Once she was inside the elevator, the Virtue pulled the metal gating closed and shut the outside door. The Fallen man pulled his levers, and the box filled with the sound of mechanics, whirling and cranking. The divinity below flared, bright as a flash of the infinite. They lurched upward. Celeste gripped the railing, knuckles white.

The elevator operator chuckled. “Don’t you worry none, Miss,” he said. “This here machine is in apple-pie order. I maintain it myself. You’re safe as can be.”

“And where does it go?” she asked, struggling even to find that many words as the box shuddered ever higher.

“Why, this one?” The old man laughed, loud and a little mad. “This one runs between heaven and hell.”

CHAPTER 7

After that, they rode the elevator in silence, and she was grateful for it. The man was unsettling, and by the time the machine came to a halt, she was more than willing to face whatever was before her rather than spend another moment in that stifling box.

He opened the gate and then the outside door and gestured her out. No sooner had she crossed to solid ground than she was confronted with another olive-branch-marked Virtue. This one was not alone. Beside him stood two more Virtues, their masks weeping bloody tears. One held in his hand a small silver bowl, the other iron shackles.

Sweat broke out at the back of her neck. She felt her knees shake and locked them in place. Behind her, the Fallen man giggled.

She forced herself to calm and asked, “What’s this?”

“Place your hand in the bowl.”

“Why must I?”

“If you wish to pass through, you must take the test.”

“But what does it do?”

“It is holy water.”

Holy water to burn the flesh. She tilted her face up to show him her ringless eyes. “I’m no Fallen.” The lie came smooth to her tongue.

He leaned in, using his superior height to great effect. “Then you have nothing to fear.” She could not see his smile behind his mask, but she knew it to be there. His next words crawled across her scalp like a nest of spiders. “Do not despair. Should you fail, the Virtues have ways to rehabilitate your kind.”