Page 98 of Cookbooks and Demons

His eyes raked over Helena lustfully.

“You look like shit, Lares,” Vassago noted with a sniff. “How about this? I’m flush with power right now. Give me your little pet there, and I’ll give you enough to pay off the debt youincurred.”

“No,” Rafferty said, holding Helena tighter to him.

Vassago looked put out, his terrible face pouting like a child’s. “You know I can just take her from you. You’re so thin on power right now. Let’s make a trade. Gimme your old soul, and I’ll save your existence.”

Helena felt Rafferty’s arms tighten around her, his wings creating a protective cove. She knew, she trusted, that he would never do such a thing, but she also knew that what Vassago spoke was the truth; her lover wouldn’t be able to fight in his condition.

Still the circle pulled andbeckoned.

“Rafferty, I want to go home,” she said, her eyes still glued to the glowing lines, whispering incessantly.

“What?” he breathed, his own focus still on the danger inthe room.

Vassago scratched at the concrete, cracking it with each stamp. “Come on, Rafferty. Just take the deal and make this easier on us all.”

Helena turned her face toward Rafferty, so she could whisper in his ear. “Take me through Hell. You did it before.”

He growled his objection in his throat.

“We don’t have any other options,” sheinsisted.

“We won’t make it,”he said.

“But we could.” She didn’t wait for his approval. Turning, she grabbed him around the neck and threw all her weight back. He didn’t expect it and even though he tried to flare his wings to stop their fall, it was too little too late. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her andheld on.

Helena could feel the pulling in of the circle draw them down, past the point they should have hit the concrete. She was mildly aware of the other bodies being pulled down with them, but she could do nothing for them, and they fell away as they sank under the surface of a vast cosmic ocean.

Pain. Hot burning pain.

Helena wantsto scream.

Her body burns away, pulled into the vastness around her. There is nothing between her and it. She feels it all, her fear, her anger, her sadness. It burns. She reaches for Rafferty… she reaches, but she has nothing to reach with. She is only… she is…

It’s alright,she thinks.

She can still think.

Let it burn.

She relaxes and allows her pain to come in.

It burns.

It eases.

She cries.

She allows.

It goes and she is left empty.

She feels love.

Her friend’s faces, her memories. She enjoys them and lets them drift into the abyss.

She lets herself be what she always was.

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