Page 49 of The Nephilim's Finesse

In the middle of the room, Andrew and Azariel hunched over one of the long wooden tables, a pile of thick leather-bound tomes stacked between them.

"Any luck?" I asked, walking over to join them.

When Andrew and his sister Charlie were kidnapped two weeks ago, Eldred tried to summon the demon Sabnock with Andrew’s body as a host after his attempt with the teenage witch Rowan had failed. The ritual was almost complete when Azariel and our allies stormed the cellar and freed Andrew. They prevented the vampires from summoning a demon on the Earth plane, but since then, Andrew has had a connection to Sabnock, one of the higher demons in Hell. When Andrew lost control, like when he was angry, the demon within him was unleashed, and he took on the terrifying lion form of Sabnock. In this enraged state, Sabnock was able to act through Andrew’s body. Azariel and Andrew had spent the last couple of days researching if there was a way to sever the connection.

Andrew ran a hand over his cropped blond hair, a result of the ritual where all his hair had burnt away. Frustration etched into the lines on his forehead.

Azariel shook her head, strands of brown hair falling over her face. "Nothing yet. These books are ancient—half of them aren't even in English."

"There has to be something here." Andrew’s fist clenched, knuckles whitening. I could see the tension in the set of his shoulders, the furrow between his brows. "I can't live like this anymore, feeling him clawing at the edges of my mind." He looked up into my eyes. "It's getting worse every day. He tests every weak point I have to take over my body. I don't know how long I can hold him at bay."

My eyes widened. I hadn’t thought that it was so bad. My mind had been on Victorija most of the time, so I wasn’t there for my friends when they needed me. Guilt crept up in me, but I shook it away. It didn’t help Andrew, but I could support him. Hopefully, he had exaggerated his description of the situation.

"We'll find something." Azariel reached out, covering his hand with her own. Her gaze met mine, silently pleading for help.

I put a hand on Andrew's shoulder, feeling the tremors running through his muscles. "We have time. Sabnock won't overtake you," I tried to reassure him.

Andrew took a deep breath and pressed his lips together, not fully convinced.

"What are you looking for?" Azariel asked, her amber eyes meeting mine.

“Victorija said that the vampires only tried to defend themselves and fight for equal rights. I just know about the last decades, but a vampire thinks in centuries. I want to look up what they did and how their attempts were received. Maybe we had a period of peace with them.”

Azariel raised an eyebrow. “I really doubt that, but good luck!”

We spent the next hours poring over ancient tomes; I searched for the history of the vampires, Azariel and Andrew, for any mention of breaking demonic bonds or unbinding rituals. After hours of flipping through old volumes, my eyes burned, and blurred text swam before me. I needed a pause. Rubbing my eyes, I left the library for refreshments. After supplying everybody with tea and scones, I dived into the next grimoire with fresh energy. Until now, I read about several occasions where vampires were hunted as retribution for killing a witch. Sometimes, it had been enough that a vampire settled in town for the Nephilim to chase him down and kill him. As Victorija said, it went around in circles.

"Here! I found something!" I was torn from my book when Azariel jolted upright, eyes gleaming with triumph. She shoved an old leather-bound book under Andrew’s nose, her finger tapping against a passage.

“To break the bond, both sides have to be in the same realm, and both have to be willing to break the bond.” Andrew summarised the text after reading it. “Then one can perform this ritual there.” He sighed. “Shit. So there’s no way that I can unbind myself from this,” Andrew said wearily and put his face in his hands.

Understanding lit Azariel's face. "We have to go to Hell itself, as Sabnock isn’t able to go to Earth—and I’m very happy about that.” Azariel tapped her finger against her chin. “It could work—if we can find a way to get into Hell and survive the journey."

I crossed my arms before my chest. “I don't think anyone would have ever tried, let alone come back to tell the tale.”

Azariel bit her lip, hesitating. "You're right. It's risky. But it's the one thing I've found that explicitly states it can break any magical bond." She looked at Andrew, who had gone disturbingly still, eyes glazed and body tense.

"We have to try, even if I have no clue how to do this. If we don't, Sabnock will consume me completely, eventually. I’d rather die trying than wait until he takes over."

"Then we'll do it." Azariel took a photo with her phone, then closed the book with a snap, her resolve hardening to steel within her. I took a deep breath and steadied my nerves. She was right—they had no choice. To save Andrew, they had to take a risk.

Andrew's eyes cleared, focusing on her with a glimmer of hope. "Thank you," he rasped. Azariel wrapped an arm around his waist, kissing his lips softly.

“How does one get into Hell? Besides being a bad person and dying, of course?” Azariel asked.

I again looked at the piles of ancient books, the dust motes dancing in the light. Somewhere, in the depths of time and magic, there had to be a way.

“Hopefully, we will find the answer somewhere in one of these tomes,” Andrew suggested and stood up to look on the shelves for said book.

Azariel and I joined the search, combing through the library's vast collection of magical lore for anything that could help us access Hell. Spells, portals, rituals—there had to be something.

"Here," Andrew said suddenly. He was holding an old leather-bound book, his hands shaking. "This describes a ritual to open a 'Gate of the Damned'. It says it provides a portal directly into the Netherworld. But it has to be at a specific place where the passage between the realms is thin."

I took the book from him, scanning the faded pages. The ritual was complex, requiring specific ingredients and symbols, but it seemed viable. "We could do this," I said. "If we can get everything we need and find that place."

"The hard part will be surviving Hell itself," Azariel said grimly. "We'll be on Sabnock's home territory. He'll have power, unlike anything we've faced before."

"If we free Andrew from him, it will weaken Sabnock enough to escape," I said. "We have to try."

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