He came so close I felt the heat of him.

“You cannot fight me. Cannot. If you insist on trying, I will need to teach you a lesson. One I’d rather not impart.” He nodded to Adam. “Take your lover and leave. You have my word that this”—he lifted the vials—“will not affect you. I will take it far from here before I unleash it.”

“I’m not letting you unleash it anywhere.”

His green eyes flashed. “I’m being benevolent, child. Do not test me.”

He turned to go. I cast a binding spell, then an energy bolt, then in desperation, a knockback. He just kept walking.

I ran at him and jumped on his back. He flung me aside. I hit the ground so hard I left a dent in the dirt. I scrambled up, though, and tore after him.

He turned, caught my arm, and held it in his vice grip. “I have warned you, child. Do not test me.”

He snapped my arm. Pain ripped through me. Then he threw me down on my back and towered above me.

“Perhaps it’s more than recklessness. Are you dense, child? As stupid as a bull, charging blindly, knowing no good will come of it.”

Maybe not, but I could try to distract him long enough for the others to show up. I was careful not to let the thought solidify in my mind. He’d already proven he could read it.

I lay there, panting and cradling my broken arm as he turned. He took two steps, then looked back. I hadn’t moved. A satisfied snort. He continued walking.

I slowly got to my feet. Then I charged him again. This time, when he turned, I saw it coming and dodged out of the way. I got behind him, grabbed his hair in my good hand, and swung off my feet, yanking with everything I had.

“Adam did a good job of burning Giles’s neck,” I said, through gritted teeth. “I’m sure if I pull hard enough, I can rip your damned head off.”

He spun and I lost my grip. Then he nailed me in the chest so hard I heard ribs crack. I went flying and hit the ground again. When I tried to rise, I doubled over, coughing and spitting blood.

“I do not want to hurt you,” he growled as he loomed above me again

“Yeah?” I wheezed. “I’d hate to see what would happen if you did.”

“I would rip your head from your neck and I would keep you alive while I did it.” He bent down. “This is a lesson, child. I’m proud of you. Now, accept defeat and back down.”

I looked up into his green eyes. “Would you?”

He didn’t answer.

“Then I come by it honestly,” I said, and grabbed his hair with my good hand again, and wrenched with all I had.

He backhanded me and I went flying. When I hit the ground, I couldn’t breathe and lay there, heaving and coughing up blood. Then, slowly, I pushed to my feet.

“You will not accept the lesson, will you, child?” Balaam said. “Your own pain means nothing to you. But I know a lesson that will hurt.”

He walked toward Adam and put out his hand. Adam convulsed and gasped, his eyes flying open, blind with pain.

“No!” I shouted.

A gust of wind ripped through the corn, stalks breaking and flying aside. Even Balaam stumbled. He glanced at me.

“Interesting. But not enough, child.”

He turned back to Adam. I closed my eyes and poured everything I had into the spell, shouting the words. Over my shouts and the roar of the wind, I heard Balaam.

“Dispelling me?” His voice drew closer as he came my way again. “As if I were some minor spirit? You cannot—”

As I finished the incantation, he stopped short and when I opened my eyes, I saw the surprise on his face as Giles’s body wobbled.

“Seems like maybe I can,” I said.

I closed my eyes and started the spell again. He hit me. I don’t know if he physically hit me or sent me flying with a wave of energy, only that I sailed off my feet and landed so hard I blacked out from pain. But when I came to, the words were still on my lips.

I didn’t even open my eyes. Just shouted the incantation. When I finished, I looked to see him only a foot away from me, face contorted in rage, but frozen there, as if he was losing his hold on Giles’s body.

He drew back his fist to hit me again.

“Hey!” said a voice behind him.

Balaam wheeled to see Adam staggering to his feet.

“She’s as stubborn and bullheaded as you are,” he said. “No use hurting her … unless you’re afraid she can really cast you out.”

Balaam snarled in reply, too furious to even form words.

“Well, then, if you want to stop her, I’m the one you need to hurt.”

“No,” I said.

Adam didn’t listen. He was distracting Balaam so I could try again. He believed I could do it. He was betting his life I could do it.

I closed my eyes and if I’d thought I’d tried my hardest before, it was nothing compared to how hard I tried now. Everything disappeared as the incantation took over. That was all there was—the words, the power, the will, the desperation.

If I failed—I didn’t want to think of what would happen if I failed. But I had to, because that was the only thing that was going to make it damned well certain I’d give this everything I had. Fail, and Balaam would kill Adam. Fail, and Balaam would unleash the virus. Fail, and my world—and everyone in it—?could be destroyed.

Do not fail. That was the only option.

I recited the incantation and then I recited it again and then—A hand on my shoulder. A voice in my ear. “It’s over, Savannah. He’s gone.”

I looked up at Adam. I took his arm and I pulled myself up and only then did I look over at Balaam. Only it wasn’t Balaam. It was just Gilles de Rais’s ruined body, lying in a cornfield.

I picked up the vials in my good hand, lowered myself to the ground and sat there, cradling them, Adam beside me with his arms around me.

FORTY-EIGHT

The Cabal team showed up about thirty seconds later. Figures, doesn’t it?

I radioed Lucas and Paige to meet us back in the auditorium. According to the team members who’d just arrived, something had happened there. Something I really wanted to see.

When we made it back, I saw Elena and Clay first. Elena noticed the blood on my shirt and rushed over, but I waved her away.

“Is she here?” I asked. “Is she okay?”