Devil's Punch

Exit, Stage Death

“First I look at your wound,” I corrected.

He grumbled but let me peel away his shirt. It was a bloody rake, but not deep. The blood had already clotted, leaving a messy slash along his flank. I hated seeing the damage, but it wasn’t life-threatening.

“How am I?”

“Gorgeous. Amazing. Mine.” I raised up on tiptoes to kiss him. “And you’ll be fine, albeit with some interesting new scars.”

“You’ve got some too, now.”

“Other places besides my hands.” I only had the flower pentacle there now. “Does that mean I’m a real warrior?”

“A veritable badass.”

Yeah, relief was definitely making us loopy. I drove back the awareness of the price Greydusk paid to get us this far. Images of the Imaron haunted me. He had been a true friend from the first, even when I had been frightened of him. From the beginning, he behaved with honor. I didn’t deserve his loyalty or his sacrifice. Ninlil, the demon queen who abandoned us in our hour of need, deserved it even less.

Shannon turned with a worried look. “I hear the next wave coming for us.”

“Right. I’m on it.” I limped over and closed the door, and then in quick, practiced motions, I set the barrier in place, using most of the magick I’d stolen from Oz. “We can’t afford another fight. We’re all injured and I have no more juice.”

“Agreed. Which portal do we take?” Chance paced away from the door.

From outside came the unmistakable sound of a Hazo troop. After four blows, it splintered and they slammed into my field. With dawning fear, I saw there were twenty of them. There was no way in hell we’d win that fight. We had as long as my shield lasted to find the portal and bug out of here.

“Butch!”

The dog popped out of hiding, tail wagging so his whole body looked like it might tip over. He cocked his head. Yipped once. Yeah?

“Great job.”

He lifted his muzzle at me, just about grinning, and his enthusiasm was contagious, despite the circumstances. I said to the others, “Grab your stuff.”

Following my own instructions, I got my purse and put Butch in it. He settled in with no protest, so I guess he’d had enough excitement, tormenting the Hazo and all. Twenty demons watched through the shield with malevolent eyes, waiting for the moment when our time ran out.

That’s not happening, bitches.

Ninlil directed me to a mirror on the far end of the hall. I double-timed it over there with Shannon and Chance close behind. It didn’t look like a portal, but I don’t know what I expected, either. A glowing red pool of light? The demon queen had known, but her knowledge didn’t feel like mine anymore. Her disappointment had forced a gap between us, as if we were two separate beings again; she’d crawled into a corner of my mind and gone ominously silent. It was different than it had been.

“Is this it?” Shannon asked.

“Yeah.”

Chance canted his head. “How do you activate it?”

“Shh. I’m asking.”

They both stared at me as if I was crazy. Ninlil drove me to step up and set my palm on the glass. That should do it. Only nothing happened. It remained a flat silver surface with no way to pass through.

“How long is it supposed to take?” Shannon sounded scared.

Yeah, twenty Hazo waiting to remove our heads would frighten anyone. A thrill of terror wormed its way down my spine, curling into my kidneys. I repeated her question in my head and received blank puzzlement.

“It should work,” I said. “It only requires my touch.”

Chance made a muffled noise. “Oh, God.”

“What?” I turned to him.

“I think Nin means her touch. But you’re not her…at least not in her body.”

I gaped at him. “But the gates opened for me. They knew me. My energy.”

Shannon offered, “Maybe the portals are more personal.…They had a physical component factored into the spell.”

“So we came all this way for nothing?” Frustration boiled in my veins.

Without waiting for an answer, I limped along the wall, touching each silver mirror to see if any of them responded. Nothing. Just more flat metal.

“We’re going to die,” Shannon whispered.

Her gaze fixed on the shield. I saw that the energy had started to thin. In a few more minutes it would be down entirely. Tonight, riding high on triumph, the Hazo wouldn’t care that Oz was dead. Zet might figure he could take the city for his own, the first warrior king. I saw the end, then, and I clenched my fists in utter rage.

Then Ninlil offered the solution. The knowledge rose, fully unfurled like a rose; in my head, I saw it with perfect clarity. She didn’t want to do this. Neither did I. But it was better than the alternative.

At least the ones I loved would live.

“There’s another way out,” I said softly.

I closed my eyes, making peace. In the end, I would have done what I set out to do: rescued Shannon from Sheol and Chance would get out safely. They should live, if I couldn’t. Perhaps that would count for something. If there was an afterlife, I hoped they wouldn’t punish me too harshly for the things I’d done. I always had valid reasons for my bad choices, but there was a saying about hell and good intentions.

Either way, it was time. There was nowhere left for us to run.

I cannot come with you. It was the first time she’d spoken in a while, other than flashes of insight or intuition. When you leave this place, it will mean my death.

What’re you talking about? You’re part of me. I wasn’t exactly excited about bringing her back into the world with me, but the defeat had weakened her. I didn’t expect to be riding shotgun in my own head anymore. Oddly, I was the stronger one, despite her ancient soul and her great power. I had more experience being knocked down and getting back up again.

When the archangel summoned me, he placed a geas on me. I can never return to the human world as a living creature. He cursed me to survive only as a parasite on the Solomon line, dormant until one of your lineage returned me home. Here in Sheol…this is the only place I can exist now.

Chance had told me about a war between demons and angels, and how according to Ninlil, the angels weren’t even necessarily the good guys. Even if she was telling the truth, I couldn’t let it affect my decision.

I do not tell you this to change your mind, Binder. The queen sounded sad, weary beyond belief. Only to prepare you for the pain.

Pain?

“What?” Shannon nudged me, breaking my communion with Ninlil.

No matter how I tried, I couldn’t raise the dark lady again. She’d gone back into isolation in my head, where she could wallow in failure. I strode over to the fountain, knowing I couldn’t explain the solution to Shannon and Chance. They’d never let me do it. With a growing sense of resignation, I put my hand on a palm print etched into the stone of the fountain’s rim. The water bubbled merrily, hiding the grim purpose this artifact served. Not even the demon queen’s most trusted advisors knew why the palace had been built here, or why this water feature must never be removed.

I knew.

With my other hand, I raised the athame to jab it into my heart.

But I’d forgotten Chance’s speed and his preternatural need to protect me. He caught the blade as it hovered millimeters from my chest.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

The shield faded more. In less than a minute, it would be gone. The Hazo roared in preparation for their victory.

I spoke quickly. “This isn’t just a fountain. It’s also a gate to our world, but you know the price. It requires a soul to open. That wasn’t a problem for the demon queen, back in the old days.”

“Hell, no,” Shannon snapped. “I’d rather die with you, fighting, than let you kill yourself for me. That shit’s not on. I wouldn’t have had a life without you anyway. They’d have gutted me in Kilmer.”

“Shan, no.” Tears streamed down my face, and I fought for the athame, keeping my palm in place. “Let me do this. Let me make it right. The two of you can still get out safely. It’s my fault you’re here in the first place.”

“Give me the knife,” Chance said softly.

“No.”

We struggled as time ticked away. He was stronger. First he shoved my hand away from the point of contact. There was an indent where a soulstone could be inset, but a living being worked as well, if you weren’t squeamish. Sobs choked my damaged throat as I lost ground. My fingers slipped on the knife.

“It has to be this way,” he said desperately. “Look at how your luck’s turned since we’ve been here…the trouble in the city. Maybe the portals would’ve worked if I hadn’t come with you. It’s all because of me, love…and I can’t be without you again. It almost broke me last time, but you’re stronger. You’ll be all right.”

“No.”

I wouldn’t be. I’d rather die here with him. We’d go down fighting. Greydusk’s broken body haunted me. He’d given his life so I wouldn’t have to live without Chance. That couldn’t be for nothing.

Chance wrenched the athame, and with my fingers beneath his, he rammed it into his chest. “Take Shannon and go. Live for me.”

“No.”

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I always meant to be the sacrifice, to pay the hidden toll. I’d known this journey wouldn’t be accomplished without cost, but it should never have been him. He was special, born of Yi Min-chin and the Japanese small god, Ebisu. I remembered the story he’d told me about his parents and the cherry blossoms, and for a brief second, I smelled them in the air instead of the coppery sweetness of his blood.

The pain stole his voice. For a few seconds his lips moved without sound. I leaned toward him, resting my face against his hair. It slid like black silk against my cheek. Then his words came, softer than a whisper. “This isn’t the end, my own. Have faith. Even death will not keep me from you.”

He tried to lean forward, to hold me one last time with the arm not resting on the palm print, but he collapsed against me. I cradled him, the hilt of the knife between us, digging into my chest. It should’ve been me. Should’ve been me. Never you. Oh, Chance. I brushed my lips against his. His breath barely puffed, but he returned the kiss. Tears burned behind my eyes. Trickled out from the sides like salt in a wound.

The first Hazo pressed through the doorway. Charged. The rest would be on us soon. No more time, no more, no more.

I didn’t want to believe he’d taken a mortal wound, but I saw the placement of the blade. Desperate with rage, with grief, I screamed as I never had before, past pain, past sanity, and I pulled the knife out, but it was too late. His red, red blood gushed over the rim of the fountain and into the water. A shuddering shock wave of magick exploded out from the water, tinting it crimson, as I remembered from the first time I passed through. The water gate formed in an unnatural swirl overhead, and Shannon pulled me toward it.

I tried to carry him with me. I tried. But I wasn’t strong enough. My leg buckled. His body fell against the fountain. The stone that had been my father’s heart flared bright as sunrise at my throat, and a flare of heat staggered me.

The Hazo thundered toward us.

“We have to go,” Shan shouted, “or this is for nothing. He died for nothing.”

Weeping and blind, I dove through the gate and howled as half my soul ripped away.