“There are no Divine here,” I whispered, leaning over Sarah so Charis could hear.

  “None?” She was surprised. I had thought maybe she had been doing the same exercise.

  “No. I’ve been a lot of places, but I’ve never felt such quiet before.” Even in the Scottish Highlands there had been a Touched or a Turned keeping track of the locals, spreading the good works of God by tending to the homeless, or hustling them at cards.

  “The Beast?”

  It was possible. Gervais was the local archfiend, which meant he could have brought all of the nearby demons away from the city to wherever he wanted them. If the demons were gone, it made sense that angels would follow. But all of them?

  “The calm before the storm,” Sarah said, barely loud enough to hear. The uncomfortable feeling sprouted into a darker foreboding.

  We reached the Eurostar station without incident, and without any hint of Divine anywhere close by. Charis paid the driver, and for the tickets for each of us on a train that was leaving in the next half-hour. By the time we made our way from the ticket office down to the tracks, it was already boarding. Getting the first train out was a bit of luck, and I was thankful that just once today something had gone our way.

  It was a smooth flow to our seats in Business Premier, two by two facing one another in the back of the car. I took up the aisle seat against the luggage closet so I could watch everything happening in the car. Izak sat across with Sarah, and his eyes stayed glued to the inter-car doors.

  The quiet and ease of the departure should have helped us relax, but it only served to make us more tense. It had been too easy to get from the sewers of Paris to here. Too easy to escape from a location where the Beast knew we were going to be, headed for one he hopefully didn’t. Had he been that sure that Abaddon would capture Sarah, and either catch or kill the rest of us? Would he be that foolish, after we had fought our way out of his first trap? I didn’t like it, and looking around at the faces of my companions, I didn’t need to ask them to know they didn’t either.

  The trip time from Paris to London was a little over two hours. We were fifteen minutes in when my cell began to ring. I pulled it from my pocket. Obi.

  “What’s the good word?” I asked, picking up.

  “Hey man,” Obi said. “We need to talk. Are you alone?” He sounded more tense than I felt. His voice had a minor quake that betrayed his nervousness.

  “No, why?” I glanced around the seats again. Sarah was staring out the window, Izak was watching the rear doors, and Charis mumbling to herself under her breath, talking to her demonic admirer.

  “Get yourself alone,” he said. “This news isn’t good for mixed company.” He lowered his voice. “It’s about Izak.”

  I raised an eyebrow, looked at the demon, and stood up. Sarah turned her head and titled it questioningly.

  “It’s Obi,” I said. “Nothing to worry about. I’m just going to take a walk while we chat.” Sarah was satisfied, so I started walking down the aisle. “What’s going on?”

  Silence.

  “Obi?”

  Nothing.

  “Obi?” I said it a little louder. I was near the opposite end of the car.

  “He can’t hear you.” The statement came from my left. I turned my head, and felt my heart rate jump. The teenager with the blue mohawk was smiling at me. “Have a seat.” He patted the empty seat next to him.

  I considered shouting for help, or trying to run, or something. There was no point. He had known where we were the entire time. He had known we had gotten away. How long he had been waiting, watching, and following, I couldn’t know. I sat down.

  “Not Obi?” I asked.

  He chuckled. “I’m a god, kid. Changing my voice and sending it over cell frequencies is something even you could do, if you’d ever thought to try.”

  Which I hadn’t, but it might come in handy in the future. “So, why the sit down? Decided to give up?”

  I got a half-smile for that. “Truth be told, I came to gloat. You got the Box, but I’ve got its creator. Oh, and you already know about Abaddon. I am curious though. How did you get past him?”

  “You came to gloat? Aren’t gods above gloating?”

  He leaned back in the seat. “I would say yes, but the thing is, I despise you. Always have. Any chance to rub salt in your wounds is a chance I’m going to take. Besides, you still see this thing as some kind of adventure or something, like you have a chance in Heaven or Hell of stopping me.” He leaned forward, putting himself right in my face, and spoke with a quiet intensity. “I’ve told you before. You can’t stop me, kid. My power’s been growing faster than even I expected. I guess I got a little more of that little nut’s juice than I realized.” A laugh. “How’s she been anyway? I hear those types can be hard to handle, especially under pressure.”

  He wasn’t just gloating, there was more to it. “She’s fine,” I said, returning a smile of my own. “Better than ever, if you have to know.” I lowered my voice, mimicking his tone. “You think this is a done deal, that you’ve already won. Maybe you have Avriel, but I’m pretty sure we can manage without him. It may all be a game to you, and that’s awesome. There’s a reason the game gets played though. Just because you think you know who’s going to win, there’s always the chance of an upset.”

  His arrogant smile corroded, if only for an instant. Maybe he thought I didn’t notice, but I had. For all his loud talk, the reason he was here wasn’t because he wanted to tease me. It was because he was afraid. Afraid because we had gotten past Abaddon, and evaded him yet again. Afraid because we were proving to be more of a challenge than he had expected. Did he really even have Avriel captive? My lie-spotting power didn’t work on him, so there was no way to know.

  “Not today, kid,” he said, regaining his composure. “Not today.” He pushed back the sleeve of his suit jacket to take a look at his watch. “It’s been nice chatting with you, but I’m afraid it’s time for me to collect what is mine, and be on my way.” He turned his head and leaned up, so he could see to the rear of the train. “And there she is. So cute in that hoodie. Maybe I’ll stuff her, make her into a little trophy commemorating your abject failure. After I bleed her out, that is.”

  The Beast stood up, still looking back. I followed his gaze to the rear of Sarah’s head, covered by the black hood of her sweatshirt.

  “I don’t want my prize getting hurt in the accident,” he said. “I’ll pick her up after the fun.”

  I don’t know what he did to her then, but I could see her head stiffen, and Charis look up. Whatever was going on, it caused her to jump to her feet. She looked past Sarah then and saw the Beast standing there, that wicked smile on his meat puppet’s face.

  “Better try to find something to hold onto,” the Beast said. “She’s not the worst choice, but I don’t think she’ll soften the impact much. See you soon.” The body went slack and collapsed. Dead.

  I was still trying to make the connection between the Beast sitting me down to talk and his foreshadowing of the train’s impending doom when a bell began to ring from somewhere in the car, and a second later the change of the locomotive’s momentum forced me to put a hand against the wall to stop my inequivalent deceleration. I glanced back to Charis, our eyes catching, and that’s when it hit me. Stupid. I was so stupid.

  I focused, throwing my Sight forward to the front of the train. We were in the fourth car, and there was nothing on the train. Past the train was another story. I nearly collapsed from the powerful heat that blasted my soul. The Beast was sly, and he’d duped me into useless banter while we’d sped headlong into his net.

  Except the train was slowing, and the demonic assault group was too far away to force the train off its rails before we ground to a stop. I hadn’t been the one to throw the emergency brake. Had Charis?

  I dashed to the back of the train, ignoring the looks of the confused mortals who thought I was batty for even being out of my chair while the machine whined and shuddered to a stop. Reaching them, I saw the Beast had belted Sarah in tight.

  “What’s going on?” Charis asked.

  “You didn’t throw the emergency brake?”

  “No!”

  Someone had, but that would have to wait. “He was looking to crash the train,” I said. “There’s a serious ambush up ahead.”

  I grabbed the knife from behind Charis’ back and focused, keeping my hand steady enough to slice through the straps of nylon that were holding Sarah in while the car vibrated and slowed.

  “There’s no way to escape it,” Charis said. “We have to fight.”

  I could still See them up in front of the train, but they had started moving towards it. “Come on,” I said. “We need to head them off, or they’re going to rip all of these people apart.”

  I swung around, past the luggage racks to the train doors. It was trivial to push them open. Izak went first, jumping out and rolling to a stop. We were in the middle of farmland, so at least he had found some grass.

  Sarah and Charis joined me at the doors. “I’ll break our fall,” she said. Izak would heal from any breaks or scrapes he had just suffered. Sarah wasn’t so fortunate. I felt the pressure of Charis’ power, and then she jumped from the train, floating parallel to the doors for an instant before they began to lose speed and lower gently to the ground. I saw Izak running past them, surpassing the velocity of the train and catching up as I threw myself out.

  I didn’t want to waste energy breaking my fall, so I hit pretty hard. First came the smell of the grass, and then it dug into my mouth and nose when I face-planted into it. The nose broke, and I was sure I felt a tooth pop free, and then I was rolling and tumbling, getting bruised but not feeling the agony of any more breakage on my way to a stop. I was healing before Izak helped me up with his good hand.

  “You okay to fight?” I asked him. He gave me the finger, and we both ran.

  Somewhere between one running step and another, I starting shifting, and my sprint became an awkward bipedal hop, and then a smooth and fast four-legged sprint. Somewhere between the hop and the sprint, Izak had gotten his arms around my neck, and when I launched ahead at monster speed, he was along for the ride.

  “Hey Ullie,” I said. “Take the wheel.“

  The demon was hungry for the power, and he grabbed it without hesitation. Knowing he wouldn’t use the opportunity against me made it easier to give it up to him, and giving it up made me a more effective force. I could concentrate on the Divine attack, while the Were took care of the physical.

  “Stop freakin’ calling me Ullie,” he growled, his finer control pushing us faster than I could manage. “And tell Izak if he ever does this again I’m going to rip his throat out.”

  “Like you could,” I replied.

  We blew past the front of the train, which had nearly stopped. The demon force was close enough to see now, a small army of the many-armed half-man, half-snake naga, a dozen trolls, an earth elemental, and a fallen angel Commanding them. It was the massive earth elemental that would have been the one to smash the train from its tracks, and the signal that there had to be a witch somewhere close. The rest had been brought in to keep us busy while the Beast picked up his prize. I didn’t need to see the fallen angel’s face, to see him smile, to know the Beast had taken over.

  “The angel is the Beast,” I growled to Izak through Ulnyx’s toothy snout.

  Our speed brought us yards closer in seconds, and now I could see his face. He wasn’t smiling at all.

  “Can you take the elemental?” I asked Izak.

  He grunted and let go, hitting the ground on his feet and sliding impressively to a stop. The last thing I saw before pouncing onto a troll was the demon conjuring a sword of hellfire into his good hand. Heaven and Hell had good reason to worry about him.

  The troll toppled to the ground under our weight, and before I knew it I had a huge chunk of it’s throat in my jaws. We spat it out and dove away, just in time to avoid being crushed under a second troll’s heavy iron mace. Ulnyx pounced on that one too, and I used my Sight to track a third about to flatten us. I focused on the mace handle, corroding and rusting the iron thousands of years in an instant.

  We’d dropped two more of the trolls and were in the thick of it with the rest by the time Charis and Sarah reached us. Charis had Callus’ sword in hand, and she charged towards the naga. They had more arms and more swords, but they couldn’t make up for her speed and focus. Pebbles from the ground swirled tightly around her as she twisted into the reptilian mass. Most of them bounced harmlessly off the naga’s scaly skin, but enough found their eyes, giving her the split-second she needed to break their defenses and put the blessed blade into their hearts.

  I heard Sarah’s voice shout out, and one of the demons turned on the others. It didn’t survive long, but as soon as it had fallen, she Commanded another to take its place.

  ”Ulnyx, get the angel,” I said. I had expected that once Sarah arrived the Beast would make to salvage the mess that had been made of his plan. We were fortunate that he was limited to the physical prowess offered by his host, but we were way too far away, the battle with the trolls pulling us across the farmland.

  I needn’t have worried.

  I hadn’t seen him do it, but somehow Izak had toppled the earth elemental and set it to melting, as he had with the monster at the airport. He’d already started moving towards Sarah, and he cut the fallen angel off on the way. There was a flash of heat as the Beast lashed out with cursed metal against the demon’s blade of hellfire, and then the hellfire was gone and Izak was on the ground.

  “Ulnyx!”

  The Were finished ripping the throat from a troll, using its falling body as an anchor to spring from. Powerful legs coiled and launched, and we were off. The Beast was quickly approaching Sarah, his host running full speed towards her. She was concentrating too hard on controlling the naga, and didn’t see him coming.

  Charis did, and she broke off her attack, leaping back away from the demons and putting herself in front of Sarah, Callus’ blade over her head, ready to attack or defend. Sarah saw what was happening now, her brow creasing while two of the naga slithered over and launched their assault against the Beast. He skewered them without slowing.

  We pounded the grass, the Were stepping easily over Izak, still sprawled on the ground. We were closing the gap in record time, but the gap to Sarah was closing just as fast. Dark wings unfurled then, pushing through the black linen shirt the fallen angel was wearing, spreading wide into the air.

  “No,” I shouted. Charis was still standing between the Beast and Sarah, and she didn’t disappoint. Her sword was a blur, whipping around, meeting his. The contact rang out across the countryside, then again, and again. She had gotten between them and put up a wall, slowing the Beast’s assault.

  It wasn’t enough.

  Charis swung her blade again, and the Beast caught it. He caught it with the angel’s bare hand, the metal digging deep into the flesh. In an instant, it had disintegrated to nothing, the power running down the weapon’s length and causing Charis to drop it with a cry of pain. A follow up blow, and Charis tumbled away.

  Ulnyx’s leap was strong and true. The Beast was only yards away, Sarah a few yards further ahead. We would get to him before he got to her.

  At the last possible moment, he turned, bringing the sword up and lashing into us, the blade ripping through flesh and bone and muscle, the force nearly splitting us in half and throwing us away. We landed and slid, the grass finding its way up into our nose again. The pain was intense, but I didn’t care. It would heal. There was no one between Sarah and the Beast now. And he knew it.

  He threw his sword away and approached her at a walk. She kept her eyes fixed to his, and stood still.

  “Well, my dear,” he said. “You’re full of surprises. I had thought you’d be too much of an emotional wreck to have any kind of grip on reality, but here you are an effective member of Team D.” He shot a look over at me, laying in the grass waiting for my body to be whole enough to rise. “This whole thing has been buckets of fun, but it’s time you came with me, and fulfilled your destiny.”

  “No.” A Command.

  The Beast laughed. “You can’t Command me. Why would you ever think you could?”

  Sarah’s eyes narrowed, her entire demeanor tight with intensity. “I don’t need to Command you, asshole,” she said. “Just your meat.”

  The Beast’s eyes widened, and he tried to reach out and grab her. Every muscle moved in slow-motion, the possessed Divine’s body caught in the middle of the opposing forces.

  “Keep trying,” Sarah said. “You aren’t strong enough.”

  The Beast growled in frustration. “Don’t be too certain,” he said.

  I wasn’t too certain. Neither was Charis. She came up behind him and removed his head with a clean easy stroke of the cursed sword. The fallen angel dropped in two pieces, and both began to dissolve. The Beast had left the building.

  I took my body back from Ulnyx and pushed myself upright. The hit had nearly severed my leg, but it had already made itself right again. I started running towards Sarah and Charis when I remembered the witch. Earth elementals weren’t from Hell. They were created here. I sought her out with my Sight, feeling for the heat of her dark core. With their leader dead, the few surviving demons had begun to flee. She must have gone with them, because I couldn’t pick her out.

  “Well, that sucked,” I said, reaching Charis and Sarah on the field. Izak joined us a few seconds later, none the worse for wear.