took a step forward. The shadows around him whirled, ice cracked.
Mephistopheles eyed Cale sidelong, exhaled a breath of power on the soul. The delicate form quickened, stirred, turned, opened its eyes. When it saw the archfiend, its face twisted in despair, terror.
Cale ached for the suffering of his friend. He thought Magadon could be repaired, but never made whole. He would always have a crack, scars.
“But he is not broken,” Cale said, and smiled.
Mephistopheles took the soul by the throat, lifted it high, and eyed Cale, the threat implicit. The soul squirmed and writhed, reaching desperately for Cale.
The power in Cale allowed him to see for the first time the power in the human soul, a power that transcended the trivial conventions of men, gods, and planes. Its beauty, its light, caused tears to well.
The archfiend sneered at his tears, spit, and wiped the gore from his mouth with the back of his hand.
“He is freed when I get what is mine.”
Cale shook his head, let power leak from his form. “No. Free him first.”
The gelugons crept closer but Cale had eyes only for Mephistopheles. Magadon’s soul twisted in the archdevil’s grasp, opened its mouth in silent pleading.
The devil’s eyes flared. Power danced on the pointed tips of his polearm.
“Simultaneously.”
Cale considered, nodded. There was no other way.
“There will be a moment after I release the half-breed’s soul when I can snatch it back still,” the archfiend said. “Should you renege, I will draw him back and destroy him utterly. Devour him before your eyes. Then I will find the rest of my son and cause him to suffer.”
Cale was unmoved. “Should you attempt to take payment without releasing him, I will have a moment before it is done. I will fight you.”
“You would lose.”
“Perhaps,” Cale acknowledged, “but you and everything in this plane would suffer a long while for the battle. Your rivals would know of it and come for you.”
Mephistopheles smiled at Cale’s point, though he showed no teeth, and there was nothing in it but malice.
“When I have what I want, my son will be of no matter to me ever again.”
Cale believed him. “Let us conclude this business, then.”
“Yes, let us.”
The archfiend raised a hand in dismissal and the gelugons blinked out, teleporting away.
Cale held his hands at his side and let the power within him go dormant. The shadows subsided. Cale stood before the archfiend, alone, vulnerable.
“Do it,” he said.
Riven calmed his heart, balanced his blades, and let the full scope of the power he had received manifest in his form. Darkness clotted the small room, as cold and unforgiving as his intentions. He stood in its midst, bouncing on the balls of his feet, hands fixed like vices around the hilts of his steel. He could not slow his heart, could not stop the clouds of shadow pulsing from his flesh.
Mephistopheles released Magadon’s soul and it began immediately to disincorporate into sparkling motes of silver. The archfiend whirled on Cale, his weapon raised for a killing strike.
Shadows leaked from Riven’s flesh, from his sabers, and coiled around him. He heard the exchange between Cale and the archfiend, sensed when Mephistopheles released Magadon’s soul, knew when the archfiend raised his weapon to claim Cale’s payment.
Riven released the time stop spell and reached out his consciousness for Magadon’s mind.
Magadon? he projected.
Riven? Magadon answered in the groggy tone of a man who has just awakened. Riven, what have I done?
Riven heard gratitude in the tone, shame, and above all, grief.
He understood the feelings.
Stop Sakkors’s descent and get clear of there. That is the deal.
What deal? What are you saying? Where is Erevis?
Do it, Mags. Then get away from the Source.
Cale stood his ground before Mephistopheles, eyes open, shadows swirling around him. He saw the hunger in the archfiend’s eyes, knew it would blind him to everything else.
Like Magadon’s soul, he, too, disincorporated, watched it all from afar. He felt light, free. For the first time in a long while he thought that he had done something out of love. For the first time since Jak’s death, he felt like the hero he had promised he would be.
He felt a tickling under his scalp, behind his eyes—Magadon.
Erevis, do not!
I must, Mags. Know that you saved me. You and Jak.
Magadon’s mental voice hit Riven like a punch.
Riven, don’t let him do it. Riven! Don’t let him!
But it was already done.
Mephistopheles’s vicious weapon descended in a killing arc, the full force of an archfiend’s power on its blades. Cale felt nothing