Viève looked for Kane. She saw him just as he saw her, and they ran to meet one another.

“Can you teleport me right behind him? It has to be lightning fast. I need to touch him before he can turn on me!”

“Will do,” Kane said. He looked for Kat and saw she was standing nearby, focusing all of her will onto Apep, he assumed. Kane waited to see what she could accomplish.

Apep held out his hands and the ground roiled beneath the feet of the land-bound fighters on both sides. Huge fissures opened beneath them and bodies began to fall into the earth. All the while Apep laughed at his own destruction.

“This is actually quite fun!” he declared. “I didn’t realize just how bored I was. Thank you ever so!”

Jacob quickly tried to counter the earthly attack, sealing the fissures, using the softened earth to catch the falling bodies and return them to their feet aboveground. It was a massive undertaking, even for someone of Jacob’s skill and power. Bella protected him as he focused, leaping onto the back of a nearby necromancer who tried to stab him in the neck, snapping her neck with a quick, succinct movement and a crack of sound.

“That’s what you get for trying to touch my husband!” she spat at the corpse.

Suddenly Apep released a scream of outrage. As they all watched, he seemed to be struggling in mid-air. He couldn’t seem to lift his arms to cast his next bit of power.

“What is this?” he screamed shrilly. He struggled harder.

“It’s Kat!” Viève whispered harshly to Kane. Kane nodded and grabbed Viève, holding her close.

“Hold on. Do what you do but make it fast!”

Viève didn’t know if she could do what they were counting on her to do, and she didn’t know if it would even have any effect on a god if she could.

“Make sure you let go of me right away.”

“You’ll fall!” Kane argued.

“Not if I’m holding on to him I won’t. I don’t want you anywhere near me when I go to deathtouch him. I’m not sure if I can focus it just to my hands. It might go all over my skin.”

“Gotcha. Let’s do this!”

Kamen watched as Kane grabbed her and they disappeared from the ground. When they reappeared they were in mid-air right at Apep’s back. Viève leapt out of Kane’s hold, latched onto Apep, and wrapped her hands around the god’s throat. Trapped as he was, he couldn’t fight, couldn’t throw her off. From the ground Kamen could see the focus on her face.

Apep’s struggles weakened considerably. It was working! It could all be over right then. Apep was in the body of a mortal Nightwalker, after all. Viève’s deathtouch could potentially kill his host’s body.

Tears were streaming down Apep’s face as he fought for breath, fought for life, fought against the fury of his helpless situation. Finally he seemed to wrest free of Kat’s mental hold on him. Kat collapsed onto the ground, all of her magical energy from the amulet depleted. Apep shrugged off Viève, turning on her with a snarl.

“You traitorous bitch! I’ll see you dead!”

Viève phased out of instinct, but Apep could barely move, weakness infusing every molecule of his body.

“Grey! Now!”

Now it was Grey’s turn. He appeared in mid-air behind Apep and used powerful magic to bind him once more. Then he teleported him down to the circle where Kamen was standing.

“You!” Apep snarled when he recognized Kamen’s face. “You brought me into this world!”

“And I shall take you right back out of it,” Kamen vowed.

Apep’s scream was shrill and full of fury. “Wraiths! Come to me! I command you!”

But the Wraiths were all occupied elsewhere and could not attend to their struggling master.

Using the power of his mind to compensate where his body was weak, the god began to fling things at Kamen to try and disrupt his concentration as he began to recite the spell. Viève saw this and hastened to her lover’s side.

She reached to phase him so that objects might pass through him instead of hitting him, but he quickly shook his head. His meaning was clear. He didn’t think he could effectively cast the spell if he wasn’t physically there. A large wooden crate came barreling toward Kamen, but just before it hit him it burst into flame and a wall of ash was left in its place, dousing Kamen in the warm gray dust. Viève looked up at the male Fire Demon gratefully. Noah nodded his head.

Jackson took over from there, using his telekinetic ability to protect Kamen from any further flying debris. Kamen spoke the spell as cleanly and as quickly as he could, his hours of practice and memorization serving him well. He couldn’t forget a single word. And he didn’t. He was a master at what he did.

Apep screamed in frustration and fury. He tried to fight against Grey’s power, but the Djynn was too much for him in his weakened state.

In the end, it was a rather simple finale. Bursts of energy slammed into Viève, knocking her back on her butt, and Apep screamed one last time.

Odjit’s body went limp in Grey’s hold.

Kamen opened his eyes and Grey looked at him questioningly. Had it worked? Or was Apep simply playing possum? Kamen came forward and reached out two fingers to touch Apep’s throat. There was no sign of a pulse. Apep and all the souls trapped in Odjit’s body had been banished to another realm. What realm was anybody’s guess, but as long as it was not there on Earth, it didn’t matter.

“Are you sure he’s gone? What if he just jumped bodies?” Grey asked skeptically.

“He’s gone. If he had jumped bodies Odjit and her host would still be intact. I sent everything inside of her to another realm. It worked.”

“As long as you’re sure…” Grey said.

Kamen nodded. Grey released his hold and Odjit’s body collapsed bonelessly to the ground.

“That seemed almost too eas—”

Grey broke off with a gasp and Viève and Kamen looked up from Odjit’s body to see a Wraith wrapping its hands around Grey’s throat.

“No!” Viève cried, leaping forward to try to touch Grey, to phase him away, but Grey disappeared before her eyes, leaving the Wraith to fall forward. Kamen blasted out the Curse of Ra against him and he was incinerated.

“What happened to Grey? Is he dead? Do Djynn just disappear when they die?” Viève asked, her tone panicked.