Her face came down to mine. I started a binding spell, a desperate last-ditch attempt to—
“Wait!”
The voice was distant, almost inaudible. A woman’s voice, coming from somewhere inside me.
“Try this,” it whispered.
Words flew into my head. The start of an incantation. I didn’t have time to think. I opened my mouth and said the words, repeating them as they came. Greek. Something to do with wind. A witch spell.
The Nix gasped. Her head flew back, eyes widening in shock. She whipped her head forward, lips twisting in a snarl. Her hands started for my throat, then stopped as her mouth opened and closed, gasping for breath. Her eyes met mine. I saw my daughter’s eyes, bulging, her lips turning blue. And I couldn’t do it. I stopped casting.
“No!” the voice whispered. “Keep going.”
I hesitated. I was going to kill my daughter. My daughter! No, I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t take the chance. What if—
“Close your eyes and cast. It’ll be okay.”
I gritted my teeth and forced my eyes closed. Then I restarted the cast. I could hear the Nix gasping. My daughter’s voice gasping. My daughter struggling to breathe, dying. I dug my nails into my palms and kept casting, every fiber in me tensed, waiting for that final breath.
Savannah collapsed onto me. She’d stopped breathing. I flipped her over, mouth going down to hers.
Then I saw the spirit-glow pulsing around her. The Nix. I had to stop her first. No! I had to save my daughter. I stopped, frozen, staring at Savannah and the yellowish aura leeching from her body.
Stop the Nix and you save Savannah.
I tore my gaze from my daughter and pushed to my feet. I put out my hands. My lips moved automatically in another unfamiliar incantation and the sword appeared. Hands trembling, I forced my fingers around the hilt. Then I stepped back, looked down at Savannah one last time, and swung the sword at the Nix.
I saw it connect. Saw it slice into her. Saw her throw back her head in a howl of rage. Footsteps raced down the steps. I looked up to see Lucas running down. I opened my mouth to call to him. Then everything went dark.
51
“SAVANNAH!”
I jerked up my head to see the middle Fate standing at her wheel.
“Where’s—?” I began, rushing forward.
She held up a hand and I stopped as abruptly as if I’d hit a wall. With a wave of that hand, a circle of light appeared before me. In it I saw Savannah, sitting up, rubbing the back of her head, Lucas and Paige crouched beside her. The Fate motioned again, and the scene disappeared.
“Sh-she’s okay,” I said.
“She’s fine.”
“And the Nix. Did it work? Did I catch—”
“You did. She’s back where she belongs.”
I stood there a moment, struggling to take it in. When I did, I remembered the price I’d paid for this victory.
“I’m an angel now, aren’t I?” I whispered.
She nodded.
“And you can’t undo that, can you?”
A slow, sad shake of her head.
I shook off the terror and grief settling into my gut, pulled myself up straight, and looked her in the eye. “I owed you a favor, but I went way beyond repaying that. I gave up everything I had in this world to repay it. You said I have to leave this dimension, that I can’t stay with Kristof, but I don’t understand—”
“You will,” she said softly. “Everything will change for you now, Eve. An angel can’t stay here. It’s not an arbitrary rule. It’s a necessity. You are an angel now, so you must live in their world.”
“Then I will, too,” said a voice behind me.
I turned to see Kristof there. I stepped toward him, but hit a barrier. I wheeled back on the Fate.
“So this is it? I can’t even go near him? Goddamn it, I don’t deserve this! Maybe I did some awful things in my life, but I do not deserve this.”
“This is not a punishment, Eve.”
“Well, it sure as hell feels like one.”
Kristof cleared his throat. “You said she can’t stay here. That’s fine. I’ll go with her.”
The elderly Fate appeared. “You will, will you? You’d have no place there, Kristof, no more than she’d have here.”
He crossed his arms. “She made her sacrifice, now I’m making mine.”
“Very noble, but the answer is no. We need you here.”
“For what? To play ghost lawyer? There are thousands of—”
“Don’t question us, Kristof. We have our reasons, and our plans. And your place is here.” She turned to me. “And your