Martin sighed, then shook his head. "No," he said. "I can't blame you." His lips were tight, as if the sentence was difficult to say. Nonetheless, it was the truth. He would have done the same thing, anything to get back to Lixi if he were in the same situation. He gave her hand a squeeze. "I just... I hate thinking about how fast I'm losing you."

He held that silence for a moment, pushing away the dark thoughts that had begun to take over him. Not just that she would be going to Hell, but that he would probably not be able to take that journey with her. "So this stranger," he said finally. "The Devil. You'd have to go back to Iron City, wouldn't you? Through the hellsmouth and out the other side?"
----

"There are fourteen," she said, recalling what had been generally agreed upon in her research as far as the construction of the ethereal planes were involved. "Each containing as much space as the one that we live on, and just about as much complexity. Even if its here on Earth, she would have to look in every nook and cranny that Joel might have hidden it in, and something tells me he doesn't care for hiding things in plain sight."