Hard to Hate You // Michael Langdon

Part XXIV - Final Betrayal

"Revertere ad me!" I shout, holding my burning hand over Mallory's body (which has now lit on fire and I have no idea if it's supposed to or not).  It's taking everything in me to ignore my reflexes to withdraw the hand.  

"Revertere ad me!" I continue.  I have no fucking clue how long this spell is supposed to take, but I'm running out of time.

I hold Michael's ring in my uninjured hand over her body as I push on.  "Revertere ad me!"

This time, Mallory gasps as she flies forward.  I sigh, dropping Michael's ring as I fall down next to her.

"Valentina!" she gasps, turning over to help me.  She takes my hand and heals it as I lean over, collecting myself while catching my breath.  "Where's Langdon?" she asks.  "Where are the witches?"

I lean back and wipe the blood gushing from my nose.  "Michael's unconscious in his room and the witches are dead."

"All of them?" she asks.

I nod.  "Every last one."

She looks down sadly and I quickly take her hand.  "You don't have time to mourn.  You need to perform Tempus Infinitum.  I don't know how long we have until Michael regains consciousness."

"I'm not sure I can do it," she shakes her head.  "I've been killed and brought back from the dead twice in the last day.  Not to mention that I feel really weird after this one."

"Michael destroyed your soul," I explain quickly.  "Long story short, I got it back.  Just get in the damn bathtub."

She nods and I quickly help her get into the bathtub.  She rolls over the side and splashes into the water, Michael's hair still in her hand from when she died earlier.  "Do you still want me to save him?" she asks.

I nod.  "Save his younger self, and try to find me while you're at it."

"I need one of your personal belongings," she states.

I nod as I begin to take off a ring, but I quickly stop as I hear Michael clearing his throat in the doorway.

I snap my head around to see Michael glaring at both of us, his demeanor angry as ever.

"Fuck," I mutter, swinging my arm out.

He raises an arm to reflect my energy, but he soon realizes that my energy wasn't directed at him; instead, it was directed at creating a barrier.  He skeptically steps forward and runs right into the barrier.

He rolls his eyes.  "You know that barriers do not restrict me."

"Oh, but this one does," I state smugly, standing up.

He chuckles as he begins to press his hand forward, but it stops against the barrier.  He tries again, but to no avail.  He furrows his brow as he looks at me.  "What the hell?"

"Valentina-" Mallory whispers.

"Perform Tempus Infinitum already!" I whisper-shout back at her.

She sighs and nods as I turn my attention back to Michael.  "How did you bring her back?" he asks.  "I destroyed her soul."

"Matter cannot be created or destroyed," I mock, quoting our earlier conversation.  "But it can be converted.  Thanks to your physics lesson, I realized that you couldn't destroy Mallory's soul; you had to convert it to something else."  

I hold up the ring that I stole from him when he lost consciousness.  "This happened to get a new energy after you killed all the witches.  I didn't know why at first, but now I realize that it was because you trapped their souls in there.  What better place to hide their souls than in the one possession you never take off?"