There was no way out. No way to win. We had the Box, but we wouldn’t be able to get it to the Beast before one of us died, or Sarah was taken. There was only one reasonable thing to do, that would save some of what remained.

  I had to kill Sarah.

  If she were gone, the Beast would take this world, but he wouldn’t be able to gain a foothold on the others. He wouldn’t be able to rise to the power that had allowed him to fight such a pitched battle against God. He would be trapped here, forever, or forced to find greener pastures somewhere else. I didn’t know enough about how it worked to know for sure. All I knew was that it would be enough to keep him from being as strong as he once was.

  “Sarah,” I said, letting go of Charis’ hand and approaching her. I think she knew what I was thinking, because she nodded.

  “It’s okay, brother,” she said. “I know what you have to do. I forgive you.” She even tilted her neck, to make the killing stroke easier.

  “What is she talking about?” Adam asked. Then he realized. “Landon, you can’t.”

  “I have to,” I said. “We lost.”

  “We haven’t lost yet.”

  I turned to him. “No? How do you suppose we get through a million enemies with forty of us?”

  “I can do it,” Ulnyx said. It was a macho lie, and we both knew it.

  “We don’t need to get through them. Only the three of you do,” he said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Charis asked.

  “We need to find a way to get the three of you to the Beast. The seraph can fly you there.”

  Vilya laughed. “You don’t think he has demons waiting for you to try?”

  “Do you have a better suggestion, demon?” Adam asked.

  She stayed quiet.

  I closed my eyes and focused, reaching upwards as far as I could. The demons were there. A lot of them. “She’s right,” I said. “It won’t work.”

  There was silence for a moment.

  “Landon, kill me,” Sarah said. “Keep the Beast from taking everything. One world is better than all of creation.”

  I looked into her eyes. I saw the fear, and the sadness, and the strength. She had stood up to Gervais, and had triumphed, overthrowing his power over her. For what? At least she hadn’t been forced to kill me.

  I felt my heart begin to race, and my breath caught in my throat. The realization hit my in the gut, and knocked the breath out of me. I turned and looked at Ulnyx, then Charis, then Sarah. There was one way to get the three of use there. It was scarier than anything I had ever imagined, but maybe it was just stupid enough to work. I took the sword and turned it, holding it out to Sarah.

  “Sarah,” I said. “You have to kill Charis and me.”

  “What?”

  It was the same word, echoed by everyone there, except for Alichino.

  “Yes,” he said. “Yes. That’s brilliant. Better than Averbakh-Spassky in ‘56.”

  “Landon, no,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. “I can’t. You said I wouldn’t have to. You said it wouldn’t happen like that.”

  “You have to,” I said. It was the only way.

  “No no no no no no no,” she cried, backing away. “I can’t. Please, don’t ask me to. I won’t. I saw it, Landon. I saw it. I told you. You promised.”

  “Knock, knock,” the voices said from outside. Something slammed into my wall, and the whole building shook.

  “Sarah, we don’t have time. Take the sword, and cut off my head.” I couldn’t believe I had said it, and meant it.

  “Sarah, please,” Charis said. “You have to.”

  “No,” she screamed. She turned to run, but Vilya grabbed her.

  “Let her go,” Charis said. The demon complied.

  “Sarah,” I moved around in front of her. The wall got slammed again, and the building shook. “Your mother gave her life for me once, so that I could survive, and protect you. I’m giving my life to you, now, so that you can save everything else. All of those people out there, they don’t belong to the Beast. They don’t deserve to be prevented from going to the next life, with God’s grace in Heaven if that is their destiny.”

  She put her head down. “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

  I looked back at Charis, and took a deep breath. I knew what I had to do, but it killed me to have to do it.

  “Sarah. This is your fault. You caused this. Your selfishness, your desire. Melody is dead because of you. Thomas is dead because of you. Your mother is dead because of you. Izak is probably dead too.”

  Her head snapped up, her pain and agony obvious.

  “You have a chance to redeem yourself, but you’re still too selfish. You’re still too concerned with what you want, instead of what will help everyone else. This whole time, you’ve been more worried about what you saw, the future you didn’t want, then what might really happen, and what you might need to do.”

  I jabbed the sword at her feet, focusing to make sure it planted upright in the tile and cement floor. The walls shook again, and I could see them beginning to crumble.

  Sarah was shaking, trying to contain all of the conflicting emotions that I knew would be racing through her. I had one more card to play. It was the last one in my hand.

  “You’re just like your father.”

  The growl that came from her was guttural and inhuman. I locked eyes with Charis, watching Sarah’s reflection in them. I knew when she grabbed the sword and pulled it from the floor. I knew when she raised it up. I knew when she swung it at my head. It took a lot of effort to let her do it.

  I died for a second time.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Everything slowed. I felt my body, and the pain for only an instant, and then I felt nothing. I was floating weightless in the space I had just occupied, as though the air were water, and I could swim in it. There was a roar, like an ocean, or thunder, and in the distance I saw a small, round, black pinprick of emptiness that called out to me, ordering me to it.

  I saw Sarah, standing there, her chest heaving, looking down on my body, on my head that had rolled a few feet away, and the volumes of blood pooling on the floor, so much that she had to step back to keep her freet out of it. I had no muscles to move, no brain to think. I was a soul, a form of light or darkness or maybe just plain grey. I had only the most primitive thought, and a single goal. Join with her. It was the thought I had died with, and it stayed with me.

  I felt myself floating towards her, my momentum gathering but unable to be slowed, like a rocket in space. Her face grew in front of me, looming up, a massive visage of horror, pain, guilt, anger, sadness, and love. Her mouth was a black cave, and I flowed towards it, and then into it.

  There was no sound, only feeling. First, it was empty, and then, it wasn’t. I could feel her soul. I could hear her heart. I could sense every hormone, blood vessel, and muscle. There was a small white light, and I followed it. I fell on top of it. I took hold of it, and wrapped myself into it. My own senses came alive. The feel of air, the sound of the banging outside, the understanding of what Sarah was feeling, of the damage I had intentionally done. I took it all in, and I held onto it, and I forced it to be part of me. Sarah had no eyes to see with, but the world lit up in shades and shapes and colors, senses that I didn’t understand, and yet suddenly found familiar. I was there, in Sarah’s soul. I had access to her mind, and her body. I could have wrested control, but I didn’t. She needed to finish this.

  I felt her moving towards Charis. She didn’t defend herself, and nobody tried to stop it. Sarah brought the sword up again, still growling and whimpering, and swung it hard. I pushed, just a little, guiding the blade to a cleaner cut. I sensed her body fall, and I sensed the light of her soul. Sarah stood there, panting, while she joined me.

  “Landon?” her voice was ethereal, echoing, afraid.

  “I’m here,” I replied. My confidence brought her comfort.

  “Brother,” Sarah whispered in her head. “Why did you make me do this?” I could feel her pain, I knew how much it hurt.

  “Your mother believed in sacrifice. You’ve done her the greatest honor you could imagine,” I replied.

  “I’m a murderer. An evil killer.”

  “You’re a hero. A savior. Tell Ulnyx he needs to take you to the Beast.”

  I didn’t dwell too much on the fact that I was dead. I had already technically been dead after all. The only thing I had lost was the freedom to move about in a shell of my own. Now I was tied to Sarah’s mortal body. Would I die for real if she died? I didn’t want to find out.

  “I never knew what to expect,” Charis said. I couldn’t see her, but I could feel her. I knew she was there with me.

  “I’m sorry this had to happen,” I replied.

  “Don’t be. If this is what it takes, so be it. I didn’t spend all of these years preparing in order to lose.”

  “Ulnyx,” Sarah said. The Great Were lifted his head and peered at her. “Landon wants you to bring me to the Beast.”

  The monster laughed. “Still alive in there, after all? You’ll get used to it, meat.”

  “Sarah, the Box is in my pants pocket,” Charis said.

  She stepped around the blood, leaned down and reached into the pocket, taking it out. She handed it to Ulnyx. “Do you know what to do?” she asked.

  “Of course,” he replied.

  “Charis,” Vilya said, stepping between the Were and Sarah. “Be careful.”

  The wall shook again, and the barrier began to crumble. The front line began crawling through the spaces, ignoring the deep cuts the jagged rock was making in their skin. Ulnyx reached out and took Sarah in a massive claw, tucking her under his arm, and backhanded Vilya. She flew away and rolled along the floor. With a grunt, the Were took off towards the rear of the building.

  “What are you doing?” Sarah asked.

  “It needs to look convincing,” he said. “I didn’t break the skin, she’ll get over it.”

  We charged to the rear, where an angel was defending against the onslaught. Ulnyx ran him through on his claws and tossed him aside, then shoved through the undead.

  “Change your mind?” the Beast asked through bodies the Were was mauling on his way by. He was clearly amused at the turn of events.

  “I know a loss when I see one.”

  “I’ll open a path for you. What are you terms?”

  “Lylyx. That’s all I want.”

  If he hadn’t been helping us, I would have believed he wasn’t helping us. It occurred to me that it could still be the case, but I was hoping our outing in Italy had been enough to convince him. It seemed oddly amusing that the fate of the universe had just fallen to the paws of a giant dog.

  “Done,” the Beast said. The mob spread apart around him, allowing him access straight to the building Dante had pointed out. The clouds were still there, but they had fallen into ruin. I could only imagine what he had done to the poet.

  We reached him within two minutes, riding under the arms of the Were while he loped along. He didn’t speak, and we didn’t speak, all of us just waiting for the game to play out to its final move. We were down to the Hail Mary, but at least we had a killer quarterback.

  The building the Beast had holed up in was a six story office that had earlier that day housed some kind of outsourcing firm. He had taken the liberty of hollowing it out, throwing the computers, desks, chairs, and other equipment out of the windows, and demolishing huge portions of the floors so that he had a tall ceiling above him. We entered at a slow walk, Ulnyx keeping his senses sharp for any kind of trick or trap. I had no doubt the Beast would betray him, and he probably knew as much too. The only question would be how and when.

  We found him sitting on a throne of mortals, still alive but twisted by his will into a contorted mess of poses that gave him purchase to rest on their limbs. On his knees next to him on one side was Dante, his head bloody, his face more haggard then usual. On the other side was Izak. He was still alive, but he had a mark carved into his chest. Gervais’ brand. The archfiend stood behind the demon, wearing a smug expression.

  “No,” Sarah said, seeing him there.

  Ulnyx squeezed her tight, pushing the air from her. “Be quiet,” he snarled.

  “Now, now, Ulnyx,” the Beast said. That sick smile spread across his face. “I need her alive.”

  Ulnyx put Sarah down and shifted, taking on the form of the big russian. “Here she is,” he said, giving her a little push forward. “Go kill whatever, or whatever it is you do. Just get me Lylyx back.”

  He still held Avriel’s Box in his hand, which was so large it concealed it completely.

  “It’s a wonder to me,” the Beast said, rising to his feet and walking towards us. “I’ve never seen a Great Were who cared at all for anyone. Yet your heart’s desire is to have a single bitch in return?”

  “You have me,” Sarah said. “Why don’t you just do what you’re going to do and shut up.”

  The Beast laughed. “Give me a few moments to enjoy this, won’t you. Everything else is going to be a cake-walk compared to the crap that Landon put me through. Do you know, there was a minute there where I actually had the thought that I could potentially lose? It was only for a second, but it was there. That’s more than I can say for anyone else.” He walked past Sarah, getting right in the Were’s face. “Well, Ulnyx? Is that really what you want?”

  I could hear him breathing. I could feel his anger rising. He knew the Beast couldn’t bring her back. If he hadn’t, he’d realized it now.

  “Yes,” he said, holding his temper.

  “Okay,” the Beast said. “I can do that. There’s just one thing.” He leaned in close, his mouth only coming up to Ulnyx’s bicep. “I know this is a trick,” he whispered.

  He held out his palm, and a flash of blackness hit Ulnyx right in the chest. He fell to the ground in a heap.

  “No!” All three of us said it at once. The Box fell from the Were’s hand, coming to rest at our feet. Sarah bent down to grab it, but the Beast took her by the wrist.

  “You think I’m stupid, don’t you, kid,” he said. “You think I wouldn’t catch on to this? It was a ballsy move, and smart, I’ll give you that. I haven’t lived for eons just to be fooled by something so mundane.”

  He started tugging, the force pulling us away from the Box.

  “You don’t need that thing anymore,” he said, “but I appreciate how much work you put into preparing it for me. It will make it much easier for me to reel in the Big Fish. I have to say, it was also pretty damn helpful how you wrapped up all of the power I need up into one big package. I mean, I was ready to let go of what you took from me, for the sake of the bigger picture, but this is going to work out better than I could have hoped. Gervais, the rift.”

  The archfiend and Izak both rose and walked to the rear of the human throne. There had to be a rift back there.

  I found Sarah’s consciousness. I pushed myself into it, aiming to take control. We had to break his grip, and get away from him. I found myself with muscle, bone, touch, and taste once again. I saw the way she saw, and I felt the pain of the Beast’s grip. I planted my feet and pulled back, hard, focusing, finding my own power, finding Charis’, finding Sarah’s. I joined them all into the strength of her mortal arm, wrenching the Beast backwards, throwing him to the far wall.

  I turned and saw the Box, ten feet away. I made a run for it.

  Izak tackled us, knocking us to the ground and stealing the wind from our lungs. Even with my power, Sarah was still mortal. There was nothing I could do to make her body hold up as well as my Divine form could. I could make the muscles stronger, but I couldn’t make everything more resilient. Izak twisted our arm behind us, threatening to break it. I kept us struggling and fighting, but even one-handed he could hold her without much trouble. The Beast stood and dusted off his pinstriped suit.

  “Full of surprises,” he said. “I’m actually starting to think I’m going to miss you, kid. I don’t even think God will be as much fun to play against as you’ve been.”

  “I’m not done yet,” I said in Sarah’s voice. I focused, taking all of the power again and willing the ground beneath him to open up. He stayed in position, floating over the gaping hole.

  “No, not anywhere near good enough,” he laughed.

  I focused again, pulling the walls in on him, to crush him beneath the stone. He held out his hands, and it all crumbled to dust around him.

  “Your power is my power, moron,” he shouted. “Except, I have a lot more of it, if you haven’t figured that out by now. There is nothing you can do to stop me. What?”

  I didn’t know what was happening behind us. What I did know was that Izak’s hands were pulled from Sarah’s body, and I heard a thump nearby. I would have loved to know what was going on, but there was no time. I focused, pulling the Box to our hand and then abandoning control, leaving Sarah standing there, holding it.

  “No,” the Beast said. “You’re mine. You can’t do this.” He came running towards us, a sudden panic in his voice.

  “Sarah, do it,” I said.

  I felt her focusing, pulling at our souls. I felt the stream of energy pouring through me, from my Source to her. I felt Charis with me, within me, her being as raw and naked as my own. The Box began to glow in our senses, a red-gold hue that matched the color of Sarah’s lost eyes.

  “You can’t do it,” the Beast said. “His Box can’t hold me.”

  “It can,” Sarah said. She kept taking, and I started to feel dizzy and dry. It took her only seconds to suck every last bit of the Beast’s power through our conduits to Purgatory, to steal it from our souls, and to mix it with her own, creating a perfect balance of strength.

  The Beast reached us, and his hand grabbed for the Box. “I won’t let it,” he said.

  The hand moved like it was in slow motion.

  “You have no choice. Stop,” she Commanded.

  The power of it created a shockwave that shook the floor below us, and threatened to finish the collapse I had started. Outside, I heard a million cries of agony.