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by Holly Wentz (Author)
Ailya has just died, again; leaving another mortal life lived relatively good but far from pure and not always virtuous. She is returning to the Gray City, a large metropolis located at the Crossing where those like her, not exactly evil just not going to Heaven, live alongside true hell spirits. Many of those spirits are trying to get past the hellhounds that guard the gate into the physical world and she must wait a period of time before attempting the Crossing again. Aliya is a Nephilim, a forbidden child of a fallen angel and a human woman. As a youth before the Great Flood, when her father reigned as a god-king, she met and fell in love with a true angel, Ezi, who was unaware of her heritage until he sought permission from God to marry her. After he is denied and given full disclosure of what she is, he confronts her and leaves in anger. But Aliya is offered an opportunity from God to repent and be redeemed. She must live one truly virtuous mortal life and she will be permitted into Heaven, where she hopes to mend her broken courtship. As of the current day, she has not managed to overcome her lustful nature.
Back on Earth, Jack and Marcy, two recent high school graduates, have stumbled on an authentic book of incantations and rituals, created by followers of the occult in the 1920's. Stupidly, they decide on trying a summoning spell, thinking it would be cool to talk with a real demon. But the spell requires three people and the only other person around is Kyle, Jack's bully older brother. After bribing him with a month's worth of gas payments and a top-of-the-line detailing for his precious Ford Mustang, he becomes a willing participant. Unfortunately for all involved, Jack's belief coupled with Marcy's feminine and Kyle's masculine is exactly what the spell needs. But instead of something coming out, they all tumble in.
Enter Ailya, who stumbles on the three unjudged souls and hides them before the prowling evils of that world discover them. Hoping to get them back to Earth safely, she takes them to La'sha, a hellhound and friend, at the Crossing. With the help of a fellow Nephilim, Erech, they arrive at the First Gate but learn that the unjudged cannot go through; it apparently doesn't work that way. La'sha tells them to get out of the City while he "calls for help". The disguise Ailya used to hide them is quickly wearing off and Erech comes to the rescue. On the outskirts of the Gray City is the Deviant's territory before tuning into a Wasteland that leads to the Burning City. When the two hell spirits and three young mortals run into a gang of deviants, Ailya makes to sacrifice herself so that Erech can escape with the unjudged. Luckily, La'sha's help arrives just in time, in the form of two real angels. After saving all five beings, they explain how there is a chasm on the far side of the Burning City that the mortals, securely held by them, can fall into and fall out in the mortal realm. Unfortunately, one of the angels is Ezi who is dismayed by the circumstances he finds himself in with Ailya and livid by the circumstances he finds her in. Together angels, lust spirits, mortals, and hell hound transverse a lurid wasteland to save the humans from damnation.
