Book Two: Chapter 118

“It won’t work. If I don’t go with him willingly, he’ll give information to his masters that will put everyone’s lives in danger. Everyone is already in danger as long as Mike can’t twist the dial.” She felt sick to her stomach, that trapped feeling from the waterfall paralyzing her in place. She needed to fight, to take back the ground they had lost.

The ice creaked around her, the fracture growing larger. “Oliver, wait!” she cried, spreading her arms wide to prevent the ice from breaking.

“I’ve waited long enough.” The grin on his face stretched comically up his cheeks. “Unless you are planning to run? That could be fun, too.”

“No, it’s not that. You said a soul freely given is worth far more than one that you took. What if... what if we came to an agreement?” Her mind spun with the realization that this was it. He had come to collect, and she needed to make the most of a bad situation. This wasn’t a situation where she could go down swinging, not anymore.