The Legend of Eli Monpress(375)

She closed her eyes and pictured what she wanted. When she opened them, everything was just as she’d imagined. She was standing in a wide-open field, like the ones around Home. Noon sunlight blasted down from the clear blue sky, banishing every shadow, except for one. In front of her, the demon stood in a pit. The pit alone was still black, shaded from the sun by the boulder balanced on its end above it.

The demon stood at the edge of the light, staring up at her with a smug smile. “You can’t lock me away forever, Nico. The moment you are weak, the moment your control wavers, I’ll be back. And you will be weak. The longer we fight, the stronger I’ll become, while your power will only diminish. No matter how hard you struggle or for how long, the end will be the same. After all, you’re just a human. I, on the other hand, have all the time in the world. Sooner or later, you’ll be just like Nivel, alone and helpless in the dark. When that happens, I’ll be there, and you will crawl on your knees begging for what you just threw away.”

“That may be,” Nico said. “But Nivel died with her soul intact.” She reached out and put her hand on the boulder. “And so will I.”

With that, she gave the boulder a push. It rolled sideways with a slow scrape and fell into the pit. The demon kept eye contact the entire time, smiling even as the boulder came down.

See you soon.

Then the boulder landed with a solid thunk, cutting him off completely.

Nico closed her eyes, feeling the warm sunlight on her skin, the wind against her bare shoulders, listening to the perfect silence of her world without the demon. She stood like that for a long moment, drinking it in. Then, with a deep breath, she turned her back on the boulder and began to walk across the plains, back toward the real world and the people who were waiting there for her, for good or ill.





CHAPTER

22




Time’s almost up,” Alric said.

Eli nodded, but didn’t say anything. It had been four minutes since he’d shouted at the demon, and about two minutes since it had suddenly stopped moving. Now it was just standing there, staring stupidly at the sky with its hundreds of horrible eyes while its wings flapped slowly. Eli wasn’t sure if this was a good development or a bad one in the long term, but at least it wasn’t screaming anymore.

“Time,” Alric said. “All right, Monpress, do it. Call the Shepherdess.”

“No need,” the Heart rumbled. “Look.”

Eli and Alric both stepped backward as the demon, now grown twice as tall as even the tallest tree, began to dissolve. The hideous body broke apart, collapsing like a dried-out sandcastle to the destroyed forest floor. The darkness became simple black as the glowing eyes winked out one by one. Once it began to fall apart, the demon was gone in less than a minute, and everywhere it had touched, the valley began to grow back. A great torrent of dirt filled the sundered ground. Broken rocks repaired themselves, and though the toppled trees could not be righted again, new growth instantly began to spring up from the felled trunks.

The last to dissolve was the demon’s head. It fell with a shudder, the jagged teeth breaking free before dissolving like everything else until only one part remained. Nico landed gently on the new grass where the demon had been standing only moments before. She was naked, but something moved to cover her as Eli watched, snaking over her body so quickly his eyes could barely keep up. It had covered half of her before he realized it was her coat stitching itself back together.

He started to laugh and ran to her, dropping to the ground just as she opened her eyes, which were no longer even slightly yellow, but a deep, deep brown.

She stared at him, confused. “Is Josef okay?”

“Yes,” Eli said, grabbing her hand. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Nico answered, smiling. “More than okay.”

“So I see,” Eli said. “You’ll have to tell us how you did it later. Right now, it’s time to collect. You just won a very nice bet for me.”

Nico frowned. “I did?”

Eli just grinned and stood up, turning to Alric, who was still walking over.

“Well,” Eli said, “I believe I just saved your bacon.”

“What?” Alric stopped and crossed his arms. “You put all of our lives on the line for a long shot and I’m supposed to fall over myself thanking you?”

“I never said anything about a thank-you,” Eli said. “I’m a thief, remember? I can’t use thank-yous. No, we made a deal, Alric, Mr. Deputy Commander. I held up my end, but we never set down what you would pay if I won.”

Alric gave him a dirty look. “And an uneaten world is not payment enough?”