Pictures emerge on the walls, all images of us in our past lives during the glory days of fun, sex, and limitless time.

My purple dress sways, the slits at the hips giving the warm air a space to kiss my thighs with each step I take in my gladiator-style sandals that lace all the way up above my knees—my latest level-up attire after I faced the angelic smiting.

My boys slowly morph into their gladiator clothes, something I can only see in the mirror at the end of the long hallway that seems to steadily grow longer and longer.

Lucifer steps into view, as Lamar steps off to the side, and I move toward him with all the false confidence I can muster.

He gives me a disappointed look, a sneer, and then disappears from sight, not bothering to wish me luck.

Several of the guards lower to one knee as we pass. Hera tips her crown to me, and I flip her off as I keep walking. She smirks, as Lilith does the same.

I give Envy a small glare, before turning my attention to Manella, who looks less eager to send me off to the gallows.

“Try to come back,” he says before he disappears.

The mirror wavers, and I keep walking, stepping through it just as I was instructed to do earlier when Lamar gave me a rundown of how this will go, since we can’t siphon during the lockdown.

The mirror spits me out in Purgatory, where Fluffy and the horses are awaiting us.

Rafael and several other angels are awaiting us as well. Rafael’s eyes meet mine and hold steady, before he gives me a subtle, barely-there nod about our secret agreement.

“We’ll be in lockdown the moment we leave here, but we’ll be watching you. We’ll be able to hear you as well, so just let me know when you’re ready for the cage to open,” he tells me.

He blows into his hands, and a white dove magically appears, cooing as it bounces to the edge of his fingertips and flutters up into the sky, hovering over us.

It’s not until now that I notice a crow already hovering there as well, red eyes glowing as Hell views the exchange from the safety of lockdown.

“Enjoy the view,” I tell the dove and crow with a curt smile. “Make sure no underlings see this. It’d ruin my street cred if all of Hell knew I, The Apocalypse, was about to save the world and all,” I add with a sweet drawl, batting my lashes as I glance back over to Rafael.

The angels have their ‘serious’ faces on, so I decide to quit while I’m ahead.

We climb our rides, readying ourselves for the trek over the ground that can’t be touched unless you’re pure…or have creatures who break the rules.

Taking a shaky breath, I give Fluffy a small pat, and she takes off, racing toward the Pure Branch. My stomach tries climbing up my throat, because the second we’re inside, it’ll be an all-out battle to the death.

The guys are silent, and my spine gets stiffer and stiffer the closer we draw to the dark sludge I can see from here.

The second we reach the edge, I hop off Fluffy.

“I’ve got it from here. Go hunt those unicorns,” I tell her, patting her side.

She doesn’t wait around to see if I change my mind.

The guys dismount and join me in staring ahead at all the sludge that is already taunting us with screeching laughter, as the puppets begin forming, rising up in their forms.

“You shouldn’t have sent her off so soon. What if your fire doesn’t burn through this the way you theorized?” Jude asks quietly, his eyes facing front as we all take in the damning battle that’s about to come.

Swallowing thickly and refusing to second guess myself, I point out, “I can barely ride her as it is. I doubt I can manage to battle, ride a bull, and pull off an impossible win in the final hours against a thing no one believes we can beat. If I can’t burn through it, then this is all pointless.”

Another long spell of silence descends as the laughter inside the cage grows into a deafening echo.

The dove and crow grow restless above us, as the forms continue growing in quantity, slamming into the cage wall.

I really hope Rafael is right about timing this.

“When the cage opens, we’ll have just a few short seconds to enter before it slams shut,” Gage states as though he’s reminding everyone.

“I go in blazing, and you guys ride like the wind to fend off the fray. Then, when I’ve weakened him, hit him with a Unity Strike,” I add, shaking out the last of my nerves.

Fighting back the tears and ignoring the fear of losing them forever, I steel myself.

One of the puppets forms in front of me, and I stare into its hollow eye sockets.

“Surrender yourselves. You shall not defeat me.”

Cracking my neck to the side, I stare at the evil pile of goo body. I guess someone forgot to tell it my motherfucking name.

Chapter 27

GAGE

I snatch Paca’s hand, pulling her to me, and she sucks in a breath of surprise just as my lips crash to hers. My heart is pounding out of my chest, the worst feeling in the world inching up my spine.

Terror. Sheer, unguarded terror courses through my body without restraint for the first time in my entire life.

I don’t want to lose her. I don’t want to lose them. I don’t want to fight this fucking battle.

Her arms wind around my neck, and she drinks me in, kissing me just as hard, as I cling to her with more desperation than I can dignify.

She makes a hungry moan, and I kiss her harder, as her fingers twist and tangle in my hair. She pulls me closer, her touch just as desperate as mine.

She breaks the kiss abruptly, breathing heavily as her head drops to my chest.

“I love you too,” she whispers so softly I barely hear it. “I’ll say it again the second we return.”

I hold her to me tighter, letting my eyelids flutter shut, idly wondering if this would be any easier if it didn’t feel like we wasted so much time fighting her.

Or if we’d simply destroy the world, roll the dice, and cling to her if we’d remembered, even an ounce, of how much stronger that bond was before it was blasted away with the life we can’t remember.

“It’d be great if you could remember something from before,” I point out, still considering simply destroying the world.

“I’ll never remember,” she says quietly.

My brow furrows, and I glance down, just as she peers up and says, “The weapon is just the vessel—my body, my essence, my very core of my existence. The ammunition is me. That Paca freely gave her life, without even using the ammunition in the way intended, inviting death so easily. She genuinely died, so she could come back and start anew, shifting pieces around on the chess board, and preparing for the checkmate of all checkmates. Because she was a strategist with a formidable foe for the first time in her extremely long life. I’m still her, but I’m also me, because I’ve lived a different life and loved a different way.”

Lifting my hand, I tuck her hair behind her ear, my fingers brushing the warm metal of the black crown.

“Just as you’re all different from the men who mourned her loss until they couldn’t take it any longer,” she adds on a soft whisper.

I don’t get to process anything, because the second a tear rolls down her cheek, Ezekiel tugs her hand in his and spins her to him. His lips crash to hers, and she drinks him in the same as she did me, kissing him hard.

“I never thought we’d find a girl who loved us equally. A woman who could divide herself so easily between us,” I murmur to Kai, as Ezekiel makes Paca choke back tears through a small laugh from whatever he’s just murmured against her lips.

“Now we could lose it all, and we’re not fucking heroes,” Kai states in a quiet, somewhat angry tone as he watches the two of them.

Jude moves to my other side, just as Kai goes to steal Paca from Ezekiel, taking his turn. He lifts her, and she grins against his lips when she kisses him.

“We walk away from this alive,” Jude reminds me, rehashing our own private plan Paca knows nothing about. “If that thing is too hard to kill, we get back out,” he goes on, lifting the amulet Rafael gave us for a quick ejection, in spite of the very complicated instructions on how it works.

“The champion didn’t have time for something like this to work, but we can buy time. We’re five instead of one,” he adds.

I nod, agreeing, even though it feels hollow and uncertain now that we’re standing here in front of this cage.

“Surrender yourselves. You cannot defeat me,” the chorus of voices continues to warn.

Just as Kai releases Paca, Jude is on her, kissing her like I’ve never seen him kiss any other woman. Her arms go around his neck, and she leans up on her tiptoes, pressing against him as he runs his hands down her back.

We all wait. To each of us, she’s dropped that L word that once gave us the creeps when other women tried to use it. But with her, it’s as if we found what we spent so long searching for, without realizing it’s what we were searching for.

Jude kisses her more desperately, and I take an unconscious step forward, watching as he tries his damnedest to convey the thing we all found so much easier to convey.

He finally breaks the kiss in frustration, and Paca’s eyes water as she smiles a little sadly up at him.

“Don’t try so hard. We both know you’re just not there yet,” she whispers so quietly I almost miss it.

Jude stares down at her with a clenched jaw, muscles visibly tense. He’s there. He’s just unable to stop holding back.