Caught between denial and intense terror, Alicia could only stand where she was, staring at the fading remnants of black smoke before her. She could not even make herself understand what had just happened. The gate of hell was suddenly gone…? Ezekiel… her love… her husband. He too, had disappeared along with the gate.
She fisted her hands into her hair, muttering to herself that this was another nightmare. There was no way that this could be real. She just needed to wait for a few seconds, and soon she would wake up in Ezekiel's arms again, tangled with him in their bed. But seconds stretched into minutes. Yet nothing happened. Her heart seemed to be stretched taut and was on the edge of splitting into two.
