spoke. Then Quinn made an ahem sound. "Okay, question." Quinn held up a finger. "If the bloodstone and a sacrifice does the job, why didn't Dent kill it?"
Still watching Cybil, Gage answered. "First, it came as Twisse, not in its true form."
"I think there's more," Cal said. "I've been thinking about this since Gage ran it by us. Dent had broken the rules, and intended to break more. He couldn't destroy it. It couldn't be done by his hand. So he paved the way for us. He weakened it, made certain it couldn't become, as Linz says. Not fully corporeal, not in full power. He bought time, and passed all he could down to his ancestors-to us-to finish it."
"I'll go with that. But I don't think it's the whole story." Quinn glanced at Cybil, and her eyes held sorrow and apology. "Destroying the demon was-is-Dent's mission. His reason to exist. His sacrifice-his life-wouldn't be enough. True sacrifice involves choice. We all have choices in this. Dent isn't wholly human. Despite our heritages, all of us are. This is the price, the choice to sacrifice life for the whole. Cyb-"
Cybil held up a hand. "There's always a price." She spoke steadily. "Historically, gods demand payment. Or in more pedestrian terms, nothing's free. That doesn't mean we have to accept the price is death. Not without trying to find another way to pay the freight."
"I'm all for coming up with an alternate payment plan. But," Gage added, "we all have to agree, right here and now so we get this behind us, that if we can't, I take point on this. Agree or not, that's how it's going to be. It'd be easier for me if we agreed."
No one spoke, and everyone understood Cybil had to be the first.
"We're a team," she began. "None of us would question just how completely we've become one. Within that team we've formed various units. The three men, the three women, the couples. All of those units play into the dynamics of the team. But within those units we're all individual. We're all who we are, and that's the core of what makes us what and who we are together. None of us can make a choice for another. If this is yours, I won't be responsible for making it harder, for adding to the stress, for possibly distracting you, or any of us so we make a mistake. I'll agree, believing we'll find a way where all of us walk away whole. But I'll agree, more importantly, because I believe in you. I believe in you, Gage.
"That's all I have to say. I'm tired. I'm going up."
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen
HE GAVE HER SOME TIME. HE WANTED SOME HIMSELF. When he walked to the door of the bedroom they shared, Gage thought he knew exactly what he needed to say, and how he intended to say it.
Then he opened the door, saw her, and it all slipped away from him.
She stood at the window in a short white robe, with her hair loose, her feet bare. She'd turned the lights off, lighted candles instead. Their glow, the shifting shadows they created suited her perfectly. The look of her, what he felt for her, were twin arrows in the heart.
He closed the door quietly at his back; she didn't turn. "I was wrong not to pass along the research I found."
"Yeah, you were."
"I can make excuses, I can tell you I felt I needed to dig deeper, gather more data, analyze it, verify, and so on. It's not a lie, but it's not altogether true."
"You know this is the way. You know it in your gut, Cybil, the same as I do. If I don't do this thing, and do it right, it takes us all-and the Hollow with us."
She said nothing for a moment, but only stood in the candlelight, looking out at the distant hills. "There's still a smear of sunlight at the very tips of the mountains," she said. "Just a hint of what's dying. It's beautiful. I was standing here, looking out and thinking we're like that. We still have that little bit of light, the beauty of it. A few more days of that. So it's important to pay attention to it, to value it."
"I paid attention to what you said downstairs. I value that."
"Then you might as well hear what I didn't say. If you end up being the hero and dying out there in those woods, it's going to take