Chapter 25 Choice #2
An ear-piercing scream reverberates from the recovery room, and more follow as the whole building shakes.
I’m paralyzed by fear, but Dr. Levy takes off.
Running toward the sound. And I follow, because I’m not letting her go alone.
There’s smoke everywhere, people sobbing, at least one form on the floor.
Oh gods. The back door to the clinic is somehow wide open, sunlight streaming in.
I blink. A man holding a gun stands in the middle of the doorway.
“I only want to stop the killing,” he says. His voice is low and rough. “If the doctors come forward and renounce their murderous ways, I’ll be happy to leave.”
Dr. Levy mutters something that sounds like a prayer. Someone tries to crawl toward the open door, and the man shoots in their direction. It’s like I’ve left my body and am watching it all happen from a removed vantage point, like I’m observing another woman’s life.
“Nobody?” he asks. He aims at a patient. “It’s not a sin to kill someone who would kill their child, to prevent them from killing again.”
Someone steps in front of the gun. It’s… Steve? “Don’t do this,” he says. “Don’t be as bad as them.”
“You little—you followed me?” the man demands. “Get out of the way or I’ll shoot.”
“Then shoot me,” Steve says calmly. The man’s hand shakes, then steadies.
“It’s me!” Dr. Levy steps forward. I grab for her, but she’s already gone. “I’m the doctor here. Please, let’s go outside and talk. These people have done nothing—”
“Haven’t they? One of your nurses tried to rush me. Everyone here is part of your murder cult.”
I realize there’s someone lying at his feet. Dan. I want to scream. My throat is burning. The room is boiling. Where is all the smoke coming from?
“More killing won’t help,” Dr. Levy says. She is so very calm. “Let’s go outside.” The man lowers his gun slightly, and she continues, “I’ll go first. I promise I’ll come with you.”
It all happens too quickly. Dr. Levy takes a step forward. A rush of flames passes across the doorway, and Dr. Levy shouts, throwing up her arms. At the sudden movement, the man lifts his gun and shoots.
Dr. Levy crumples.
With a bellow, Aaron charges the man. The man shoots again, but Aaron takes him down.
The man’s head hits the floor with a crack.
Aaron rolls off him. It looks like Steve has dropped down to help Dr. Levy, applying pressure to her wound.
The wall is on fire, the door impassable.
People are moving, clamoring around me. And then there’s a moment of tense silence as the patients and staff seem to realize they’re all going to die.
I look at Aaron through the haze, hunched over Dr. Levy’s body with Steve.
They’re no longer trying to administer medical care. Oh gods. Dr. Levy.
A figure steps through the fire and moves inexorably toward me: Asmodeus, serene and pleased. He wears another face I’ve never seen before, but I recognize his power, flaring like a demented halo.
I lock eyes with him. It is time to end this. “Come to gloat?”
“I’m here for you, for your power. I will stop this fire if you give it up to me. I am offering you one last chance to end this.”
“To end the situation you created?” I try to fight back the sob in my voice. For all my bravado, I know we’re fucked.
“I can hardly take credit for all this.” He gestures around him.
“That stupid, feckless girl and her family summoned me, and I agreed to help them when I learned there was a far better prize on offer than any they could provide: your power. But truthfully, I haven’t needed to do much.
You humans are quite capable of violence and destruction all on your own.
I just activated a few latent impulses, removed some obstacles. ”
Dan shifts on the ground, squirming in pain. A patient next to him is bleeding out. It’s too much to think about. My mind wants to shut down, wants to believe that I’m a coward, that I’m not meant for this.
And still, I step forward. I know better.
“Then what good are you? You’ve sent a hundred people and the magic of hell to beat me and still haven’t gotten what you wanted,” I say, filling with strength at my own words—I remember Shreya’s advice that this feeling could be a source of power.
Sure enough, there’s magic tingling underneath my skin.
I tug on it, urging it forth. When the surge roils through me, I stagger, unprepared for the intensity.
“If humans can do all this by themselves, then we are far more powerful than you.”
Another step forward. I’m going to use my magic to erase his memories, permanently. And maybe some of us will live long enough to be rescued by the fire department. I close my eyes, steel myself, and reach for the power.
“You think your paltry little trick will work? You already failed once. You can still choose differently. Choose to survive, with my aid.”
And then, I hear music. It’s my dance music—there must be a Bluetooth speaker back here that auto-connected.
More importantly, it’s “Mahishasura Mardini,” a dedication to Durga, slayer of the demon Mahishasura.
My body responds to it, to the feeling of inhabiting a goddess.
The only life I can choose is my own. I will never give in. I never would have.
I know who I am.
I think of Chandini, how perception made reality.
I close my eyes, draw on my power, and let it pool out of me. This isn’t normal, not how I’ve seen it used by Muya or those who came before me. I feel the earth sing. It is ready to receive this magic, and with it, the demon in front of me.
“No!” Asmodeus shouts as he reaches for me.
I don’t care. I won’t stop. He can kill me, but I will see this through. I have chosen.
“Kaitabha banjini, rasa rathe.” You who slays the demon, and indulges the dance of war.
Someone is singing along—there must be a Hindu patient here who knows these popular verses.
I draw strength from her, from all the patients around me.
From Chandini, Tara, Laila, Heera, Usha.
I have to succeed, I have to unmake this tragedy, for all of us.
I give and I give and I give, even as Asmodeus tries to stop me, his power clawing at my skin.
Even as I feel my mind tearing apart. It only strengthens my will to keep going.
Humans hold the power—and he’s afraid of me.
The earth tugs on my magic. This fire isn’t real.
This smoke isn’t real. It is not of the earth. I unmake it. I unmake it.
And as I exhale, the flames die.
“Durdhara nirjara shaktibhrite.” You who eliminate evil with infinite strength.
The demon’s hold on me wavers, but I’m still giving. My vision swims. There are so many people here, so many hurt. The flames erupt once more. It’s not enough. There is so much suffering and I can’t undo it all, even now, connected to the vastness of the earth. I’m at the end of my power.
“Let me help,” Muya says. Somehow, I’m not surprised he’s found his way to me now, in my moment of need. His arms are wrapped around Asmodeus’s struggling body. “Let me.”
Asmodeus growls. “Why betray your own kind? You could have all the power in the world if you joined us.”
“You think I would join forces with an Anglo?” Muya asks, filled with contempt. “She is far more my kind than you.”
He came for me, just as he once came for Chandini. Muya is not just ignorance, but loyalty incarnate. He, like any living thing, contains multitudes.
I reach forward, and Muya’s hand grabs my own.
“Jaya jaya he mahishasura mardini!” Victory to you, slayer of the demon Mahishasura!
I’m not underwater. I’m standing firm on dry land. I squeeze Muya’s hand, and the strange magic left within him becomes my own. It is enough. We are enough.
I understand what Chandini was trying to teach me. Knowledge and thought is the world entire; and what is ignorance but one side of that selfsame coin?
I unmake wounds and collapsing buildings. I unmake fire.
I unmake demons.
The flames die. My sight is blurry, but I think I see Dan sitting up. Diane stumbles in, supporting the woman with the ectopic. Aaron rises to his feet and checks on the patient slumped against the wall. He helps her stand. I’m watching it all, on my knees, weeping.
The police barge through the door, shouting for everyone to put their hands up. When I slip into darkness, I’m smiling.