Текст книги "Every Last Breath"

Автор книги: Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

“That’s disgusting,” Robin said.

She snickered. “It was amazing.”

Okay. I knew I needed to focus on the important stuff, but I was still stuck on the fact they were here.

“How is this possible?” I asked.

Bambi opened her mouth, but it was a male’s voice from behind me that answered. “Ah, spoken like a true newcomer. Allow me to enlighten you, young innocent. Whenever familiars are in Hell, they automatically take this form. Obviously, no one thought to tell you, because they believed it would be a nonissue.”

Spinning around, I fought the urge to back up. Instinct demanded that I move far, far away from the tall man who stood in front of the doors leading to the hallway. Tall really didn’t do him justice. He had to be near seven feet in height. A ruggedly handsome man, if dark beards and hard, glacial eyes were your kind of thing.

“They can also take this form topside,” he continued.

Bambi giggled from behind me. “Astaroth lets me do that. Not often. But when he does, it’s always fun. I wish he would do it more often.”

The man arched a brow. “Probably not the wisest of decisions. You see,” he added, directing his attention to me again, “the familiars have very little impulse control and they do not operate by any human moral compass.”

“Damn skippy we don’t,” Bambi agreed.

“You and I need to talk,” the man told me, raising his hand. He snapped his fingers, and I felt more than saw that the familiars were gone. “Don’t worry. They’re fine. Well, they will be provided they stay away from the pits and any demon who may be a bit angry with the Prince, but I’m sure those two will cause more trouble than any trouble that can find them. Rest assured they will be returned to you once you leave.”

My eyes widened as my heart rate kicked up. I saw no aura around the man, but if I had, I imagined it would be dark and vast. Power radiated out from him, the supreme kind. He hadn’t made one move toward me, but I knew within a second, he could end me.

He could end us all.

“I knew you would come,” he continued, his lips curving up slightly behind the beard. “I even hastened my arrival from the pearly gates in anticipation of this moment. But have you nothing to say, child? After all, you wanted to see me. And here I am.”

This was Grim—the Grim Reaper.

sixteen

HOLY CANOLA OIL in my face, I was doing my best not to spaz out, but this was the Grim Reaper, and he had been expecting me. Of course he had been, because he was who he was, and he probably saw everything.

Which was awkward to think about.

A tremor of unease coursed through me as a million questions sprang forth, ones I knew better than to ask him. But I wanted to. I wanted to know if he really was the angel of death. If he could take me to Sam now? If he knew Lilith? If he saw where Elijah had gone, after the Lilin had killed him? And what about all those other poor people? The questions kept bursting free, and it took everything in me to remain silent.

Grim smiled behind the trimmed beard. “The Prince is going to be very upset with you when you return.”

“Yeah.” There was no denying that. I just hoped I would return.

His smile spread but did not reach his eyes or soften his face. Frankly, it made him more creepy.

“Especially considering I’ve blocked any entrance into Hell. He cannot come for you. I did not want to be interrupted—we need our time together, and yes, I have that kind of power and then some.”

My heart turned over heavily as my mouth dried. Our time together gave me the heebie-jeebies. I couldn’t go back, though. “I had to come. I had to—”

“I know why you’re here, but I don’t want to talk about that.” He started to walk past me, toward the fortress. “Not yet.”

I turned to follow him. “But—”

“If you were wise, you would not question me. Please tell me you are wise.”

Chagrined, I held back what I really wanted to say. “I like to think I am.”

“Then you will walk with me,” he replied with mock courtesy, tossing the words over his shoulder.

“And you will talk with me about what I want to talk about.”

I had no idea what Grim could want to talk about with me that didn’t have to do with Sam, but I hurried to catch up with him.

“That’s a smart girl,” he murmured as he walked down the center of the empty road, his hands shoved into the pockets of his trousers. The buildings surrounding us were quiet. “Pity, though, that you’re not very observant.”

Pressing my lips together to keep myself from saying something I was sure to regret, I focused on the stones in the road. They too had a reddish tone to them.

“For example, what do you think you know about your mother?” Grim asked, startling me. “Yes, Lilith. That’s what I want to talk about. Did you know, child, that Lilith is not a demon? Well, not exactly?”

For a moment, I couldn’t speak. “She is a demon. Everyone says—”

“Everyone can say whatever they’d like to say, but that does not mean they are correct, and the truth is sometimes lost in translation when the facts are not understood,” he replied, the corners of his lips tipping up. “And the truth is, the facts are, that Lilith is not merely a demon.”

We passed a hut-type building, smushed between the taller, fiercer skyscrapers. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw movement in the hovel’s window, but when I looked, I saw nothing. “I... I don’t understand.”

“I have a feeling you understand very little.” He delivered the insult quite smoothly. “You know Lilith’s background, correct? She was kicked out of Eden because she was, well, demanding. From there, she coupled with demons, and out of that she created a whole new breed of them—but none of that happened immediately. Oh no. You see, Lilith’s plight had gained her the sympathy of a very powerful being. She became...friends with the unlikely ally, and when Eden fell apart and all its former inhabitants were stripped of their immortality due to sin, so was Lilith. And her new friend, well, that being did not feel it was right that Lilith would be...punished yet again.”

“I think I can guess who that being was,” I said, hoping he didn’t knock me into the next century for taking a stab at it. “The Boss?”

“Correct. At the time, they were two peas in a rather disturbed pod. The Boss hadn’t created any demons before meeting Lilith and had no idea how it was done, but the Boss refused to allow Lilith to die a mortal death. Who knows if the Boss had a real fondness for Lilith or simply did this as a way of...of giving the big guy in the sky the middle finger once more. The why of it all doesn’t really matter in the end.

“The Boss discovered that the blood of an original angel that had fallen, if ingested, granted immortality among other things. That blood was given to Lilith and her immortality was restored.”

He paused while I processed that new knowledge. “I’m sure the Boss regrets that gift now, but hindsight is useless.”

He smiled broadly as we approached a narrow bridge built with the same stone we walked upon.

The scent of sulfur and metal grew stronger.

“So Lilith...she really isn’t a demon then. She was, well, whatever the first people were, then made mortal, and then given the blood of a fallen angel.” My frown grew. “Yeah, that... What in the world is she then?”

One shoulder rose as he glanced down at me. “What in the world are you?”

A cold chill snaked down my spine despite the stifling, acidic air. “I guess I don’t really know.”

“It’s interesting how nature always takes care of its own, developing a checks and balance system, its own Law of Balance. Despite having her immortality restored to her, Lilith had one weakness, basically an off switch. If she were to deliver a child naturally, if anything happened to that child, it would end her. By giving life to you, she ultimately set into motion the only true weapon that could kill her. Nature. That’s the true bitch.”

My eyes widened. Then that meant...when I died, so would Lilith? I was her off switch. Wow.

“To be honest, I never understood why she decided to take the risk of creating you. No offense.”

“None taken,” I muttered. “Maybe she didn’t know about the...off switch?”

“Oh, I’m sure she knew. Her arrogance rivals that of the Boss,” he replied, and I stiffened, half expecting the Boss to appear in front of us to make us pay for his insult. “She thought that her child would be just like her—traitorous, obsessed with power and control. And it was a devious plan.

Fornicating with a Warden, leaving the child to be raised among the enemy in order to ultimately usurp the Wardens and possibly even the Boss. Lilith wanted the world since she felt it all had been taken from her when she was exiled from Eden. It did not matter that she had been granted immortality anew and could have found some sense of peace. She wanted revenge against all of mankind—always did and always will. Birthing you was a devious plan, but ultimately a failed endeavor—for you are not like her. Not in that way.”

“No,” I whispered, stepping onto the bridge. I didn’t know how I felt to have it confirmed that to Lilith—my mother—I was nothing more than a tool, a weapon in a never-ending war. Anger and disappointment roiled together, and I forced out a rough laugh. What I had meant to Lilith couldn’t matter now. It hadn’t mattered before. “I’m not like her.”

“But you are also not like the Wardens, or so you think.” He chuckled softly, stopping to gaze over the stone wall of the bridge, down to the river below. And what a river it was.

A deep red, the river bubbled and foamed with sludge, and I had a feeling that was where the nasty scent was coming from. I didn’t want to know what the river actually consisted of, but it looked chunky, so I doubted it was water.

“I’m going to tell you a little story, one that you should pay very close attention to.”

I wasn’t sure I could handle another story, but I forced myself to focus.

Removing his hands from his pockets, he lightly placed them on the wall. “When the angels were sent to enlighten man, they failed in the most glorious way. They succumbed to evil and temptation, became gluttonous with food and drink. They fornicated. ” Pausing to grin, he glanced at me. “And there were many failures, Layla. So many that the big guy in the sky knew he had a major problem on his hands. These angels were powerful, created after his own virtues, and they were corrupt. They could undo everything he created, so they were to be dealt with, punished by the Alphas.”

Lost in a part of history that had never been willingly shared or spoken of, I was silent as I listened.

I was also trying not to breathe too deeply, because the stench was close to knocking me out.

“Some of those that fell, the original angels sent to man, escaped punishment by descending into Hell. The Boss welcomed them with open arms. They are your fallen, the originals that other demons fear. There are those that refer to them as demons, but they are not and have never been created by the Boss or spawned by another demon. It would be wise to remember where they came from,” he explained, tilting his chin up. His shoulders tensed under the plain white shirt he wore. “Then there were those who fell who took their punishment, those pious creatures who realized that they were at fault and whose love for their creator was greater than their desire for freedom. And they were punished. Do you know how, Layla?”

My name drifted off his lips like an arctic blast and I shivered. “No.”

He twisted toward me, leaning against the wall with a confidence in the craftsmanship I did not share. “They were turned to stone.”

I gasped as understanding floored me.

“You see my meaning.” His eyes glittered coldly. “Those who fell and accepted their punishment were turned to stone—and were given horrifying, bestial appearances not just to remind mankind that evil existed, but to serve as a tangible lesson to those who should be above temptation that they too can fall from grace.”

“Whoa.” My head spun. The Wardens originally were angels that had fallen? Suddenly what Roth tauntingly called them—heavenly rejects—made sense. He’d known, but had always said it hadn’t been his story to tell.

“For many centuries, those penitent fallen remained entombed—until the Alphas woke them to combat the rapidly expanding demon population and the Lilin who were created so many centuries ago,” Grim went on, turning his gaze back to the river. “They didn’t wake all of them, Layla. Some still slumber. Even your clan wouldn’t know that, but those whose sins were most offensive are those still trapped in their punishment.”

“God,” I breathed, thinking of all the gargoyles adorning the buildings just in DC alone. This whole time I’d believed man had simply carved them.

“Those who were awakened became the first Wardens, but their punishment had changed them. That is why they have two forms, and it is also why, in their true form, they resemble the very creatures they are charged with dispatching. Ironic, isn’t it?” He smiled again. “I am sure your clan hasn’t forgotten their true history, but they would love to, wouldn’t they? The only beings more arrogant than the Alphas would be the Wardens.”

There was another thing I couldn’t deny. “This is all fascinating, but—”

“Why am I telling you this, the history of your mother and the race that raised you as their own?

You want something from me, but I want you to understand what you are.” He pushed away from the wall, facing me from a mere foot away. “You stand before me, cowering like a helpless girl.”

The hairs were standing along the back of my neck again. “That’s because you are...you are the Grim—”

“I know what I am. At least I can say that. You can’t.”

“Yeah, I get that, but—”

His hand snapped out, wrapping around my throat. I’d taken my last breath before I knew it. Panic flooded me as I reached up, gripping the massive hand. I willed my body to shift, but Grim smiled as he lifted me clear off my feet.

“You can’t shift. Not here. Cayman did not tell you that? Foolish demon, he tends to leave out important information. You’re not from this realm, child, therefore you cannot take your true form here,” he said, lifting me even higher. “I could snap your neck in a second and do you know what would happen?”

I would die.

Wasn’t like I could say that since I was busy trying to conserve whatever oxygen was left in my lungs, which wasn’t much. My chest was burning, my heart pounding fiercely.

“It would hurt. It would knock you out, but no, you would not die,” he continued, as if he could read my thoughts. “Frankly, the only thing that will kill you is an iron dagger to the heart or if someone cuts off your head.” His words were breaking through the burning haze, but they made little sense.

“Fire? Nope. Falling from a hundred stories? It cannot kill you. Gutted? No. Once you understand that, you will be stronger and fiercer than any Warden to walk topside, and even Upper Level demons will flee your presence.”

Suddenly he released his hold on me. I hit the bridge, staggering into the stone wall. It crumbled like ash under my weight, falling into the teeming water below. I teetered on the edge, arms flailing.

He caught me by the arm, hauling me away from the edge and against his chest. The full body contact was like cuddling up to a snowman—a psychotic snowman. My skin chilled, and as I exhaled roughly, then dragged in air in huge gulps, a misty cloud formed in front of my lips.

“Now do you see what I’ve been trying to show you, the purpose of all my stories? You are not a demon. You have never been a demon, you silly girl.”

seventeen

YOU’RE NOT A demon.

I stopped struggling for air as I stared into his cold eyes. What he’d told me about Lilith and the Wardens had rocked me, but now I was struck stupid by pure disbelief. “That doesn’t make sense,” I gasped out.

“Why? Because your clan believes you to be one? Because the Prince has never said differently?

That’s what he’s been told by the Boss, because if the Upper Level demons knew what the Boss had done for Lilith all those years ago, they would not be happy. No demon likes the idea that the Boss has played favorites and still does. The Prince had no reason to believe differently. To all of them, you feel like a demon, only because you feel like an original fallen angel.” His grip was tight, bordering on cruel. “If you paid attention to my story, you can follow where I’m going with this.”

Parts of my body were frozen from contact with him, so I really wasn’t following jack right now.

Grim lowered his head, and I stiffened as his mouth stopped a mere inch from mine. “You were part Warden and part whatever the Hell Lilith is when you were born, which makes you something entirely different. The Warden blood in you weakened whatever Lilith passed on. You were as mortal as any of them, not nearly as powerful, with your only gift a deadly kiss, but those damn witches...”

He laughed, and his icy breath coasted over my lips, causing me to shudder. “Those who worship your mother. They gave you something to drink, did they not, following your stabbing and the Prince’s heroic rescue? Whisking you out of my grasp quite efficiently. Didn’t they?”

“Yes,” I gritted out. “We didn’t know what it was. Roth didn’t know—”

“But can you guess what it is now? Prove you’ve been paying attention to my little history lesson?”

Blood thundered in my head, and I knew where he was going with this, but I couldn’t believe it—the idea that I’d been given blood from one of the original fallen angels. First off, that was freaking gross. Secondly, I... “Why would they do that? How did they have it?”

“That’s for them to answer.” His lashes lowered, shielding his eyes. “But what they did—it zeroed out whatever Warden blood you had in you. Now...you are something else entirely.”

I thought about how Zayne and Danika had said that I felt like an Upper Level demon, but that was before the witches had given me that...that brew. But it all started to connect together. Roth was partly right. I was still transforming, and since I wasn’t what anyone expected me to be, what the Wardens were sensing could’ve been whatever I was maturing into. Plus a demon had run from me since I’d drunk that stuff, and I did look different.

“Oh my God,” I whispered, forgetting who was holding me. “That’s why I have feathers in my wings.”

His mouth twitched. “Among other things.”

“I’m... I’m immortal?”

He let go of me and stepped back, but I was so floored that I barely registered the warmth slowly creeping back into me. “As immortal as anything that can only be killed those two ways I mentioned before. The moment you consumed the blood of the originals, you became what the Alphas would call an abomination. But what they fail to appreciate is that you alone can ultimately stop what is coming.”

Stunned by everything he’d said, I raised a shaky hand, pushing the hair that had come loose back from my face. I’d come here to retrieve Sam’s soul and ended up discovering that everything I thought I’d known about my life, my identity, had been wrong—again. Part of me didn’t know what to think about that. The other part was bubbling with sweet awareness. Incredibly selfish, sure. But there would be no walkers in my future while Roth remained ageless.

“You are like Lilith—utterly unique. Something that should not exist but does. So, too, is the Lilin.

It should not exist, but you...you can stop it.”

My gaze tracked to him as I lowered my hand. “I will stop it.”

“Really?” He inclined his head. “Because all you’ve done since the Lilin revealed itself is mourn your friend, pout, indulge in relationship drama I would normally only expect from a pitiful human teenager and surrender your chastity.”

I jerked back, a rigidness taking over my muscles. “What?”

“I think I spoke clearly.” He stalked toward me, and this time, I didn’t back up, though my throat still ached from the last time I held my ground. “You need to stop the Lilin, but the only thing you’ve really accomplished is the loss of your virginity. Still, I suppose congratulations are in order. It is a milestone, after all. Please pass my good tidings to the Prince.”

Embarrassed and furious, I felt my mouth drop open. “That’s not true!”

“It’s not?” Grim tipped his head back and laughed darkly. “Tell me, what else have you managed?”

I opened my mouth, ready to fire off everything that I’d—that we’d been working on—but the only things he’d really failed to mention were our botched attempts at locating the Lilin, the end of Elijah, and my new tattoo, who was now off doing God knows what with Bambi—who, by the way, shouldn’t even be here.

Verbally backed into a corner, I said the first thing that shot to the tip of my tongue. “I didn’t ask for any of this!”

The moment those words left my mouth, I knew they were a mistake. Besides the fact it didn’t do much for the conversation, it was possibly the most incredibly childish thing I’d ever said.

And that was saying something.

Grim smirked. “No one ever asks for what life deals them. You are hardly special.”

My gaze lowered to his boots, and then I squeezed my eyes shut. God, he was right. No matter what I had going on in my life, I hadn’t done enough to stop the evil I’d inadvertently helped create when Paimon had performed the ritual in his attempt to free Lilith—and more innocent people would die as a result. I wasn’t sure what more I could’ve done, but obviously there was something.

Taking a deep breath, I lifted my eyes to his. “You’re right. I haven’t been doing enough, but I will do anything to stop the Lilin.”

His eyes glinted strangely, as if they held their own light source. “Anything?”

“Anything,” I repeated, though the words did not change why I was here. “But I’m not going to forget about Sam. His soul is here and it doesn’t belong here.”

He moved again, lightning quick, but I jumped back as I threw up my arm, blocking his attempt at another throat grab. Pain pulsed down my arm, and there’d probably be a bruise there later, but better there than around my neck.

Grim drew back, and I thought I saw approval flaring in his eyes. “Perhaps you still do not understand what is at risk here.”

Then, without any warning, he gripped my wrist, and we were no longer on the bridge; we were in some kind of building and a wall of flames loomed in front of us. Heat rolled off the burning wall as crackling flames touched the floor and ceiling, but somehow, like the fire in the elevator, they didn’t spread.

Thrown off by the sudden change, I stumbled back and into Grim. Jerking away, I didn’t make it very far before a strong arm clamped down, around my waist, drawing me back. Air punched out of my lungs.

“I think there’s someone you need to meet,” he said, voice low in my ear.

The flames pulsed, and then dropped from the ceiling, disappearing into the floor and revealing what existed beyond. It was a room—a bedroom of sorts, with a great, ornate bed and rich furs covering the bare stone floor. There was a small table and two chairs, even a TV, and a hysterical laugh bubbled up inside me as I remembered what Roth had said about the reception down here. From the ceiling there was a thick steel bolt connected to a chain that ran down the wall, and I tracked the length of the chain to the neck of the woman who stood to the right, her slim hip propped against the wall.

My breath caught.

She wore all white, a gossamer gown that showed everything from the collar to the hem, and all the shadowy places in between. This woman, with her hair so blond it was almost white and eyes that were a pale shade of gray, was startlingly beautiful, unusually so with eyes tipped at the corners and a lush, red mouth.

And that red mouth curved up in a smug smile.

Then she spoke in a voice that was ancient and heavy as the furs lining the floor. “Well, it’s about time.”

“Lilith,” I breathed.

eighteen

FOR THE FIRST time in my life, I was standing in front of Lilith—my mother—and she was a living, breathing creature. I don’t know why that shocked me the most, but she’d always been more myth than real in my mind.

There was something inside me that was repelled by the chain around her slender neck. It was a weird feeling, one of familial bonding. After all, no matter what, she was my mother, and she was chained. I didn’t like it. I didn’t even like the feeling, and I didn’t know what to make of any of that.

“Mother would’ve been a more appropriate greeting,” she said, and that voice was like a thousand Bambis, slithering under my skin. “But then again, I should not expect such courtesy from you.”

I blinked at the thinly veiled insult.

Well then...

Lilith didn’t so much as walk toward the center of the room as she drifted. I wasn’t sure her feet touched the stone at all. “Why is she here? I do not believe it is to free me, not with you here.”

“You know you will never be freed,” Grim replied acidly. “No matter what the Lilin thinks, your time down here is hardly finite.”

A change swept over her face, softening the ethereal beauty. “My son? Do you bring word of him?”

The breathlessness of her voice was a kick to the chest that woke me up. “Your son? You mean, that insane thing running around topside, wreaking havoc?”

Her pale eyes narrowed on me. “That is your brother you’re talking about. Have some respect.”

“My brother?” I snorted. “Yeah. No.”

She shook her head and the long waves danced around her face. “You cannot deny what is. He is a part of you. You are a part of me. The three of us are connected.”

I stiffened. “I’m not a part of you or him.”

Lilith raised her chin. “You always were such a disappointment to me,” she said, and I flinched, unable to help myself. “I had such great hope for you. You were to be the one to not only free me, but to rise with me. We would’ve changed the world, but this?” She paused, raising her hands. “This is what I have to show for it. You do not respect me. You do not honor me.”

“Wow,” I murmured, drawing in a shaky breath. “Just wow. Have you ever cared for anyone—

loved them?”

“Love?” She wrinkled her nose distastefully.

“Paimon loved you,” I replied.

She rolled her eyes. “That fool. He failed at releasing me and he is the reason they all watch too closely now. There is no such thing as love, and please, do not expose a whole new level of idiocy by arguing with me. I’ll ask again.” She cast her gaze to Grim, who was still holding me from behind.

“Why is she here?”

“I’ll ask the questions.” Grim’s hold on my waist didn’t loosen, as if he expected me to race forward and tear the chain from the ceiling. Needless worry. That wasn’t going to happen. “Will you call back the Lilin? You know you can. Even from this cell, you can stop this.”

“Why can’t you make her?” I asked.

Grim all but growled. “It is not that simple.”

Lilith’s gaze flickered between us, and then she tossed her head back, letting out a throaty laugh. “Is that a serious question? You ask me to stop my son?” Lowering her head, her gaze flashed like steel.

“If I cannot have my way, then I cannot wait for the destruction he will heap upon mankind. He will bring about the one thing that I could never accomplish—the end.”

“Why?” I demanded. “Why would you want that? No one wins in that scenario. Not even you.”

“Why?” Disbelief flooded her face. “Have you no idea what I’ve suffered? First thanks to the one who created me and then at the hands of man? Have you no clue what I’ve lost? My freedom stripped from me time and time again! My choices thrown away! I was cast from Eden, left to fend for myself in a dark world full of horror! You have no idea what I’ve experienced. Do not dare to ask why.”

“You have suffered,” Grim said quietly. “And so have the many souls I’ve claimed because of your hand.”

She laughed bitterly. “And I do not regret a single thing.” She glanced down at me. “Well, maybe just a few things.”

I jolted and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “I’m your daughter.”

Her face tensed. “Then honor me.”

“I can’t,” I whispered, choked. “Not if honoring you means millions of people will die.”

“Then we are done here.”

“So we are,” murmured Grim.

The wall of flames returned with a thunderous pop, and then we were no longer there. We were back at the bridge, and Grim released me. I stumbled away from him, to the wall.

I stared down at the water for several moments, feeling nauseous and...and heartsick. There was a wound there, one I’d spent the better part of my life ignoring or pretending wasn’t a big deal, but it was and it did hurt. No matter what Lilith was, she was my mother, and neither she nor my father had ever cared for me. “Why did you bring me to her? Other than to prove she doesn’t and never has cared about me?”

“It might have seemed cruel, but you needed to see what she truly is, because it shows you what the Lilin truly is. Nothing will change either of them. No amount of rationale or negotiation. The Lilin must be stopped.”

“I know. I didn’t need to meet her to understand that.” Weary from everything Grim had told me and from meeting the mother for whom I’d been such a disappointment, I faced him. I was done with this. “I want Sam’s soul. You can release it, so it can go where it’s supposed to, and I will stop the Lilin. But I want his soul released.”

Grim stared at me, his expression apathetic. “I cannot do that.”

Prepared for that response, I clasped my hands together to keep from swinging and discovering how easy it would be for Grim to take me out despite my newly discovered immortality. “Please. He doesn’t deserve this. Please. I’ll do anything you want me to do.”

“You should never offer such a bargain to anyone.” His gaze held no cruelty, but I shivered nonetheless. “Especially not me, because I may request from you something you are not willing to give.”

The shiver hit me again. “I have to do this for him. You don’t understand. Sam was a good person

–a truly good person. His soul was nearly pure. He doesn’t deserve an eternity of being tormented.”

“I do not disagree, but there is nothing I can do.”

My hands started to shake and I separated them. “No. I know you can. You control the souls that have passed. You’re the—”