Eyes wide, Cora stared at the demoness incredulously.

"With all due respect, Nahemah, as much as I should like to believe that your plan is a sound one,"—she glanced down at the child in her arms with a worried expression—"I do not appreciate the idea of putting this little one in harm's way. Not one bit."

"The girl will most likely be fine," the succubus drawled in not very reassuring tones. "She is already dead, after all. Corpses cannot die again. What is the worst that could happen to her?"

Cora faltered. In fairness, the demoness' point wasn't faulty.

Could a fate worse than death exist in this strange realm?

Cora didn't know how to answer this question. She frowned and tried to think of a rebuttal.

"I..."

Nahemah's glowing eyes narrowed into serpentine slits. She seemed to read Cora's uncertainty like a book.

"Do not falter in your resolve, pretty gatekeeper. It is your duty to ferry the dead through this gate. If you wish to help the child and her parents continue on their journey in the afterlife, then you would be wise to do as I say."

Cora glanced to Cerberus with a somewhat helpless look.

She shuffled closer to him and asked under her breath, "What do you think, Cerberus? Do you suppose it wise to proceed with Nahemah's plan?"

Cerberus' crimson eyes flickered. "I am reluctant to admit... Nahemah may be our best hope at this point. She is known to be one of the most powerful succubi across the under realms. As long she chooses to uphold her end of the bargain, then we have nothing to fear..."

His hand suddenly reached out. He brushed a clawed thumb carefully across Cora's cheek.

In intimate tones, Cerberus whispered, "Although, I wish you had not acted so recklessly to forge a deal with Nahemah. My only real fear in this whole wretched matter is that... I may not be able to keep you safe if the she-snake chooses to betray our trust."

Cerberus' light touch lingered on Cora's skin, sending funny, little flutters through her chest even after he pulled away.

She cleared her throat awkwardly. "I am... grateful for your concern, Cerberus. I appreciate your frankness even more. I suppose... there is not much of a choice, then. You and I must go through with what Nahemah intends to do if we wish to save the Butters..."

"You and I..." Cerberus echoed softly, "I very much like the sound of that."

Cora's cheeks grew rosy. She glanced away quickly from the smiling hellhound. Cora was feeling slightly off-kilter and ashamed of herself.

This was hardly the time or the place to moon over slick-tongued, red-eyed demons!

Cora's brows snapped together with stout determination as she tried to shake off the jitters by focusing on the snake-tailed demoness standing to her right.

Cora declared, "Despite my reservations, I have decided that I would like to press onwards with your plan, Nahemah."

"Exxxxxxxcellent," breathed the succubus.

An unsettlingly jubilant expression spread across her beautiful face as Nahemah began to hiss and chant in a dark, foreboding language that sounded far more primitive than the ancient Greek and Latin that Cora had once studied with the witches. It seemed more archaic still than the guttural, raspy vernacular Cerberus had used the first time he drew a summoning circle.

Nahemah's lulling, whispery tones sent shivers down Cora's spine.

From the succubus' forked tongue and plump red lips, velvety black-violet tendrils of smoke emerged as though she was exhaling fumes from a cigar. The dark cloud billowed larger and larger until it finally separated into three perfect circles. They drifted to the ground without a sound. When the smoke dissipated, three summoning circles with shimmering geometric symbols appeared on the ground.

This impressive trio was much bigger and far more intricate than the one Cerberus had created not long ago.

Nahemah instructed Cora to place Little Cora, Luna, and Noctis in the center circle atop one of the pentagrams. The demoness then told Cerberus to guard the circle to the right as she claimed the left one for herself.

Within seconds, darkness swallowed them as though some supernatural being had vacuumed away every sliver of light from existence.

The blackness and silence that followed was truly unnerving.

After what felt like an eternity, Cora heard a gaggle of screams, followed by several heavy thumps, like the sound of bodies hitting the ground.

A faint light flickered. It slowly grew brighter.

Cora gasped in horror once she laid eyes upon what awaited her inside each of the three summoning circles.

In the center circle, severed body parts of a man and woman were now piled on top of Little Cora, Luna, and Noctis like a small nightmarish hill made up of appendages and limbs and torsos and heads.

Circe was shrieking her head off inside Cerberus' circle while her sister clawed at the invisible barrier within Nahemah's circle.

"Oh, good heavens, Nahemah!" Cora gasped in outrage. "What have you done? What is the meaning of all this?"