When she finds herself back in Sioux Falls on a job, a twist of fate puts Evelyn Marshall in the path of the Winchesters and Bobby Singer. With nowhere left to run, the dark secrets in her past and the creatures who've hunted her are about to catch...
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Death could've picked any moment to send me back.
In my opinion, earlier would've been better.
I mean, if you had a second chance, then you wanted to make the most of it, right? You chose the easy option. You chose a time when the villain wasn't present. You bought time for your hero to gather their thoughts. To formulate a plan. To just breathe and steady themselves.
It was an opinion that Death didn't share.
"Evelyn!" Castiel's voice broke through the speakers. "Evelyn, get out of there!"
The sound ought to have turned my blood to ice in my veins. I knew what it signified. That Lee was about to charge at me. Already, he was shoving our distant relatives aside, tearing through the souls and throwing them to the ground. The last time, this had been when I'd first realised that it was hope that would save me. That I needed to cast off my hatred and anger at him in favour of the people waiting for me on the outside.
This time, I was already armed with the knowledge.
This time, the flame in my chest had already been lit.
Lee drew back his fist as he threw himself into the punch. When I stepped aside and he followed the momentum to punch thin air, his eyes widened in shock. That was my second chance. An opportunity to change the end of my story.
As my brother hit the ground, sprawled across it like a fool, the other souls descended upon him. He rolled onto his back and was mobbed by clawing hands and shrieking mouths. Angry spirits saw him, not as a tyrant who had them in chains, but as a mortal man who could be broken and defeated. Lee roared in fury, ordering them to take their hands off him, threatening to destroy them, little knowing that they were people who had nothing left to lose. People who were desperate and vengeful. People whose only aim was to break him.
Now I understood Death's decision.
One simple step had turned the tide, a split-second decision, and it had been enough to change the course of this mission.
Even so, I couldn't afford to be complacent. Time was still of the essence. The hunters were outside holding the line, I didn't trust Crowley as far as I could throw him, but he was at least playing his part, and Castiel couldn't burn out what remained of Lee if I was still inside him. I was the match who'd light the fuse. The first wave of the explosion. Castiel was the true detonation who'd finish off the last scrap of his soul and tear Lee's empty body apart.
The last time I'd expelled Lee from my body, I'd broken through the door. That was different. I was looking for an exit. This time, the explosion needed to be everywhere at once. The light needed to seep into every corner, every crack. It had to tear the prison apart and course through his body like poison, burning and killing everything in its path. First off, it had to come from inside of me.
