Everyone stopped. They still looked angry, but the shock of seeing someone defend Verlaine had been enough to make them hesitate.
“You idiots,” he snarled. “Every horrible thing that’s happening around you, and you blame one of the only people who cares enough to try to help. You go after someone you think doesn’t have anyone to defend her. Well, you thought wrong.” Asa let go of Verlaine’s arm so that he could step in front of her, between her and her would-be attackers. “Get back before I make you get back.”
Verlaine felt a shiver go through her then, and knew the rest had felt it, too. Although there was no overt sign that Asa was someone besides Jeremy Prasad, something other than human, it had somehow become completely clear that he could stop them all if he had to—and make them sorry they’d even tried to get past him.
“Later,” one man said, shooting a venomous look at Verlaine. But people shuffled out begrudgingly; their anger still simmered, but it was in check for now.
The moment the last of them left the elevator bank, Asa towed her up to stand by his side. Verlaine’s legs trembled from adrenaline and exhaustion, but she managed to stay upright. His hands on her shoulders were comfortingly warm. “We have to get out of here,” he said. “As far from this place as possible. Now.”
She shook her head. “I’m part of Nadia’s spell. That means I have to stay here.”
“Of course,” Asa breathed. He understood now, and his expression shifted into horror. “You could die.”
“Then I die.”
“Don’t do this.”
“Take me to Uncle Gary’s room.” The CDC people had shooed her out earlier, but by now maybe she could get back in. “I want to be with him, no matter what happens.”
Asa’s dark eyes flashed with emotion she could no longer read. “I’ll come with you as far as I can.”
Mateo dashed out onto the beach to see—a hellscape. That was the only word for it. He could hardly tell the smoky, snarled clouds overhead from the writhing ocean that stretched out to a dark horizon.
And you’re going to go out on that in a boat? said the part of his brain that still wanted to think he lived in a normal world.
But he ran for the nearest boat, untied the moorings, revved the motor.
Together Verlaine and Asa ran up the stairs, which was faster by far than waiting for the glacially slow hospital elevators. As Verlaine’s Converse pounded the concrete steps, she noticed how lightly Asa ran, as though he had no weight at all. As if he could almost fly.
She felt as if she had never understood Asa before this . . . no. That wasn’t right. She had always understood him, from the first moment she learned what a demon was and saw the desperate resignation within Asa. But she hadn’t dared to trust what she knew until now.
They emerged onto the fourth floor, Verlaine breathless, Asa not even beginning to tire. When they burst through the doors, though, a small group of CDC doctors down the hall whirled around to look at them. “Hey,” one woman called. “You’re not allowed in here.”
Asa brought his hands together—and like that, time stopped. She turned to him and smiled, and he smiled back tentatively, as if he still couldn’t believe she trusted him. “Come on,” he said, and they hurried down the hall.
Uncle Gary lay in his hospital bed. For a split second the stillness of the heart monitor gave her pause, but of course, time remained frozen. He was caught between heartbeats.
Suddenly titanic, consuming pain lanced through her, coring her out, as surely as though she’d been impaled. Verlaine clutched at the locket around her neck—that was where the pain came from, and it had to stop, it had to stop!—but then she remembered and grabbed her hair instead.
Warm arms closed around Verlaine, held her tightly. “Be strong, my beautiful girl,” Asa whispered. “It’s terrible but it won’t last long; I promise you it won’t last long.”
It had to be a lie. There could be no living through pain like this, no surviving, no after. And yet she was Uncle Gary’s only chance, and Asa was here with her, helping her be strong. She just had to breathe—and again—and again—
The pain ended as swiftly as it had begun. She gasped, almost unable to believe she was still in the world.
“You did it,” Asa said. “Elizabeth’s spell will shatter my own small power soon. But at least—at least I was here for this.”
“Thank you,” she said. Their eyes met—and he let go of her even as she stepped away.
Quickly Verlaine pulled a chair next to Uncle Gary’s bed and took one of his hands in hers. Just being with him made her feel steadier. Then she glanced over her shoulder at Asa and repeated, “Thank you.”
“It’s no less than you deserve,” he said. “About time you finally got some shred of what the world owes you.”
“Will you stay with me? After time starts again?”
He shook his head very slightly; already his gaze had turned inward, as if he were trying to listen for a distant sound. “Not for very long. I won’t be able to. You see, I can defy Elizabeth—but not the One Beneath. There’s a price to be paid now. I shall have to pay it.”
Verlaine realized that Asa had defied the One Beneath by saving her. “What happens now?”
“That’s not up to us. It never has been. One thing we have in common, you and I—the great and mighty plot their wars, and we shiver down in the trenches. We fight for others’ glory, or at best our own survival. Ours is not to question why.”
Verlaine wanted to protest. She fought alongside Nadia and Mateo because she trusted them, and knew that their goals were worth fighting for. But she realized that wasn’t a justification she could throw in Asa’s face. It was a luxury he had never been allowed, as a slave to the One Beneath.
Asa brought his hands together again. The room remained still, but the heart monitors began beeping again. Verlaine sighed, reassured by the sound. “What about the doctors?” She gave the door to the room a meaningful glance. “They saw us in the hallway.”
He backed a few halting steps away. “They’ll think they imagined it—or that you left—not that you magically—magically went right past them—”
“Are you all right?” Verlaine stared; Asa had begun to shake. The lamp by Uncle Gary’s bedside shone toward him, highlighting his strained face, casting his shadows even blacker. “What’s happening?”
“Time for me to pay.”
Then his shadow changed.
It tore.
Asa winced as one sliver of his shadow, then another, was ripped away. The darkness didn’t just disappear; instead it fluttered away, as though it had turned into one of Elizabeth’s menacing crows. The slivers ripped from him faster and faster, until he cried out in pain.
Verlaine dropped Uncle Gary’s hand and ran to Asa. In the moment before she would have reached him, he cried out and vanished.
For a moment the remnants of his shadow fluttered in the corners, making soft, raspy sounds like wings, and then they, too, were gone. Nothing of Asa remained.
“No!” Nadia cried, but Elizabeth didn’t listen. Her rings glinted on her fingers; her minerals were with her, and even now she must be summoning the ingredients for her murderous spell.
A few protective spells flashed through Nadia’s mind, but none of them was strong enough. None of them was right. To hell with it, she thought, and threw herself bodily at Elizabeth.
They fell together on the scrabble of seashells, and for a moment they grappled with each other. But then a hook seemed to arch around Nadia’s body and yank her away so sharply that she tumbled onto the steep slope that led to the water. She was only just able to grab at the gravel and shells enough to stop herself from falling in. A wave crashed high enough to soak her jeans with near-freezing water, and drag her another couple of inches down.