“Eden,” I warned. Mamá’s lips were blue.
“I know,” she said, her eyes popping open.
Mamá’s eyes focused. The tag finally allowed her to breathe again.
Eden hadn’t even broken a sweat, but Mamá could barely form a sentence; she had surpassed exhaustion and was now just focusing on taking her next breath.
Jared and Nina, Claire and Cynthia still stood in each corner of the room, continuing their chanting to distract and weaken the demon. Otherwise, Mamá would’ve been dead hours ago.
“Petra?” Eden said, leaning down to look into her eyes. “Stay with me. It’s not time yet.”
Mamá met her gaze, and a ghost of a smile touched her lips. “Stubborn.”
Eden’s expression softened. “Yes, he is. More than I realized, but we’re getting there. Rest.”
Cynthia brought my mother water, allowing her to take small sips from a straw, and then encouraged her to take a bite of a protein concoction on a pita chip. “It’s odd, but it will help to keep up your energy.” She looked to me with a reassuring nod.
“Thank you,” I said.
“We’re wasting time,” my mother said. Dark circles had formed under her sunken, bloodshot eyes.
“You can tell me,” I said. “If you want a break, if you want to stop all together, or if you change your mind about...”
She shook her head. “I want to be free.” After a few breaths, she spoke again. “And, I want to piss off your father.”
I managed a grin, but it quickly faded. She was feisty even as she faced death.
Eden squared herself, planting her feet on the ground.
“Ready?” I asked.
Mamá nodded.
Eden’s eyes rolled back in her head, and moments later, so did my mother’s. A deep growl filled the room, coming from every corner. Agatha seemed nervous, but Cynthia’s shoulders were relaxed, her eyes settling on her granddaughter with pride.
Mamá’s back arched, and a short cry was muffled by the same strangled sounds she’d been making each time Eden took hold of the beast. Her eyes bulged, indentions forming on her neck where the demon squeezed.
“Eden,” I warned.
“Almost there,” she said.
Mamá made a choking sound as she struggled for air. Her eyes rolled back until only white was visible, and then her body began to seize. Four invisible talons sunk into Mamá’s skin, drawing blood. The crimson liquid oozed from the wounds, pooled, and then streamed down her neck, filling the hollows behind her protruding collarbones. There, the blood divided into more streams before spreading downward to her shirt.
Sweat began to bead on Eden’s forehead. Cynthia wiped her brow.
“Eden?”
Eden was too focused to answer, and I knew we were close, but the tortured expression on Mamá’s face was unbearable.
“I’m going in,” I said.
“Levi, don’t,” Cynthia commanded. But she was too late.
My skin instantly sizzled at the rolling flames in the room, the embers floating around Mamá, Eden, and me. The tag was hanging onto my mother’s side like an overgrown toddler, talons on its hands and feet. It was larger than I’d seen for something that could survive for long periods in two planes. Eden was in a mental battle, standing a few feet away, her eyes still closed.
“Levi,” she warned. “Don’t!”
Eden knew as well as I did that Mamá couldn’t approach the Pearl Gates with a tag attached to her. We had to set her free first.
I jumped on the demon, prying its hands from her throat one finger at a time.
I met the tag’s eyes, coming within inches of his deformed face. “Let her go,” I said, struggling. “You’re killing her.”
His talons sunk deeper.
Mamá was finally able to suck in a breath, and she wailed.
Her screams were heard by my father.
“Eden,” I warned. “He’s coming.”
“I know,” she said, her eyes still closed.
“He’s coming!”
“I know!” she yelled back. Whatever Eden did next hurt the demon, and he buried his face into my mother’s neck, his thin gray skin trembling over its exhausted muscles.
Mamá’s eyes met mine, and for the first time in my life, I could see her panic.
“Eden, stop!” I begged.
“No!” Mamá croaked, shaking her head.
“She’s afraid,” I said, looking to Eden.
Eden opened her eyes and looked to Mamá, who reached out and then shook her head.
“I’m sorry,” Eden said, closing her eyes.
Mamá pulled back her hand, and she touched my cheek. She shook her head, still unable to breathe. Her eyes fluttered, rolled back, and her body relaxed, her hand falling away and to her side. I stared at her hand, hanging lifelessly off the bed.
“Not yet!” I yelled. “Eden!”
Eden pulled Gehenna from behind her, showing it to the tag. It immediately recoiled, loosening its grip on my mother.
“I’ll end you! Free her!” Eden screamed.
The moment the demon showed weakness, Eden lunged, effortlessly prying its fingers off my mother’s tiny body and then tossing it over her shoulder and onto the floor. They grappled, and then Eden gained her footing and held the thick skin of its neck with both hands, pinning it against the burning wall of Mamá’s bedroom.
“Mamá?” I said, shaking her. “You have to come back. You have to fight to open your eyes. It’s time.”
I grabbed my mother’s shoulders, shaking her as the room burned around us. “Mamá!”
Her eyes flickered, and then she gasped for air.
“Is she ready?” Eden yelled, still holding the tag. “Are you?”
Mamá tapped my arm, and I helped her to stand. She was wobbly, but she kept her balance.
Eden stepped aside, freeing the tag to barrel toward Mamá like a freight train. On all fours, it loped toward her so fast drool slid from the corners of its mouth and across its leathery skin to its ears.
I unleashed every bit of my rage, tackling the tag and ramming my fists into its head and sides. Hundreds of tiny razor-sharp teeth snapped inches from my face as it fought. That was when I felt the first of my wounds tear apart.
“Petra!” Eden called, true fear in her voice.
I was on my back, and the demon sunk its teeth into my shoulder and then shook its head, tearing my flesh from the muscle and my bone from the socket. I cried out, feeling even more human than before.
“Here!” Petra said, gaining the tag’s attention. “I am your slave no more, demon! You failed! I am free!”
I turned onto my stomach as the demon shrieked and then ran to my mother, pouncing and taking her to the ground.
“Mamá!” I cried.
She wrestled for just a few seconds before the demon grabbed her neck and pulled. Her body went limp the same time Eden sailed through the air, sinking the blade into the tag’s back before it had a chance to reattach.
The monster shrieked, and a slosh of dark liquid splashed at Eden’s feet before its entire body turned to ash.
I stared at Mamá’s lifeless body on the ground, most of her throat gone, her eyes staring above, vacant. “Mamá?” I called.
Eden checked Mamá, kissed her forehead, and then rushed to me.
“We have to go,” she said softly. “Your father’s coming.”
We phased back to Earth’s plane, where Claire, Jared, and Nina had stopped chanting. Jared was tending to his exhausted wife, Agatha was detaching tubes and monitors from my mother, and Cynthia was covering her with cheese cloth.
“Wait,” I said, limping to Mamá’s side.
I was unable to take my eyes off my mother, knowing it would be the last time in this life. “Eden?”
“She’s conflicted,” Eden said, her eyes closed. “She’s right outside the Eighth Gate. This is her chance at a sacrifice, at seeing you in eternity outside of Hell. But she doesn’t want to leave you.”
“Go, Mamá,” I said, kissing her cheek. “You can go now,” I said, attempting a reassuring smile. I put my palm on her forehead. “I’ll see you soon.”
“He knows,” Bex said. “This is war, you know.”
I held Mamá’s hand in both of mine. A tear fell from the outside corner of her eye and across her temple to her dark hairline. She had always been beautiful, and even after fighting for her life, she was beautiful still. I had been afraid of her death since I was a boy, knowing her fate, but now that she had the possibility of something different…
“Mamá,” I began. I brushed back her hair with my fingers. “You leave me now, but we’ll be together again.” My face crumbled.
“She’s in,” Eden said with a relieved sigh. “She’s safe.”
My head fell forward, and my shoulders trembled with my silent sobs. I sucked in a breath, trying to steady my voice.
Eden’s hand squeezed my shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I…”
“My father was coming. She had to get beyond the safety of the gates before he could get to her.” I reached up to place my hand over Mamá’s eyes, closing them completely. “It was quick. For that I’m grateful.”
“You gave her eternity in Heaven, Levi. You know as well as anyone that was the most selfless thing you could do,” Cynthia said, twisting off the knob of the oxygen tank next to the bed. “Your father never would have allowed it. She had to die during a sacrifice.”
I lifted my mother in my arms, her blouse still sticky and wet with her blood, and then lay her back gently, covering her with the thin white cloth Cynthia had provided.
Jared began a beautiful prayer in Hebrew. She was God’s now.
“Levi?” Eden said, calling after me as I passed her.
“I need to bury her,” I replied, heading for the garden to retrieve a shovel.