I yanked the handlebars left. My body leaned into the turn, and muscle memory took over. Snow sprayed up and stung the exposed skin above my face mask. The snowcat's engine growled somewhere behind me as Diego pushed those children toward the trees, where metal and glass might keep them safe from what was hunting us.
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
The prayer rose unbidden, automatic as breathing. Christ had spoken these words on the cross while facing death and choosing submission to a higher purpose. I'd thought I understood them once, in the seminary, when suffering was theoretical and martyrdom was something that happened to saints in history books. Now the words tasted like blood and snow and the metallic tang of adrenaline.
The aurora borealis painted the world in shades of green. Caesar banked toward me, and I could count his primary feathers as he adjusted his flight path. His wings caught that sick green glow likestained glass in a church where nothing holy had ever dwelt. His talons hung below his body, curved and black, each one as long as my finger.
Augustus was tracking Lorenzo, following his snowmobile's path across the tundra. If we stayed separated, they'd have to choose their targets.
My hand left the handlebar long enough to pull my sidearm. I pointed it at the eagle, squeezed the trigger with one hand while steering with the other. My shoulders absorbed the recoil, three shots that punched through muscle and bone and accomplished nothing. I missed all three. The sound cracked across the frozen waste and rang in my ears. Caesar pulled up.
Constantine's helicopter dropped lower, searchlight cutting through the aurora's glow to pin Lorenzo's snowmobile in white glare. My eyes burned as they adjusted. Constantine's voice boomed across the PA, and the smoothness was gone, the control stripped away to reveal something raw underneath.
"Bring them down. Both of them."
Augustus folded his wings.
My heart stopped. I could see it happening as though time had slowed to let me witness every detail of my failure. The eagle was dropping like a stone toward Lorenzo, toward the man I'd chosen over heaven and salvation and everything I'd been taught to value since childhood. Talons extended. Lorenzo was trying to steer, but Augustus was already committed to the dive, already locked on target.
Lorenzo swerved, but not enough.
I wrenched the handlebars left and cut across the tundra toward Augustus. Snow sprayed up in a cloud that caught aurora light and turned crystalline. I leaned so far I nearly lost the snowmobile entirely, putting myself directly in the eagle's path.
"Rafael, no!"
I fired. The shot went wide but passed close enough that Augustus's head snapped toward me, golden eyes locking onto mine even across the distance.
I fired again. Blood sprayed black against green light, matting feathers. Augustus shrieked, and the sound drove into my skull like nails hammered into wood. The eagle accelerated and committed fully to me as its target.
I jerked the handlebars in a desperate attempt to evade. The eagle's shadow fell across me and blotted out the aurora, the stars, everything. This was how it ended.
Pain sliced across my skull and erased thought, erased prayer, erased everything except the white-hot agony of flesh tearing open. The talon raked from temple to cheekbone and carved a line of fire through my face. The world tilted sideways, and darkness swallowed my left eye.
I reached for something, anything, and my hand swept through empty air where solid ground should have been. My depth perception was gone.
Blood poured down my face, hot and wet, soaking into my collar. A metallic taste flooded my mouth. The pain was so massive it stopped being pain and became something else entirely. My face had been replaced with fire.
The snowmobile jerked under me. My hands were still on the handlebars, but they weren't responding right. The machine tilted, and the snow rushed up to meet me.
My body slammed into the ground, and everything became spinning and cold and suffocation. Snow packed into my mouth, my nose, and the eye that still worked. Each tumble ground more snow into the wound, and the pain spiked so high my lungs forgot how to pull air.
When I stopped moving, I was in a shallow snowdrift. Above, the aurora danced in shades of green and purple while the left side of my face screamed in pain. It was beautiful and horrifying all at once.
Gun. I needed my gun. Where was my gun? I reached for it, but my fingers weren't working right. Blood ran into my ear and soaked the snow around me like a halo. Somewhere distantly, I registered that I was losing too much blood, but I was too tired to do anything about it.
Someone was screaming my name on the radio. Lorenzo?
Augustus circled above me, black wings against green light. He was banking for another pass.
At least I'd bought them time. At least the children would make it to safety. Diego had them in the snowcat, and Augustus was focused on me now instead of them. Lorenzo would make sure they got out. He always knew what to do, even when I was too broken to help.
Gray crept in at the edges of my vision. My eyes were so heavy. The aurora kept dancing above me, green and purple and so far away.
Augustus dove toward me for the killing blow.
Someone moved between us. Lorenzo maybe, a dark shape against green light with his blade flashing. Was this real?
The eagle shrieked, and the sound drove through my skull like nails.
