text: "What do you mean, there's nothing you can do for Master?" Rochelle demanded, clinging to the last shred of hope that she'd see her Master again as the weight of her disappointment struggled to pull her off the cliff's edge. She fought to hold on, to keep her despair at bay. "There has to be something you can do?"
  
  Sophia slipped off the church's altar, her white wings flapping softly. Her skin was wholly bronze, cleansed entirely of the black corruption. The Angel fixed her golden eyes on Rochelle, tears brimming in them. "He's in Hell. It is not a place I can enter under normal circumstances."
  
  "And what are those circumstances?"
  
  "A spirit freed from my vessel. Like when I was poisoned by Daevia."
  
  Rochelle flinched.
  
  "What does that mean?" Juanita asked.
  
  "You were with him?" Rochelle asked, her voice breaking. I healed Sophia and doomed Master.
  
  "In spirit," Sophia sadly answered. "He was in the company of a dangerous being, and I tried to warn them."
  
  "Is there no hope?" Hikaru asked, slumping down on a pew.
  
  "The Demon claimed to be taking them to the Hall of Virtue. Escape could be possible from there. But what is the Demon's plan? What does Adriel hope to gain from it?"
  
  "Freedom." Juanita suggested.
  
  "No Demon can pass through the Hall of Virtue. You have to possess love, fidelity, faith, or hope, and what Demon can have those? Love is the antithesis of their very existence, fidelity goes against every bone in their body, faith had been thrown away by them long ago, and what hope can there be when all you know is fear and torment?"
  
  The air rang like a gong and a painful shudder passed through the church.
  
  "What is going on?" asked the Angel.
  
  "Daevia's outside. She must be up to something."
  
  Sophia closed her golden eyes, her eyebrows furrowing. "What is this place?"
  
  "Our Lady of Angels," Hikaru answered.
  
  "No. There is far more going on here. The protections on this place... I have never heard of their like. Something vastly important must be here to be guarded by such a Prayer of Love."
  
  "It seems like a normal church to me," Juanita shrugged.
  
  "Daevia is attacking the prayer with lust," Sophia sighed. "Slowly cracking the defenses."
  
  "Great," Hikaru muttered. "One more thing to worry about."
  
  "How are we going to fight them off?" Juanita asked. "We're all tapped out of powers and Sophia, no offense, but Daevia already defeated you once."
  
  "What does that matter!" Rochelle shrieked. "Master is trapped in Hell."
  
  She collapsed on the pew. Everything that she had been forcing down: her guilt at killing Bobby, the fear of Daevia, the terror that she'd never see her Master again, all of it spilled out of her in a paroxysm of tears.
  
  Juanita wrapped her arm around the sobbing girl, stroking her. "It'll be alright. Just have faith."
  
  "In what?" Rochelle demanded in a fury. "Heaven? All they sent was one Angel that couldn't even last a minute in fighting Daevia. And there's an entire horde of Demons out there. And all those people Daevia's controlling."
  
  "Have faith in Bill. He loves us. He'll be fighting to get back to us."
  
  "You can't know that."
  
  "Faith isn't about knowing. It's about believing in your heart."
  
  Rochelle looked up. "You make it sound so simple."
  
  "Faith is the hardest thing in the world. But nothing easy is worth trying." Juanita touched Rochelle's belly. "Bill is going to come back and meet his child."
  
  Juanita's hand felt so warm, and Rochelle could almost sense the little zygote growing inside her. She knew with the certainty that her prescience had given her that Bill had knocked her up the first time he had taken her.
  
  "Just believe. Have faith. Send all the positive thoughts you can do him. He's going to need every bit of help to get out."
  
  "Pray?"
  
  "It certainly can't hurt." Juanita cupped Rochelle's cheek, gently wiping away her tears. "Let's send our love to our husband."
  
  Rochelle closed her eyes, Juanita's warm hand engulfing her own. Hikaru took her left, Hikaru's fingers slimmer, and gave her a comforting squeeze. "Let's get our man back," the Japanese coed whispered.