Take it back, he seethed, shredding me, cutting me down to the bare bones of myself. Take it back or we’ll die here together.

Gentleman’s choice, I thought grimly, then punched a hole right through my protective bubble.

Infinity screamed in at us, and he let go of my mind, pushing me away as we floundered. Pain like no other crippled our thoughts. It was as exquisite an agony as angels singing the beginnings of the world, exploding the idea of infinity into reality, stripping my aura from me in sheets, scouring it layer by layer. I struggled to keep myself together.

The howling of the demons lost in the lines before us echoed, their voices caught in the moment of death forever. Out! Ku’Sox’s soul shrieked, and I clutched it, a point of common ground amid the absence of anything but pain. He was struggling to keep his aura, failing. He couldn’t get out of the line and was already dead. For all his strength, he didn’t love, couldn’t manage to tune his aura to another’s, giving all, trusting. And suddenly it struck me that only the demons who knew how to love had survived.

Al, I thought, shocked to find it was a strong enough connection. A glimmer of light pierced the black pain, and Ku’Sox clawed at it, gouging my soul until memories leaked from me like tears. I’m opening the line, I thought, and Ku’Sox struggled, striving to get through the hole, failing as he ran into a barrier he couldn’t see.

I’m opening the line! I thought more stridently. I’m saving your life, Ku’Sox. Remember that!

I’ll kill you! he screamed, a vow to fulfill. You are dead. Dead!

Dead to you, I agreed. You will leave me and those I love alone forever! I demanded, bits of me drifting off, motes of thought sparkling in the nothing. Promise or I’ll let you die here!

You are dead, he sobbed, the words becoming a promise, not a threat, capitulating as his soul began to burn. You are dead to me. You and yours are safe.

I started to shift his aura to match Al’s, hard though the sound-never-heard beat at us, and the colors no one had seen blinding me. Good, I thought savagely. Because if you ever touch anyone I care about again, I’ll find you. And then I’ll dropkick you back in here to die with the rest of them.

A pinprick of an opening began, and he slipped from me, darting through it and closing it behind him like a trap.

He was gone. Alone, I writhed in pain, trying to scrape together enough memories to tune my own aura. I had to get out before I was shredded to nothing. I wasn’t going to go to Al, who was now playing patty-cake with Ku’Sox.

The memories of those who meant the most to me flashed through my mind: Memories of Jenks, smirking at me, his hands on his hips as the sun lit his hair. The soft smile Ivy would allow herself when she thought no one could see. Trent, his face showing love as he held his daughter—and then his powerful grace when he sat atop a horse, the hounds baying and the moon lording over it all. And Pierce, a single wistful thought of a touch I’d never feel again, the soft sound of another’s breathing against mine. I couldn’t have him, and he loved me anyway.