My Soul to Win

by Robin Roseau

  “Let’s finish this business, Theophania.”

  She nodded, spread her wings, and flew.

  Raggedly, I followed.

  We set down, and then she led me to a particularly deep pit. “Fiat lux!” I said, but the resulting light was barely anything.

  “Let me. Fiat lux!” She sent her light into the pit. And there were so many souls, I couldn’t even see the demon at the bottom.

  “That seems…”

  “I was a little bit angry,” she said. “I did the equivalent of basting her.”

  “That’s just gross.”

  “Well,” Theophania said. “She’s there. Pull her out, and she’s yours.”

  I snorted. “You agreed to give her to me. I’ll take delivery right over there.” I pointed.

  Theophania laughed. “I didn’t promise delivery.”

  I looked down into the pit. “We both know I’m in no shape for this, Theophania.”

  “I know,” she said gently. “I’m teasing you.”

  “I was expecting you to be far angrier with me.”

  “I was angry at realizing I had invaders. When I realized who it was, that changed a few things.”

  “It took you a long time to notice us.”

  “I was distracted,” she explained. “I should charge extra for this.”

  “I don’t consider our business complete while your souls are feeding off my demon, Theophania.”

  “Oh, I suppose I wouldn’t, either,” she agreed. “Fine, fine. Are you going to talk to her here?”

  “No. I’m going to take her Earth, and I’ll return her to Hell when our business is done.”

  “Interesting. I tell you what. You’re going to want a pentagram on both sides. I’ll help you send her back. Wait for me on the battlements, and I’ll bring her to you. For a price.”

  “What price?”

  “She isn’t going to be coherent immediately. When she is, tell her if she wishes to finish serving her sentence with me, she may.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “I don’t know, but tell her.”

  I shook my head. “Fine. I’ll tell her.”

  “We’ll be a few minutes behind you, or perhaps not, if you’re slow.”

  I nodded spread my wings, and climbed into the air.

  It was a difficult flight, and I stumbled on landing, then slumped.

  * * * *

  Theophania was perhaps twenty minutes behind me. She held a limp body in her arms, but when I stepped closer, I could verify it was Quentaslart. “Does she live?”

  “Demons are immortal. They can be destroyed, but I’ve never done it, and I don’t know if I’m powerful enough to. She’s alive. I don’t know how long it will take her to recover.”

  “You’ve had her five years?”

  “Five years,” she confirmed. “And she began her ordeal a weak demon besides. Shall we?”

  I followed her through the castle. We descended, and then we entered the room with the pentagram, deep in the bowels of her castle. She laid Quentaslart down in the center of the pentagram, making sure she wasn’t touching any of the lines.

  Then she turned to me. “Per our agreement, Teigan St. Claire, former Detective of the Minneapolis Police Department, former property of the demon Evaline, my former pet, I give this demon, named Quentaslart, to you.”

  I felt… something. Yeah, like so many other things, I can’t really explain it. I felt a transfer, not all that unlike when Evaline gave me to Theophania. I nodded and said, “Thank you, Theophania.”

  “Join her, and I’ll salt the pentagram. Please don’t open the portal until I have.”

  I was too tired to wonder if there was a trick. Perhaps she could have performed some sort of binding. Instead, I walked into the pentagram and knelt beside the still demon. Theophania used salt along the lines etched in the stone, and then she lit candles. “No magic,” she said. “Do you have enough left in you to do this, Teigan?”

  “I guess we’ll see.”

  “Contain your wings or you’ll break the lines.”

  I nodded. “Thank you for the reminder. I’m not very good with them yet.”

  “I’ve noticed.” She smiled. “Tell Evaline ‘no hard feelings’.”

  “I’ll relay the message, Theophania.”

  I withdrew my badge. Then, making sure my wings remained behaved, I opened it. “Pastor Grace Ware and the Angel Elisabeth Marsh, please hear me.”

  “We’re here, Teigan,” Grace said. She sounded tired.

  “Beth, I need you to triple check the pentagram, and please tell me Kate is still there.”

  “She just drew her sword,” Beth said. “Are you bringing trouble, Teigan?”

  “I hope not,” I said. “Grace, I don’t know what this is going to do to your church.”

  “We’ll rebuild if we must,” she said. “Come home to me, Teigan.”

  I nodded. And then I looked at Theophania. She surprised me. “Teigan. I think I love you.”

  “If you learn to love, Theophania, you would be worthy of love.”

  She inclined her head.

  I smiled. “There’s no place like home.” I clicked my heals.

  “You can’t be serious,” Theophania said.

  “There’s no place like home,” I said, with another click of my heals.

  “That is the worst incantation I’ve ever heard. Do I need to do this for you?”

  “There’s no place like home!” I clicked a third time.

  The air shimmered, shimmered some more. Before it faded to mist, Theophania blew me a kiss.

  And then we were in the church. I collapsed over the body of the demon.

  Rising

  “Teigan Dove. Teigan Dove.” I heard the voice, but I just wanted it to go away.

  “Really, Angel. Asleep on the job. If you don’t move soon, someone is going to have to break through all this salt, and I don’t think you want that.”

  “Go away, Kate,” I muttered.

  “Angel up already,” she said. “Seriously.”

  I opened my eyes and groaned. I was draped over a body, a still body, but before me, perhaps twenty feet away, a host of worried faces. “What’s a girl gotta do to get a nap around here?”

  “Not the time or place,” Kate said.

  “You’re a pain in the ass.”

  “I know,” she said. “Teigan, I can come give you a boost, but I don’t know if it’s safe to violate the pentagram.”

  “It’s not,” I said. “Shit.”

  “The angel said ‘shit’,” someone said.

  “Smart ass,” I muttered.

  “The angel said ‘ass’,” someone else said. “I bet ‘fuck’ is next.”

  I pushed myself up. It was the demon I was draped across. “Fuck.”

  “I told you.”

  “You two are children,” Grace said.

  “We’re all God’s children.”

  Grace waved a finger. I looked back down at the demon. I gave her a poke. She wasn’t moving.

  “Is she dead?”

  “I hope not,” I said. I looked up. “My head hurts.” I looked around, my gaze settling on Grace. “Status?”

  “Seriously? How about ‘hello?’”

  “Hello, Grace,” I said. “Is everyone all right?”

  “Everyone is fine,” she said.

  “Did you count?”

  “Excuse me?”

  I shifted my gaze. “Kate, did everyone get back.”

  “Yes,” she said. “And yes, I counted. Count yourself.” She did it for me, reaching “eleven” when she pointed at me.

  I turned. “Beth. I want you to summon every bit of angel you have and bless the entire team.”

  “Grace and I already did,” she said.

  I nodded. “Thank you. Bless Marley and Sue Ellen again, extra strength blessing.”

  “We’re fine,” Sue Ellen said. But Beth and Grace didn’t question me. Instead, they moved to the baptismal fountain. Holding h
ands over it, they blessed it together, and then Grace said, “Get over here, Sue Ellen. You too, Marley Jae.”

  “Aww, Mom,” Sue Ellen said in her best teenager voice. “Do we have to?”

  “Get over here.”

  Then, as everyone watched, Grace and Beth together administered a baptismal sacrament.

  “Make them drink some of the water,” I said.

  “Seriously?” Sue Ellen complained.

  It was Kate who provide a glass cup. Grace didn’t even flinch. She held the glass up. Beth added her hands. They blessed it, then they dipped into the fountain. Sue Ellen got a full glass of blessed holy water first, and then Marley. “The rest of you, too, as long as we’re doing this,” Beth said.

  “You heard her,” Kate said for me. But then she didn’t move.

  The others accepted their blessings, and then we all turned to look at Kate.

  “Fine,” she muttered. “But if your god strikes me down, it’s not my fault.”

  Kate accepted a baptismal blessing and drank her own glass of the blessed water then turned to me. “Happy?”

  “Ecstatic,” I declared. “You realize you just let Beth bless you.”

  “And I also realized she did it,” Kate said. “It’s not the last thing I would have imagined, but it’s close.” The two eyed each other then slowly separated.

  “Beth.” She stepped over and knelt at the edge of the circle. “Is it alive?” I asked.

  “I don’t think dead demons keep their bodies, but what do I know?”

  “Yeah,” I said. I nudged Quentaslart. Again. No reaction. I looked around. “I don’t see any damage. Can you tell if the sanctuary is still blessed ground?”

  “It sure feels like it,” Beth replied. “Teigan, it’s not just blessed, but one of the most blessed places I’ve ever been.”

  “That’s how I felt, too, but I can’t feel it from in here. I don’t know if it’s the pentagram or if I’m that tired.”

  “Maybe both,” she said. “That’s not Evaline.”

  “No. This is the demon that killed me. We’re going to ask some questions.”

  There were hisses, but no cries to send her back. As half of Grace’s congregation was watching quietly, I was rather impressed. I looked out at them. “Thank you for staying.”

  One woman stood up. “We’re here as long as you need us, Angel.”

  I inclined my head. “I lost count of the souls.”

  “Fifteen,” someone called out. “There were fifteen.”

  “All of you,” I said. “You helped free fifteen souls from Hell. Beth?”

  “As far as I can tell, they were drawn to Heaven, or at least I think so. I’ve never seen anything like that, Teigan.”

  “Fifteen souls. Without us, they would still be there, perhaps for eternity. Grace, there must be a song or something.”

  “Perhaps a prayer,” she said. She stepped forward, then gathered as many around her as she could, holding hands with nearly everyone in the church, a chain of people, everyone but me and Quentaslart, stuck in the pentagram. She offered a simple prayer for the dead, now in Heaven.

  I nodded. “Thank you, Grace,” I said. “Kate, is there any way you can feed me while I’m in here?”

  “Only if I join you.”

  “I don’t want to risk breaking the barrier,” I said. “I’m not sure what to do.”

  “Threaten it,” Jebediah said. “Tell it you’ll send it back to the hungry souls if it doesn’t wake up.”

  “I’m not threatening her.”

  “Talk to her,” Grace said. She moved closer, coming to a stop right at the edge of the salt. “Teigan, tell her the reality of the situation. Talk to her.”

  I nodded, then shifted around to look at Quentaslart’s face. I spoke in English for several minutes, explaining what had happened, where she was, and what would happen if she couldn’t wake up before I collapsed again.

  Then I did it all again in Latin, and a third time in Greek, unsure which would be most effective. Then I spoke more Latin, and more English.

  And Quentaslart began to stir, then opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for a minute. Finally her eyes moved around, but when she realized this was a church, she shrank away, curling into a ball and hiding her eyes.

  “You’re safe, Quentaslart,” I said in English, then in Latin.

  “Ego te occisus est,” she said, speaking Latin. I killed you.

  “Only a flesh wound,” I said with a snort. “I got better. I forgive you, Quentaslart.” I repeated that in Latin.

  She uncovered her face, and then she began to glow, and her features morphed. As I stared, her wings disappeared, and her horns retracted. She remained disheveled, but she lost all of her demonic appearance.

  And then before us, she began to rise, floating in the air, at first flat, but then upright, her arms out, her face lifted above, light shining from her, and more light shining down upon her.

  “Mother!” she called out. “Mother, I want to come home. Please, may I come home.”

  “Of course, my darling,” came a familiar voice. Then a wind rose, a fierce wind blew through the church, scattering the salt of the pentagram. The barrier crashed down; I felt it to my soul. Beth and Grace both gasped, and so I imagine they also felt it.

  “Mother!” Quentaslart began sobbing. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I know, my darling,” came the familiar voice. “Come home to me now.”

  “Wait,” said the demon, no longer a demon. She dropped her gaze to me. “The name you want is Tienbellart.”

  And then she began to rise higher into the air. The roof of the church opened, but the light was too bright to see as Quentaslart rose, and rose, faster and faster.

  And then there was a final flash of light, and we all covered our eyes.

  When next I looked, the church was whole, as if nothing had just happened. I looked around between many shocked faces.

  And then Kate began laughing. We all turned to her. “Oh, come on,” she said. “It’s funny.”

  “What’s funny?” Beth said.

  “That one,” and she pointed at me, “forgives someone, and apparently it is with the power of your god. She forgave a demon, and what do you think happened after that?”

  Everyone stared at Kate, and then they turned to me. “That wasn’t quite what I meant,” I said in a small voice.

  Grace stepped over and took my hands. “I’d hug you.”

  “Maybe I should shower,” I said.

  “Maybe you should think twice before you offer any more forgiveness.”

  “Definitely don’t go around forgiving me,” Griffen said, stepping up to me. “I’ve got decades of living left to do, and I don’t want to get yanked up to start traipsing around with cherubs and shit.”

  I looked at Grace for a moment, and then I stepped to the front of the sanctuary, looking out at the audience. “Thank you,” I said. “Please, be with your loved ones. We’re going to need to recover, then I have to go back.”

  Sasha stood, Lisa Jean’s mother. “Are you all right, Teigan?”

  “Just tired,” I said. I turned to Grace. “Could we host a dinner here tomorrow night? I don’t even know what day it is.”

  “Monday night,” she said.

  “Technically,” Lisa Jean offered, “It’s Tuesday morning.”

  “Just after midnight?” I asked.

  Grace nodded. “Prayer breakfast in the morning, and dinner tomorrow evening.”

  “For whoever can come,” I added. “I should have our next plan by then.” I offered a small bow. “Thank you, all of you.”

  And then I turned, and I let Grace lead me from the church.

  Recovery

  Beth handed me a glass of water. “Drink this.”

  I eyed it. “Blessed?”

  “Yes.”

  I nodded and drank the water. It tasted like normal water. My wings were missing; I wasn’t sure why, but they’d be back later. Maybe they were tired.

&
nbsp; “Did everyone go home?”

  “No. They’re in the living room. We’re going to feed you a little then everyone needs to sleep.”

  I nodded and let her and Grace pull me into the next room. I plopped down on the floor and leaned against Marley’s legs. Grace sat down on the sofa beside Marley, and I had legs on both sides. It was Beth who fetched food for me, then she sat down facing me, and I ate what she gave me.

  “Please, someone tell me you wrote that name down.”

  “I did,” Marley said.

  Then Kate left her own chair and sat beside Beth. She looked into my eyes. “Do you need me to top you off?”

  “No. I think I need to sleep.” I looked around. “Is everyone all right?”

  “We’re fine,” Sue Ellen said.

  “You went to Hell,” I pointed out. “You were possessed by a demon.”

  “It wasn’t like I would have expected,” she replied. “But Pastor Grace says we can stay here.”

  “Do you need us all to stay?” Jebediah asked.

  “No. It’s up to you.” I shifted my gaze. “Jake, how are you doing.”

  “I wouldn’t mind talking to you, Lacey, but you look pretty done in.”

  I paused then said, “Jake, the soul you intercepted may have been the most evil we faced today. If you found it disturbing, it’s only a testament to your humanity. And I’m including Theophania in that scale.”

  “The soul was more evil than a demon?” he asked.

  “Yes, I believe so. Theophania is selfish and willing to do evil acts, but I have never seen her do something evil because she enjoys evil. She’s always had a better reason than that. That soul belonged to someone who enjoyed being evil.”

  He gave a little shudder. Hyacinth moved closer and set her head on his shoulder. “It was aiming for me,” she said.

  “Griffen had seemed almost casual about it. Kate was angry at hers. And you were treating them like pet dogs.”

  “I was treating the good ones like pet dogs,” I said. “Jake, will you go back with us.”

  “Damned right I will,” he said. “And I won’t let them get Hyacinth the next time, either.”

  “You’re a good man,” I said. “All of you are.”

  “Me, too?” Sue Ellen said.

  “Definitely,” I told her with a little laugh. “I might choose slightly different words.” I turned back to Jake. “If you found that soul disturbing, I don’t blame you one bit, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed if it unsettled you.”