Chosen (Slayer 2)

Oh no. Behind her. I let her get between Artemis and me. I can run and tackle her off the catwalk, but then Artemis will be up here alone. I don’t think I could get back to her in time. I’m going to have to throw Imogen off, even if it kills her. I rush her, but she’s ready. My vision is dazed by Artemis, so I don’t see Imogen’s club as she swings it at my leg. I fall to my knees, my right one unusable with pain. I grab for her, but she dances back toward Artemis. There’s the particular metallic click of a gun being cocked.

“No hard feelings. I’ll see you on the other side, okay?”

I hang my head. I have nothing left. I lost. Artemis protected me for so long, and I couldn’t return the favor. “I’m sorry, Artemis.”

Imogen screams. I look up to see two blindingly brilliant arms encircling her. Imogen’s clothes light on fire, and in the blink of an eye, she’s consumed. Where Imogen was is only Artemis.

She meets my eyes and smiles, an agonized expression through gritted teeth. She’s all blurry, literally falling apart. “Saved you.”

I crawl to her, and she drops to her knees.

“Kill me,” she whispers. “That might stop it.”

I wrap my arms around her. She tries to push me away, but I hold her tighter. It’s searingly hot, but I’m stronger than Imogen. I’m stronger than anyone except Artemis. I hold her against the vibrations, and, to my surprise, they calm down. “I’ve got you, and you’ve got me. We’re strongest together.”

She squeezes me back and holds me up while I hold her in place. All the darkness in me, everything I’ve been through, all the ways it’s changed me. It wells in me, carrying me past what I’m capable of. We’re here because Artemis walked in her own darkness for so long, feeling like she was the only person who could face it. But Buffy and Faith showed me the truth: We’re not alone in the dark. Not as Slayers, not as sisters, not as friends. Not when we hold the people we love as close as we can. The heat is unbearable, but for Artemis? I can bear anything.

“Nina!” The catwalk rattles as Leo runs across it. He puts a hand on Artemis’s shoulder. “I can take it, but I need somewhere to put it.”

“Give it to me.” Cillian’s father’s voice rings through the cavern. He drags Honora onto the catwalk and drops her. She groans, twitching. “I am the only option.”

“You’re not.” Cillian emerges from the cavern. His face is streaked with blood and dirt. Rhys limps behind him. “I’m half god. Let’s give it a shot.”

Cillian’s father radiates menace and power. “I will kill your friends one by one while you watch, and then burn away your humanity to see if anything is left in the ashes of my divine—”

Honora kicks him so he once again falls off the catwalk. She rolls onto her back, breathing hard. “Save her.”

Leo puts both of his hands on Artemis while I hold her. I don’t know if it’s going to work, and for a few blistering seconds I’m sure it won’t. But she gradually goes still and colder until she collapses into my arms. I check her pulse, desperate, barely able to see with the burned light images on my vision.

Her heart is beating. She’s still alive. I cry, cradling her. Cillian rushes to Leo, who is as blindingly brilliant as Artemis had been. Leo puts both hands on his shoulders. “Are you sure?” he gasps.

Cillian swallows hard but nods. “Better me than the hellgod who wants to kill you all.”

Leo puts his forehead against Cillian’s, and he slowly dims. Cillian gets brighter, but not in the unstable way Artemis and Leo did. He seems to somehow come even more into focus, every feature in perfect clarity, to where I could swear I can see each eyelash from here. He’s high-definition in a fuzzy world. His skin isn’t brown anymore so much as metallic, gleaming in the harsh cavern lights.

“You good?” Leo falls back and sits.

“Yeah. Yeah.” Cillian looks down at his own hands in wonder. “I—I think I got it.”

“It will overpower you!” Cillian’s father shouts from where he’s clinging to the side of the cavern. Each exit has been filled by one of the remaining zealots. Two of them have my mother and Esther at knifepoint. My mother looks at Artemis in my arms, and I try to smile to reassure her, but it’s weak. The zealots all have crossbows trained on us, and none of us are in any shape to fight our way out.

“You cannot hold it forever!” the hellgod shouts. “You are a bastard, a half-breed, and I will kill everyone you love while you watch. I will bleed them dry while you—”

“The third form,” one of the black-cloaked zealots chants, pointing. But they aren’t pointing at Cillian’s dad. They’re pointing at Cillian. They all drop to their knees. Cillian rolls his eyes.

“No,” his father screams. “I am your god! I am the only god left in the world! I will kill everyone you—”

“Can you stop him, Nina?” Cillian looks at me, desperate.

I don’t even know if I can stand up. “I’m—I’m tapped out. And you saw how little the crossbow did to him. I could …” Decapitate him? Would he be capable of recapitating himself? He might not be at full power, but he’s still a hellgod. “We can try?”

Cillian?

?s eyes are brimming with tears. “You were a pretty good dad for a while there,” he says.

“You do not deserve anything of me. I will tear that one you seem to love limb from limb,” the hellgod answers, pointing at Rhys. “But first, I will end the one who made this all possible.” He leaps through the air, grabbing the edge of the catwalk where my mother and Esther stand, unarmed. He pulls himself up and reaches toward Esther. She and my mother back up but trip on the kneeling zealots behind them.

“Nina!” Cillian cries, terrified.