Page 80 of Saving the World and Other Bad Ideas (Grave Concerns 3)

I let myself fall back to normal, the ground beneath my feet turning solid again. I could have remained reaper, but the form was hard to hold for long.

“You are playing with things you don’t understand,” Lilith screamed, that whole cool-and-collected façade dissipating against repeated failures.

I could hear it all in her voice.

She’d been created by one of the most powerful beings, to beperfectin his eyes, and yet she’d failed at every turn. She’d failed to be what Adam wanted, had created the vampires, who were flawed at best, had been bested time and time again by some girl who was little more than a mistake in the universe.

“I killed Gran. Do you really think you stand a chance against me?”

The reminder of what she’d done, of what she’dstolenfrom me, energized the fight in me. “You didn’t kill Gran—she sacrificed herself.”

“There’s no difference.”

“Of course there is. She could have killed you, but she didn’t. She was trying tosaveyou.”

“I don’t need saving, especially from that self-righteous fate.” She lifted her hand and a blast of fire sparked from it.

And in that moment, I really wished Grant wasn’t out cold. The lazy bastard would have been useful in a magic fight, but there he was, napping.

I lifted my hand out of instinct, and shadows left my fingertips, made of the same mist I used as a reaper. When her attack struck it, the fire died out as if the oxygen had been stolen from it.

Well, that’s useful.

Lilith let out an indignant shout, the whole image of her being powerful slipping away. Or, rather, of her being controlled. No one could pretend she wasn’t powerful, but whereas before she’d been the image of confidence, she was rattled now.

“You have powers no one should,” she shouted as she fired again.

I countered each move, my shadows turning her hits to nothing. “I keep hearing the world needs balance. Maybe that’s what I am, the balance to you,” I yelled back at her before flinging all those shadows, using all the power I could muster, ather.

It knocked her backward, made her roll across the stone floor.

At the edges of the platform, shadows moved. Reapers stood there, watching. They were hazy, showing no desire to intervene, merely to watch the spectacle. Then again, they hadn’t seemed to do anything so far, so why would I think it would change now?

I told myself that the audience didn’t matter. I needed to keep my mind in the game, because I’dseenwhat those flames could do if I didn’t move fast enough. Even with my hit, Lilith rose as if barely shaken.

That felt like the best I had, like the hardest thing I could do, and yet it hadn’t done anything more than slow her down.

And worse? As a reaper, I couldn’t see a soul inside her. Nothing I could grasp, nothing I could kill as a reaper would. She seemed…empty. Not even a spark as Hunter had.

So what was I supposed to do?

My distraction cost me. Searing pain filled my left shoulder, the scent of burning flesh enough to make me gag. It reminded me of what she’d done to my arm in my dream but so much worse. I guesshaving nerves endings in my real body would do that…

Still, even with the way it sizzled, with how the graze made the movement of air over it an agony, I tucked the arm to my front and countered the next blast.

“You are a foolish little girl,” Lilith spat. “You’re in over your head. Look around—you have four immortals with you who haveallfallen. I’ve bested Gran, escaped Lucifer and even the reapers here don’t touch me. What exactly is it you think you can do?”

The blasts from her came faster, as if her monologue had energized her.

And worse? She had a point. The reapers gathered, but none touched her. Did they just not care? Was it that they couldn’t? Was she somehow even more powerful than they were?

What chance did I have, then?

Heat passed me, singeing my hair when I couldn’t fully reflect one of her hits. Exhaustion dragged on me.

She was overtaking me.

She didn’t look any weaker, butIsure as hell felt it. She was running me down, and each deflection took more out of me. When I tried for an offensive, when I threw all I had into another blast her way, it didn’t even topple her.

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