Or perhaps as if he was incapable of intervening.
Danny tracked the direction of my gaze, and spotted Charon lying in wait. Then he nodded at me almost imperceptibly, as if he understood what must be done. As if giving me his consent.
Such a small gesture —so small, Ana hadn’t even noticed it. And yet it was enough to break my heart.
A lump rose in my throat then, and tears welled in my eyes. But I refused to let them spill over. Not when I had a job to do.
“Wait,” I said, shouting to be heard over the helicopter’s din. “There is another way.”
“I’m listening.”
“You’re going to go through with this regardless —I get that. Big boom. Big flood. But you and I both know Danny’s soul ain’t dark enough to break hell’s bonds; he just proved that by handing over the Varela you need. So I propose a trade.”
Ana smiled —feral, vicious. “Varela for Danny, is that it?”
“No,” I said. “Varela for my freedom. Danny’s, too, for that matter.”
“I don’t follow.”
“It’s the circle, right? Those inside break free of hell’s bonds, those outside are shit outta luck. So you let me in, and I give you the Varela. You do your thing, Danny and I go free, and so long as we avoid the ensuing flood we walk away as happy as clams.”
“You’re playing me,” she said. “The Sam I know is far too much of a Boy Scout to suggest a thing.”
I stepped toward her. The three of us were awash in spotlights, a second helicopter joining the first. Like heaven’s light shining down upon us. “Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think.”
“I’m too fast for you,” she hissed. “You’ll never reach the gun in time.”
Someone shouted to us through a bullhorn, but their words were lost on the wind. I took the Varela from my pocket and held it out to her. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said.
I stepped into the circle, scuffing my feet along the way.
Dried blood flecked off beneath my soles, and broke the ring.
Ana, realizing what I’d done, screamed in rage, and drove the skim-blade into Danny’s chest.
Lines dropped down from above, police in riot gear rappelling from the heavens like God’s own army of angels, too late to do anything but watch. For a moment, the whole world felt as though it bent inward toward Danny’s prostrate form, which seemed to vibrate, to hum, his every pore erupting with white-hot light.
So this is how the world ends, I thought. Turns out, it’ll be a bang after all.
And in the instant before his soul let loose, bringing forth another flood, ten thousand crows streamed through the open roof, engulfing the lot of us in a fury of talons, beaks, and ink-black feathers.
They swarmed the circle, coalescing into the vast, impossible form of a hunched old man two stories high.
Just as soon as he had formed, he toppled over, engulfing Ana and Danny’s tangled forms in his teeming black mass.
And just like that, he disappeared into the Nothingness.
Along with Ana.
Along with Danny.
In the silence that ensued, I cried.
31.
“Good morning, Collector. Nice to see you’re amongst the living, so to speak. Though I confess I am surprised to find you here.”
A week had passed since Los Angeles. Lilith and I were standing in a cemetery on the edge of Ilford, east London. The sky overhead was the color of slate, and a cool mist beaded up on my woolen pea coat. I looked down at the headstone at my feet. It was mottled with age, and bright green moss clung to one side of it. In weathered letters, it read:
For not the first time, I wondered about my own grave —I’d never seen it. I’d died penniless on the streets of New York, one more John Doe for Potter’s Field. Though all of Danny’s family money didn’t make him any less dead. Now, in fact, it seemed he was a fair bit more.
“I thought I should pay my respects,” I said.
Lilith scoffed. “To the man who nearly condemned you to an eternity of Nothingness?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” I confessed.
“It always is.” Though this was a cemetery —and mid-morning —Lilith wore an evening dress of bright red, and lipstick to match. Neither showed any evidence of rain. “I knew,” she said. “About your little group, and what they meant to you. Truth be told, I was sorry when you and they parted ways.”
“You knew? Why didn’t you ever say?”
“Everyone’s entitled to their secrets. And everyone’s entitled to those little vices that help them to survive. Regardless of what my superiors might think. We’re all of us consigned to this life against our will, Collector. I no more blame you for my fate than you should me for yours.”
She raised a hand, caressed my borrowed face. “So tell me,” she said, “were you tempted?”
“Tempted? Tempted by what?”
“By your precious Ana’s ritual. By the stories of Brethren, and by the freedom that they represent. Tempted to leave this task, this life, this punishment behind.”
I thought about it. A simple answer eluded me.
“Yes. No. I don’t know. Anyways, the price was far too steep. I couldn’t take innocent lives to save myself. I’m not worthy of their sacrifice.”
She frowned, but said nothing.
“Lily, why are you asking me this?”
“Because you need to know I would have been, if I were you. And if I’m ever faced with a choice like that, you’d best believe I’m going to take it —no matter what the cost.”
“If that’s true, then why tell me?”
“We’re not so different, you and I. We’ve both been sentenced to an eternity of torment without even being given a proper chance. The difference is, I aim to do something about it —no matter what the cost. And when the time comes for me to make my move, I’d suggest you stay out of my way. Are we clear?”
“Crystal. Only you know what?”
“What?”
“I’m not sure I believe you.”
“How’s that?”
“Ana did what she did in secret. Convinced her friends to trust her, even as she betrayed them. And in the end, she didn’t care who her plans hurt. You, on the other hand, claim not to even like me, and here you are trying to ensure I steer clear should you ever make your move. I think you care more about me and my kind than maybe you let on.”
Lilith smiled and shook her head. “Perhaps you’re right. Or perhaps you simply see what I intend you to. At the very least, we can agree it would be best for both of us if you’re never in a position to find out which.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
“Good. You should know, you did well last night, Collector —word is Charon is most pleased. And as the unrest between heaven and hell descends to allout war, he is an ally worth having.”
“He used me, didn’t he? He knew I wasn’t to blame for taking the Varela soul. He just needed me to hunt down Ana. To breach the circle, so he could get to her.”
“Is that so bad?” she asked. “Some jobs, you send a god. Some jobs, you send a monkey. This appears to have been the latter. Your Ana was quite adept at masking her movements —which is how she managed to waltz into Dumas’s skim-joint undetected. And she was a gifted mage —her protections without weakness. Had you not maneuvered yourself into the position that you did, no power in the heavens could have taken her. It seems to me Charon did exactly what he had to do, the same as you. Given the sheer volume of pathetic monkey lives he saved, I’d say you owe him thanks.”