaniel’s lips twitched with amusement at her shocked expression.
“How?” Val said. “But, Julian had it, and now you . . . did you fight him for it?”
“Julian would have fought me to the end of time for this, I believe. But he couldn’t once he was unconscious. I simply removed it from around his neck.”
She reached out to almost touch it, but then pulled her hand back again. “The key.”
He looked down it. “This is the correct one, I hope.”
She nodded. “It is. Definitely.”
“I can feel its power. It hums against my skin.”
Before she could say another thing, Nathaniel slipped the chain from around his neck and held it out to her.
“Here.”
Her gaze flashed up to meet his in shock and amazement. “You’re giving it to me? Just like that?”
“Wasn’t that the reason for this trip to the Underworld in the first place?”
Her hand moved up to twist nervously through her hair. “Well, yeah. Of course.”
“Then take it.”
“Aren’t you afraid of what’s going to happen to you by helping me like this?”