Suddenly, she jerked her head back toward me. For a moment, I thought I’d attracted her attention, but she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking beside me, having sensed what I no longer could: the signature of another greater immortal. Mei stood there, hard and grim. I’d always considered her stone-faced, but the look she wore was truly terrifying, and I cringed.

She and Grace locked gazes, and then a few seconds later, Grace flung Roman away. He landed with a hard thud and lay still for a moment. Then, he lifted his head and slowly began crawling across the sand toward me, every movement seeming to cause him agony.

“You have seriously screwed things up,” said Mei.

“I have improved my situation,” said Grace evenly. “And I can improve yours.”

“I don’t need your help—especially when I reveal that you were behind all this. The others will reward me. Jerome will reward me.”

“You’re an idiot! Do you want to spend the rest of eternity working for someone else?”

“My time will come,” Mei returned smoothly. “And I’d rather work for him than you.”

And without any more banter, they lunged at each other. It was a bizarre fight. Half of it seemed very human, complete with physical blows and grappling. At the same time, there was definitely a supernatural element to it, as they wielded the same kind of elements and invisible blows Grace and Roman had. The rain was pouring down, drenching both of them. With their abilities, they could have remained impervious, but they were too distracted by each other.

Roman was still crawling toward me. Holding onto the seal and the box, I hesitantly moved to meet him half-way.

“Can you open it?” I asked, handing him the box.

His breathing was heavy and pained, but he gripped the box like I had and tried to pry the lid open. His fingers clenched the wood, and I saw exertion on his face, both of a physical and magical level. At last, he grimaced. “No. Not a greater immortal power I inherited.”

I looked up at the demonesses. There was a slight shimmer around both of them. As the battle intensified, they were in danger of shifting to their true immortal forms, which would be bad for me to see. “Who’s stronger?” I asked.

“They’re evenly matched,” said Roman, following my gaze. “Grace is a little worn down, though.”

I hoped it would be enough. Hugging the box to my chest, I watched them fight, ready to look away if they totally shifted form. I’d always thought they had a hard sort of beauty, but now, it was all hardness and no beauty, and it wasn’t difficult to see that under their human facades, they were truly demons of hell. I could also see what Roman meant about them being evenly matched. Each time one gained an advantage, the other took it back.