Page 58 of Concluded
“Get it together, Spanos,” Achilles muttered to himself.Then he set a gentle hand on what he hoped was the person’s shoulder.“I’m Achilles.This is Dee.We came here for you.”
“I’m lost,” the person whispered.
“But we found you.”
“I’m broken.”
“I’ve been broken too.Friends helped me heal.We can help you.”Achilles hoped very much that this was true.“What’s your name?”
The answer, when it came, was barely audible.“Ish.”
Although the Bureau had given Achilles a fair bit of training on demons, there had been little discussion about angels.That was because, with rare exceptions, angels kept to themselves.The Bureau almost never had to deal with them.So Achilles didn’t know whether angels, like demons, had distinct names, and if so, whether Ish was one of them.That was something they could work out later.
“Okay, Ish.Just give us a minute and Dee’s going to get us out of here.”
“No charm,” said Dee, sounding panicky again.
Right.That.There was nothing here but the three of them, all of them bare, and?—
Something grabbed hold of Achilles’ ankle and jerked, making him yelp with pain.It was cold and hard, like an iron band, and when he kicked violently, it didn’t let go.He reached down to dislodge it but felt nothing against his hand even though he was now being pulled away from Dee and Ish.He tried to get to his hands and knees, but the force only jerked at him again, and when he scrabbled at the floor he couldn’t get any handholds, any traction.
He was being dragged away.
He vaguely registered someone calling his name, but it was very far away.Unimportant.The futility of resisting hit him like a heavy, wet blanket, and he collapsed entirely.What was the point of fighting?He would lose anyway.They were all going to lose, and there was nothing a nobody like him could do about it.Gods, the despair was too much.He curled into a ball and felt his heart thudding slowly, uselessly, his lungs dragging in and out, the weight of every mistake he’d ever made pressing into him.He’d killed his parents.He’d killed Orson.He’d killed Santiago Bautista.And now he’d killed Dee as well, and?—
Dee.
He wasn’t sure whether he’d said the name out loud, but he definitely heard the response—“Achilles!”—and now a pair of hands grasped his upper arms.
“No use,” Achilles moaned.But the hands were warm and strong.Heknewthose hands.Those fingers had threaded through his hair during a kiss, had applied antibiotic ointment and butterfly bandages to a bullet graze on his shoulder, had brought him water when he lay parched in chains.Had given him literal magic.
Achilles rose to his knees and took both of those hands in his.“Did I lose Ish?”he asked hoarsely.
“Caught that branch,” Ish replied, very close.
The hopelessness didn’t entirely flee, but now there was an equal measure of optimism in Achilles’ chest.Theycouldwin this.Together.Because he was neither powerless nor alone, and when he gave his support to his formidable allies, they could work wonders.
When Achilles reached out with one hand—the other still had a death grip on Dee—he brushed against feathers.A desperate little noise escaped him as he groped until he found Ish’s thin wrist and held that too.“Don’t let go.”Meant as a command to Dee, it came out more as a plea.
Achilles’ brain felt slow, as dark as their surroundings, a machine whose batteries had nearly run out.It would be so much easier to give in to the inevitable and become the nothing he knew he was.
“Happy Meal,” said Dee, quite clearly.“Dancing mushrooms.The starry sky in the desert.”
Achilles wasnotnothing.
“Ish, can we have one of your feathers?”
“My feathers are the branch?”
“Yes, yes!”
“Take a twig.”
So Achilles released Ish’s wrist, but only long enough to yank a single feather from a wing—Ish didn’t even twitch in response—and hand it to Dee.“Our charm,” he explained.
When Dee laughed, the darkness momentarily lightened.Only a little, but even that much was a miracle.“Perfect.Make your wish, Achilles.”
He had so many wishes, all of a sudden.One was paramount, however.“I want to return safely to White and Marek’s house with Dee and Ish.”
