I raise my glowing chin. “Then you don’t mind if I ask for whatever I want should I win?”
His eyebrows lower, settling at an arrogant angle. “Not at all. I’ll enjoy hearing what would make you do this, aside from ridiculous naiveté, I might add.”
“Well, then…first, when I win, Reed will ascend to Paradise. He gets to go home.”
Byzantyne’s eyes widen. He looks back at Reed. He did not see that coming. “I can only erase his debt. I cannot give you his ascension,” Byzantyne replies.
“No, you can’t, but he can.” I look at Atwater next to me.
“It will be done,” Atwater agrees immediately—maybe too quickly. I would step on his foot if I had a body and we weren’t hovering above the ground. I try not to look at Atwater. His easy response will make Byzantyne counter.
Byzantine peers at me thoughtfully. “But if you lose, the Power ceases to be.”
I want to dispute this, but it will only make the wicked Seraph dig in harder for it. Byzantyne looks baffled by my first point. I need to keep him unbalanced.
“Second, I don’t ever want to have to return here to fight Emil.” I gesture toward him, watching his handsomely ugly face twist with rage once more. “He never gets to come back for any more lifetimes. He has to stay buried in Sheol.”
“She can’t do that!” Emil lurches forward.
Byzantyne holds up his palm and stops Emil in midair with the gesture. “CEASE!” he orders. Emil slinks back, but his eyes betray his venom.
Byzantyne returns his attention to me. “You don’t enjoy meeting your inescapable in every lifetime? You could surrender—accept no other missions.”
“I cannot ask another soul to endure his cruelty in my stead.”
“Always the little fixer, aren’t you? You would deny him a chance at redemption?” Byzantyne’s lips twist into a wicked grin at the very thought of Emil attempting to gain redemption.
“If it means saving future souls who would fall because of his influence, then yes, I would.”
“Isn’t that heresy, Simone? Aren’t you all worthy of redemption?”
“Are we?” I ask, knowing he doesn’t think so. I am giving him something he wants. I hope he doesn’t see through it.
“There is one small problem in your plan. You’re challenging me. I cannot kill a human. If I did, I would find myself in the same situation as that Power over there. How would I fight against you?”
“That Power over there has a name. It’s Reed.”
“I don’t care what his name is. How do we solve our conundrum?”
“What if I’m not human when I return?”
Byzantyne laughs with derision. “What else could you be? You’re a soul!”
“If I had a different body—not human? Would that work for you?” I’d be holding my breath if I had a body.
“In theory, yes, but what other body could a soul inhabit—”
“Angel.”
Byzantyne appears to have stopped breathing. “What you suggest is…”
“…Is what you’ve always wanted—to be an angel with a soul. To prove to everyone that angels are worthy of redemption—more so than humans.”
He can hardly contain his glee. He attempts to hide it though. “Still, even with an angelic body, your soul would not die, it would fall to me.”
“If I lose and you kill my body, then my soul is Sheol’s, but I won’t lose.”
“I want your soul mate as well”
“No!” I nearly shout it. “You never get him! He goes free!”
“But you’re together. He’s part of you.”
I can’t let Nicolas suffer for eternity. If I lose my soul to Sheol, I want him to be free. “I will see that our soul mate connection is severed.”
“You would give up your soul mate? For a Power?” This makes no sense to him. I have to keep him unbalanced.
“I’ll do it to see you cease to be—to banish Emil to Sheol for eternity. It will give my soul mate peace like he has never known in any lifetime.”
“You think your soul mate is too good for all of this?”
I want to wipe the smirk off his face. “My soul mate is the best part of us. I’ll pay the cost of this, not Nicolas.”
“Does he know that you’ve fallen in love with your guardian angel? It’s why you force him into mission after mission—so you can be near Xavier,” Byzantyne taunts.
I cringe at how well he knows me. “I accept mission after mission to fight my inescapable. You play Emil whenever you can because you know I’ll agree to face him. It’s you who is obsessed with me.”
“Oh, I am obsessed, Simone. I would love to have you all to myself and violate you in every possible way.”
He means every word. “You know nothing of love, Byzantyne, and that’s how I’ll beat you.”