by Ann Aguirre
The Hazo roared. I peered around the stone thigh and saw the enormous demon charge. Chance rolled under the attack and came up with fiery fists to punch the first Saremon. He didn’t need to kill him with one blow. The flames leapt to the mage’s robe, and once the arcane fire started, there was no way in hell the demon could focus enough to cast. He ran, screaming, slapping at the fabric to no avail. Which left three.
Shannon stabbed the second Saremon while Oz aimed another spell at me. I ducked out of sight, racking my brain as to how I could help with a bad leg, one good eye, and little magick left. A shade sprang up behind me and I had to find new cover before the thing touched me and sucked all the life out of me.
I ran out into the chaos of combat; the Hazo chased Shannon, who hadn’t managed to kill the second Saremon. The first lay dead in a smoking pile, and Chance had turned his attention to the second mage. It made sense to deal with the enemies who died most easily, but it showed a cold, menacing side of him that sent shivers through me, even as I appreciated his expertise. The mage, however, took a page from my book and ran like hell away from Chance. Which at least meant he wasn’t lobbing spells.
“Watch out for the shade!” I croaked, but it was enough, loud enough that Chance and Shannon registered the threat.
Then inspiration struck. I dug deep in my memory, fighting past the layers that had belonged to Ninlil and found what was truly my mine—and my mother’s before me. I drew my athame and angled my head; if I was fast, I should be able to get this spell off before the shade reached me. My hands shook as I pulled the weak, thready bits of power remaining to me. They were like magickal cobwebs, clinging to my mind. The slash of darkness radiated cold, sweeping closer and closer as I shaped the spell, spindling the power until it reached sufficient mass.
With a final twirl of my athame, I released and the Hazo went blind. Shannon gave me a grateful nod and I ran from the shade with as much speed as I could muster. Exhaustion hammered at the back of my eyes, burned in my muscles. I don’t see how we can win this. But we’d fight, until there was nothing left.
The enraged warrior demon charged blindly and slammed into a wall. Impact knocked it down, but I couldn’t watch for long. Oz had summoned the shade to deal with me, so it hunted me relentlessly through room. I kited it, but I had no damage spells to use against it. Ninlil had been the queen of those; my mother hadn’t used her powers that way.
Come on, I screamed silently. Wake up. Greydusk is dead because you’re a coward. Don’t let us die too.
Oz was casting again. He had to be tired as well, but he still had tricks up his sleeve. I dodged away from another icy burst, conscious of the shade closing the distance between us. If my throat hadn’t hurt so much, I’d have trash-talked him, but apart from the blind Hazo growling with rage and beating the hell out of a statue, the room was more or less silent.
Shannon slid up beside me, breathing hard. Her blade gleamed red from where she’d slashed the mage. “Do we honestly have a chance here?”
“Yeah,” I lied. “Watch out!”
Then I relocated again in a slow, lopsided gait, leading the shadow away from her. How the hell could I kill this thing? While I maneuvered I kept pillars and fountain between Oz and me, frustrating him. Finally he shouted, “Give up, Binder! I’ll be kind. Think of how much we could learn from you.”
“Like you did my father? Fuck you.” At first I wasn’t sure my damaged voice carried to him, but his answering snarl said it did.
Shannon took the second mage down. Busy fleeing from Chance, the Saremon didn’t even see her poised with her sword. She chopped him neatly across the middle; she lacked the strength to cleave, but the gut wound dropped him, and Chance finished him with a single punch. The mage’s face…melted.
At last, the demon queen stirred from her grief. She looked out from my eyes and saw the shade, the Hazo preparing to charge, and Oz deploying another spell. Her reflexes took over and they saved me from a bolt of acidic darkness. I dove wide and the energy hammered a statue behind me. The great stone beast sizzled and fell, breaking into chunks that smoked and flaked into dust.
“Chance, take the shade,” I ordered. He’d dealt with them successfully before, using his gloves. Fortunately Oz couldn’t summon and control more than one; his reserves must be running low also. Otherwise we might not win this.
Suddenly I was sure we would. I had a battle plan, one that was hers, and mine. Ours. She was back, and I was stronger. The imperative filled my head. This wasn’t defeat; this was an obstacle, nothing more. We’d kill these two pretenders and then retreat to heal up and regroup at my mountain fortress. In time, we’d return. Without Oz to lead them, the other castes would fall on their knees. I’d break the back of the resistance here and return triumphant. Even my pain and weariness lessened.
“Shannon, distract the Hazo.”
She cut me a look as if to say, Are you crazy, and then I nudged my purse on the ground nearby. Butch popped out of the bag.
“You too,” I told the dog. “Run around. Bark. Make some noise. Don’t let the big monster step on you.”
Butch crawled out of my bag, quivering, but his ears went up and he bounded away, his tiny, fierce yip sounding. I couldn’t watch how Chance was doing against the shadow. Head down, I ran for Oz, as fast as my bad leg would carry me. I wove around the statues and columns, ducking and rolling away from his spells. They came slower and slower, more time between them. He was tired, and I’d finish him.
Athame in hand, I charged and he fell back. “You’re not strong enough—”
His empty words died as I sank the blade into his side. His eyes widened when I realized what I was doing. Not a killing stroke, but a draining one. The demon blade served as a conduit, and I forced the last flicker of my power in through the weapon and latched on to the magick he had left. Then I pulled with every ounce of will.
He screamed and scrabbled frantically at the athame, but his strength faded as I suctioned his energy. Dark, tainted magick unfurled in my veins, revitalizing me. I held him pinned until his eyes fluttered shut and he sagged to the ground. For good measure, I cut his throat in a decisive slash and then I spun back to the battle in time to see the shadow explode into icy fragments at Chance’s hand.
Butch circled the giant Hazo, yapping ferociously and nipping at his toes. If you’ve ever seen someone try to step on a cockroach and fail—well, yeah. Despite the dire situation, I smiled. From behind cover, Shannon threw chunks of stone at the beast. The blindness was starting to wear off, but the demon didn’t have complete peripheral vision yet. Chance whispered the command word for fire, his gloves obeyed, and he flanked the Hazo smoothly.
He unleashed a flurry of blows, searing the creature’s hide. This Hazo took longer to catch fire because of its scaly hide and lack of clothing. And this one, as I viewed it with my witch sight, was layered in protective runes, courtesy of the now-deceased Oz. Unfortunately, his wards didn’t die when he did. I set to unraveling them, but it was slow going.
Shannon saw that Chance had the demon’s attention, dropped her rocks, drew her blade and rushed into battle. The Hazo swung by reflex and caught her in the abdomen. The blow sent her spinning back and she hit the ground hard.
I abandoned my work on the protections and ran over to see how badly she was hurt. “Shan?”
“I’m fine,” she wheezed. “Well, maybe not fine. But I’ll live. Help Chance.”
I nodded. “Butch, get out of there. He can see you now.”
The little dog leapt away, bounding in and out of piles of debris. I drew on stolen magick to craft a dark, insidious curse. The demon queen wouldn’t permit any harm to her beloved; and when Chance took a claw in the side, utter rage filled my head.
With a snarl in demontongue, I unleashed hell upon the Hazo. From the moment my spell hit, its blood bubbled in its veins, growing hotter and hotter with the fury of hellfire, until steam leaked out its ears, its eyes cooked in its head, and ichor ran out its ursin
e nostrils. The demon screamed in anguish, and Chance sprang for the final blow. He whirled in a snap kick, followed by a hammer-fist strike so fierce it crushed the demon’s nose back into its skull. It fell back with a heavy thud, and clouds of dust swirled around us.
“We did it,” Shannon said in a tone etched in disbelief.
Chance nodded. “Now let’s find the portal and get the hell out of here.”
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 j
ust 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.
