“Yes.”

  “You know I don’t have a good feeling about this?”

  “Yes.”

  I looked past the ink to where Obi and Thomas were standing. “I’m sorry guys,” I said. “But it looks like this is a one-way ticket on a two-man train.”

  “You get to have all the fun,” Obi said. “Be careful, man. You too sexy lady.”

  Thomas held up his hand. “Godspeed,” he said.

  Charis and I pulled the runes in tighter. I moved closer and put my arms around her, squeezing in so we could both make the journey. I had recognized some of the symbols from the Cave of Christ, and had discerned their purpose based on that.

  The runes spun faster and faster, rocketing around us as we fed them more power. They started to glow in a soft blue, and then the ink began to melt. I looked out of the spaces between to where Obi and Thomas were standing together, until the spaces were filled in and vanished. Within moments we were surrounded by a solid light, and I could sense the universe around us moving and shifting. Charis looked up at me with tenderness and determination. I returned her gaze with admiration. We held onto one another while we traveled to the unknown.

  The blue light was replaced with darkness. We had arrived.

  Chapter 26

  Wherever we were, it was nothing that any mortal eyes had ever come across before, and it was nothing that could be easily explained. A streamer of blue light gave some bit of luminance to the place, running along either side of a crystalline black wall in no specific pattern, branching and coalescing as though it were a river cutting its way through the geography. It snaked around as it traveled, following the sides of the containment downward beyond our feet.

  We were on a platform, I could tell, made of the same black, opaque crystal substance and lifted some distance above the ground. The floor was covered in runes, Lucifer’s runes, etched into the material and shimmering slightly against the blue light. Looking up, I got a feel for the immensity of the area. The ceiling was at least another four hundred feet away. Towards its center, there was a bright white light like a miniature star, pulsing in a gentle rhythm.

  I could feel the power of this place as heat and energy that raised the hairs on my arms. I could probably charge a Tesla by touch alone. It was nothing I had ever experienced before, but rather than foreboding, the sensation was intoxicating.

  I focused, attempting to use my Sight to find Sarah or Rebecca, but as soon as I tried a searing heat and constricting tightness held me in agony until I was able to let go. I looked over at Charis, and knew by her face she had experienced the same.

  “This can’t be good,” I whispered to her.

  “Let’s hope that we aren’t the only ones being cut off,” she replied.

  I wasn’t sure if we would even regenerate here. I stepped over to the edge of the platform with extreme caution, getting on my knees and peering down over the edge. The bottom of the room was far enough below as to be invisible, but there was a set of steps off the north edge. What freaked me out was that the steps weren’t attached to anything, each one stuck in the air, spaced evenly apart. What really freaked me out is that the platform wasn’t attached to anything either.

  “Lucifer always was a show-off, wasn’t he?” I asked Charis, sliding away from the edge and getting to my feet.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Everything is just floating in the air, like its suspended in ice. The steps are that way.”

  “Interesting.” She followed my finger, looking down when she got to the edge. “If we don’t stop them, we’re dead anyway, so there’s no point in being afraid of heights.”

  She bounced off the platform, and her head quickly disappeared. I could hear her feet tapping on the steps, descending in a hurry. She was right about the heights. I took a deep breath, and started down behind her.

  The steps spun in an odd spiral, sometimes closer together, sometimes further apart. The distance between them altered variably as well, and there were a few places where it took a true leap of faith to make it from one to the next. When we got down far enough to finally see the ground below us, we came to a total pause.

  The blue light was originating there, all of the tributaries feeding into the center of the floor, where a fountain rose from the ground. It looked as though a huge chunk of the black material had been pulled up from the surface in a single block to be carved out. It was seamless and massive, rising up a dozen feet or so. Chiseled into it was what I took to be the scene of the Beast’s defeat. Two angels, wings spread, dressed in rune covered breastplates, swords held high over a massive, hunched form. I recognized the face of Malize in an instant. The other had to be Lucifer, but the profile looked as though it had never been completed, with only the hint of a contour of eyes and nose and mouth. As for the Beast, it was a true mastery of stonework, for it held nearly no shape, yet elicited so much definition and emotion. To look on the carving was to fear.

  The blue light spat up from the top of the fountain, spreading off into myriad lines of energy that cascaded over, illuminating it in a rich, heavenly glow before tumbling back down and running out again. It was a sight to behold, and I couldn’t help but stand there and marvel at it.

  “The essence of the Lord is held within this place,” Josette said, her voice reverent.

  “More than that,” I whispered in reply. I could feel the energy. It was like oil and water, yet somehow it was entwined. “The Beast’s essence is trapped here. I can feel it.”

  “As can I,” Charis said. “The question is, where are Rebecca and Sarah?”

  I looked around. There was enough light running along the floor that I could see the walls, two hundred feet or so in the distance on all sides. There were no doors, no entries that I could define.

  “Maybe they haven’t arrived yet,” I said.

  “Or maybe this is a trick,” Charis suggested. “Look around. There are no doors. We’re trapped in here too.”

  The thought hadn’t occurred to me. I fought back against sudden panic. Did we just doom ourselves to spending eternity trapped here? I tried to focus again, but was once more greeted with the intense pain.

  “Now what?” I asked. I started walking around the room, looking for a seam in the wall. There had to be an entrance somewhere. How else would Rebecca and Sarah get in?

  “I don’t know,” Charis replied. “Maybe we wait?”

  “For how long?” I asked.

  “Not long,” the voice responded. It came from everywhere. It echoed throughout the room. It was deep, and smooth. Like jazz.

  I spun on my heels, but I didn’t see anything, or anyone. “Who are you?” I asked, edging back towards the fountain, to where Charis was standing.

  “I’m the past,” the voice said. “I’m the future.”

  The words ricocheted around the room, overloading my hearing.

  “I’m nothing, and I’m everything.”

  It was closer now. It seemed like it was sinking towards us.

  “I’m the beginning, and I’m the end.”

  Whoever was speaking, they should have been right on top of us. Charis and I both threw our heads around the room, seeking the source.

  It was a whisper, softly into my ear.

  “I’m a prisoner, but you’re going to help set me free.”

  My eyes closed, not because I wanted them to, but because they had to. I felt a rush of heat and my limbs locked up tight. What had we just wandered into?

  “Open your eyes, kid,” he said. I knew that voice, so much clearer now that it was centered in a single spot. My eyes opened on their own, but I already knew who I was going to see. That didn’t stop the revelation from taking my frozen head and slamming it hard into frozen air.

  It was Mr. Ross.

  He was still dressed in his pinstripe suit, sunglasses over his eyes, big grin on his face. Flanking him on either side like a pair of backup singers were Rebecca and Sarah. They were both wearing too-revealing, short, thin dresses; Rebecca’s in red, Sarah’s in white. Sarah held the Grail in her hands, her face a wall of stone.

  “Ta-da!” he said with a laugh. “I bet you didn’t see this one coming.” He punched me in the gut, and allowed me to double over coughing. “A cheap shot, I know, but come on - you deserved it.”

  “Go to hell,” I croaked.

  “Believe me,” he said. “I’ve been there. And I have every intention of returning, once I’m done with this realm. Payback is a bitch, and I owe Lucifer big-time.”

  Mr. Ross was the Beast. I tried to wrap my head around it, to get it processed in my mind. Mr. Ross, who had shown up on the shores of Purgatory out of nowhere. Mr. Ross, who had the amazing ability to travel to every realm, to get information from anyone, anywhere. Mr. Ross, who had taken me from Purgatory and left me on the torch of the Statue of Liberty, where I had run into Rebecca. Where I had run into Rebecca…The truth was a ton of bricks, an anvil, and a sandbag. He had been playing me from the first note.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be trapped?” I asked, trying to keep my emotions centered while I regained my breath and straightened up.

  “Funny story,” he said. “Lucifer and Malize, they were smart. They used the essence of your so-called God to trap me here. They were so careful to not leave any seams in the stone, which is infused with energy from Heaven itself. They were so clever to create the perfect patterns in the flow - the mathematics are so exceptional, I still don’t know how they figured it out.

  “Your so-called God on the other hand, He wasn’t so smart. Or maybe, He was just a tad bit ignorant. The angel’s trap, it was perfect. I was stuck like a pig on a spit. My physical incarnation melted to nothing right where that cute little statue is, and all my power and consciousness was left floating in the blue ether, too dispersed to form any kind of coherent thought, every moment an exceptional, intimate agony.”

  His lip curled, almost into a snarl, before he brought himself back and began smiling again. “Time passed. Then one day, God and his bff Lucifer got into a little spat, and He realized how royally He had screwed up. He covered his ass by creating Hell, which almost got things back in balance. Do you know what happened next?”

  “Purgatory,” I said. Dante had told me this story.

  He clapped his hands. “Purgatory. I love Purgatory,” he shouted. “So close to this realm, sitting right below the proverbial surface. Too close. The perfect prison sprung a leak.”

  I remembered what Rachel had said. She’d tried to warn me, but I hadn’t understood. If I had caught on sooner, maybe I could have confronted Ross on a better playing field, where I would at least have power of my own.

  “Drip, drip, drip,” Ross said. “I began leeching out into Purgatory, too slowly for anyone to notice. It took thousands of your years for me to take a new form. Do you like it? After that, it was so easy to get things moving in the right direction again. I even found out I already had a fan club! Once I convinced Dante to trust me, everything just came together so nicely.”

  I looked over to Rebecca, and then Sarah. They were calm and patient while Ross delivered his monologue. I tried to get Sarah to make eye contact with me, but she almost seemed to be in a trance of her own.

  “God wasn’t stupid,” Charis said. “He knew. He knew that against all odds you would find a way to escape, that someone would try to set you free. It was balance, as you say.”

  Ross looked thoughtful. “You may have a point,” he said. “It doesn’t matter, because in the end it’s come down to this moment, this time, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

  “Sarah?” She wouldn’t look at me. “He’s going to sacrifice you. He’s going to kill you.”

  Her eyes found me then, so sweet and innocent, so mortal. “I know,” she said. “My soul will go to to Heaven, or more likely Hell, and he will find me there and free me.”

  Ross laughed. “Was that your great hope, Landon? That you could talk her out of helping me? I’m sorry to disappoint you. Take them.”

  Rebecca and Sarah stepped forward. Sarah took Charis by the arm, tugging her towards the center of the room until she was standing under the light cascade of the fountain. Rebecca reached for me, but put her hand to my face before guiding me into position.

  “I’m sorry it came to this,” she said.

  “Not sorry enough,” I replied, turning my head away. After everything, she looked hurt.

  She shoved me forward, moving me until I was standing below the fountain with Charis on my right. We were angled towards one another, and below us was a small pool in the center of a triangle. Sarah took the spot at the third point, and held the Grail out over it. When she let go, it hung in place.

  “What are you doing?” I asked Ross. “Why not just kill us?”

  “Kill you?” he asked. “Kid, it’s taken quite a bit of luck just to keep you alive. Some of my servants have been, shall we say, a little over-enthusiastic. No, no, no, I never wanted to kill you, at least not yet. Did you think it was a stroke of good fortune, or the Hand of God that made us wait for you to arrive? Do you think an angel needed steps to get down from that platform?” He waved his hand up at the place where we had arrived. “It’s taken quite a bit of work to get you here, especially with how stubborn you’ve been about the whole thing. It would have been so much simpler if you had just gone in the goddamn Box.”

  So, we were part of this somehow. “Why? Why do you need us? You have Sarah, she can set you free. Why go through so much to bring us here?”

  He walked over, standing just outside the falling light, pacing back and forth as he spoke.

  “Balance,” he said. “You see, it has taken thousands of years for my power to leak into Purgatory. Thousands of years for me to gather enough to create this form and begin to manipulate the world. Even after I break free of God’s stranglehold it will take time before I can fully realize my goals. By making sure neither army was too powerful, I’ve given myself the time I need.”

  I felt my heart racing. My body refused to follow my commands without Ross’ consent. Was that why trying to focus here caused so much pain? It was too many revelations, too soon.

  “Our power,” I said. “It didn’t come from Purgatory. It came from you.”

  He clapped his hands again. “Yes! I convinced Dante we needed soldiers of our own, to maintain the balance and keep humankind from becoming manburger helper. The best part about that one is that it’s not even a lie; the future of your species in this realm does depend on keeping Heaven and Hell on equal footing. I never cared about that. What I did care about is that they wound up too equal and confused to stop me. Dante agreed to my advice, and I started trying to imbue my power into the freshly dead, into the ones I thought would be the most agreeable slaves.” He laughed and shook his head.

  “It didn’t work,” he said. “My power would go in, they would scream, and they would vanish. Poof! Like they never existed at all.” He shrugged. “The trick was that you had to be a diuscrucis to be able to absorb it, and you had to be in perfect balance to be able to use it. Trial and error, you know. Anyway, what I gave up was only ever meant to be a loan.” His face turned dark, and his eyes flashed with a coldness I never wanted to experience ever again. “I want my power back.”

  He grinned from ear to ear, reached out and took Rebecca’s hand, pulling her away from the three of us. “You’re a good kid,” he said. “Too good, actually. If you would have just gone with your honey in the first place, I would have let her keep you. I’m sure you would have enjoyed it.” He gave me a suggestive wink and slid over to Charis. “As for you, I knew you’d find me sooner or later, even if it were just to tag along after that one over there. You’re more of a goody-goody than he is, even if you like to think you aren’t. Working for a God you don’t believe in? If that isn’t ironic, I don’t know what is.” He put his hand to her face, lifting it up so he could look her in the eyes. “I’ll tell you what, sweetheart. I’ll give you one chance to join the winning team.”

  I could see the fear in her eyes. I could almost see her shaking. Ross stood over her, waiting, but she didn’t respond.

  “No?” he asked. He let go of her face and backed away. “Don’t say I didn’t offer. You can’t fight a god, Landon. Be honored that for a time you held even a drip of the power of one. Sarah, it’s showtime.”

  Chapter 27

  She looked over at him and smiled. “Don’t keep me waiting too long,” she said.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t,” he replied.

  She reached out and took hold of Malize’s sword, pulling it from the scabbard on Charis’ back and looking it over. “I was going to use a regular knife, but this will add to the irony,” she said. The blade lit up in the white heavenly light.

  “Sarah,” I said. “Sarah, please. Don’t do this.”

  She looked at me. “Do not be afraid, brother. This is my destiny, my fate, my purpose. I was born to free the Beast. After all, it was the Beast who convinced Gervais to rape his own sister. Why do think he did it?”

  “Sarah, no,” Josette’s voice fell into my mind, frantic.

  “You aren’t some puppet on a string,” I said. “It doesn’t matter what anybody says you were born to do. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

  “But I do want to,” she replied. “Everything I’ve felt for so long, everything that’s happened to me. It has all led me here, to this moment. I’m so sad, and so tired, and so angry. I’ve seen it all happen, I know how it ends.”

  “Those are possible futures,” I said. “None of them have to be.”

  “I’m sorry brother,” she replied. “I have seen no other path. No other way to find relief.” She took the blade, and stabbed Charis in a flare of white light. She gasped in shock and pain, looking down to watch the blood spill from her. The Grail floated over, placed under the wound where it collected her blood. The scene was too familiar. After Sarah had enough, she removed the sword. The wound closed over, but Charis looked pale and sick. Her eyes closed, and she passed out.