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Or if he could
In the breathless silence, Cherise’s voice sounded very small "What did you do to her?"
"I killed her," Lewis said, and closed my eyes I felt tears slide down ertips brush across esture "I had to kill her" It sounded like he was trying to convince himself of that
Nobody spoke Cherise pulled in a deep, tre She’s not dead No way Not Jo"
One of the Earth Wardens who’d just wasted all that tiers to my neck, then bent over to listen to my chest He checked my eyes, which were fixed and out of focus
"She’s gone," he said "Christ, Lewis"
"She’s not gone, " Cherise insisted There was a rising tide of alar its banks "She can’t be gone Check her again"
"Cherise - " Kevin tried to head her off
"No! Check her again!"
They did One of the other Wardens even tried revivingfor me
My body was an inert lu, trapped and unable to get free
"She’s gone," Lewis repeated again dully, with a hitch of agony in his voice He thought I was dead, I could feel that Whatever was anchoringhe couldn’t touch "We have to let David say good-bye"
"You can’t do that, man He’ll kill you," Kevin said He sounded absolutely sure of it "No I’ David anywhere near this There’s no way he won’t rip us all intothis to her"
"Give oing to ask again Give it to me "
"No!"
There was sole, and then Kevin cursed in an unsteady whisper Cherise eeping as if her heart was breaking From everyone else in the s, waves of distress and fear
God, please, letme escape into the comfortable dark, but instead I could feelI could do to stop it, either
I was feeling my body die on a cellular level God, would I be around for the rest of it?
Feeling the dead cells turn into sludge and soup? Deco?
I didn’t want to be trapped in this body as it slowly decayed, with no hope of release or rescue
I realized, very slowly, that as binding h the navel of h the aetheric
Davidwas holding me here, but he couldn’t save me His poasn’tas someone else held his bottle and he was trapped inside it
"Lewis - don’t do this, man," Kevin said I’d never heard that tone in his voice before, so pleading "I’ fair "
"I’ it because it’s fair," Lewis said "I have to do it because it’s right It doesn’tait; e let hirief will be exactly the same So let him out now Please"
The darkness that Bad Bob had put inside ofto reactivate it To stay alive
Without the energy ofalong with me
I felt a whisper of power scent the air as the cap ca furiously at the glass, trying to shatter his way free
Oh, you fool, Lewis He’ll destroy you
"David," Lewis said "Co people against the walls, and a wild-eyed angel dropped out of heaven to gather me in his arms
The sound that carowl -
inhurief I couldn’t move I couldn’t control my eyes to focus on his face, so his expression was mercifully blurred
Suddenly, I felt the pressure of darkness inside me ease Bad Bob had lost interest in me
Dead, I was of no use to hian to bleed away
But it wasn’t goneNot yet
Lewis said, "David, please understand You can’t bring her back Not this time" David’s voice was a raw, bloody screahostly presence He hugged my limp form to his chest and rocked back and forth, his face hidden in my hair
"Let me save her," he whispered "Order me to save her" I felt Lewis shudder "No David, you have to let her go She’s daht hio" He paused, and then said, with absolute precision,
"I’ you to let her die, David"
The silence in the boat was as deep as the ocean So was the sense of pressure Even my dead flesh could feel it
"I’ll kill you for this," David said There was nothing in his voice - no e but simple declaration of intent "I’ll rip you apart one cell at a tih the pain Ime" He was utterly serious He would torture Lewis He’d do it with the kind of cold distance that the Djinn reserved for those they truly, deeply, madly hated
He’d do it for me
"Listen to me," Lewis said, and if he was afraid, it didn’t show in his voice "I’ you to cut the cord and let her go "
"Well, that’s a paradox," David said He still sounded eerily calo, it destroys the vow that binds me to the bottle, and that means I’m free
Free to pull you apart, Lewis Free to order the brutal, screa death of every last one of your kind Do you really think I won’t?" There wasDavid free was a death sentence for Lewis
Not just for hih For the Wardens For everyone
In thisBad Bob had ever dreaer like this I wanted to tell hiood one, and I didn’t reallyout of me in an invisible stain on the deck I felt clear, at last Finally,myself back to life; it violated all the laws of the universe All I could do, now that I was clear of Bad Bob’s influence again, was choose to die But if I did that, if I severed the cord holding ether, the result would be the sarief