He took a poker and nudged the key slowly turning red in the fire, flipped it as though browning it on both sides for a more even, enjoyable dining experience. While James and his minions stood transfixed by the orange and yellow glow, I nodded to the departed guy, basically telling him to go fetch.
He appeared beside me again, pretending to want a better look in case James were to turn around. "I can't get Rey'aziel," he whispered. "He can't see this. Not until you want him to know the truth, Charley. There's a lot you don't know."
I didn't know anything. That was the problem.
"So, just to be safe," James continued as he roasted the key around a campfire and told ghost stories, "the volunteer sent the priest through the portal to the hell dimension – not Lucifer's, by the way – and then the monks, normally a nonviolent bunch, beheaded the brave man so he could never open it and speak the priest's name again."
"Snap out of it," Dead Guy whispered.
I scowled at him. "I can't," I said through gritted teeth.
"Of course you can. Stop overthinking it and just remember. It will take everything you have in your arsenal to take on Kuur."
"Kuur?"
He nodded toward James. "He's an emissary from Lucifer's army. An expert assassin of any type of being in any of the known dimensions."
"Well, his name is very manly."
Dead Guy clenched his jaw. My humor wasn't for everyone.
"Snap out of it before it's too late."
"Then what? It's not like I can fight them."
He stepped even closer. Cupped my chin and lifted my face to his. "Once you remember who you are, you won't have to."
"Got it!" James called out as he retrieved a small piece of metal from the fire.
He turned back to me, and Dead Guy appeared at his position across the room, staring into space as dead guys were wont to do. If James did see him near me, he didn't seem to give a rat's.
"And in their infinite wisdom," he continued, because this was apparently The James Show, "the monks made this box to hold the portal. To keep it safe." His expression changed to one of frustration. "Then they buried the box under a thousand feet of dirt and neglected to tell anyone where it was. Fuckers."
I gave him a dubious frown. "That little box is holding a portal to a hell dimension?"
"It is."
"Is it a hell dimension for tiny people? Because I promise you, I won't fit."
"Ah," he said, understanding my doubt. "Your human mind has limited you to a certain way of thinking. Things don't always work the way you believe they should. There are dimensions with creatures that fly from star to star, feeding off their energy. There are worlds with pebbles the size of your fingernail that could power this entire planet for all eternity. There is a galaxy with a world where the oldest living creatures are slowly melting and flooding the lands, drowning millions. There is so much you could have seen." He held up a small silver key, formerly a big iron one, he'd fished out of the fire. "But hell dimensions can be fun, too."
"Have you seen it?" I asked, growing more nervous by the heartbeat. Sadly, my heart was racing.
"Not this one." He pointed to the box. "Only one way in or out of the dimension you're going to."
James put the key in the lock and turned. The lid opened with a soft sigh, and a light shone out of it. He reached in and drew out a beautiful round pendant. It was really a locket, but the top piece was clear glass. Inside was a smooth jewel, the likes of which I'd never seen before. My vision laser-locked onto it like a homing beacon. I sat transfixed. Wherever it went, my gaze went.
James laughed, delighted with my reaction. "It's called god glass. And if you just happen to be a god, like you are, you will see the untold treasures of a dimension accessible only through this glass." He seemed almost jealous of the things I saw. The dancing light. The shimmering water.
"It's beautiful," I said. "How can that be a hell dimension?"
"There are many kinds of hell, love."
The pendant emitted a soft glow of colors. "Why send me there? Why not just kill me?"
"Someone didn't pay attention in God Composition 101. You're a god. Gods cannot be killed except by another god. But they can," he said, holding up an index finger, "be trapped. Especially one that has amnesia and can't remember that it's a god. But even then, there are rules. A set of conditions that must be met for the transport to take place."
"Which are?" I asked to keep him talking. I squinted, gritted my teeth, made grunting sounds, all in an attempt to stop time. I finally gave up. Clearly I had a faulty timer.