My soul snapped back to my body, and I woke up on an old army cot, stiff and sore, just in time to see Lydia and Denise run back in. Lydia hung back as Denise hugged me, but quickly took a place by her side.

I was too weak to stand, but I craned my neck to see them and said, “Did they save anybody? Anybody from Bluestar 7, did they live?”

“Randy and Jade are dead. Phil is missing, presumed dead. Paul is in the shelter at VBC. Sonny retrieved you and the bodies, but it was way too late.”

“It’s my fault,” I said. “It’s all my fault.”

“Technically it’s my fault,” Cecilia said, walking up behind them. “If I hadn’t been there to sit on you, you would have surrendered to Hell and been halfway to earning Employee of the Month by now.

“Plenty of time to cry about it later,” Cecilia said. “But right now, I’ve still got people who need help. Denise says you have access to a superior healing spell. I need you to take that marker over there and write that spell on the whiteboard, every single rune, and I want you to go slow, to make sure you do it right.”

I started to stand up and heard a weird crinkling noise coming from… me. The only thing more disconcerting than waking up in a filthy, wounded body is waking up in a hospital gown, suspiciously clean, smelling vaguely of baby powder.

“Denise, am I wearing a diaper?”

“Yeah,” Denise said. “Simon wanted to run a catheter, but Mom said you wouldn’t be gone that long.”

“Denise, did you strip me down and put a diaper on me?”

“Technically Mom did,” Denise said. “All I did was lift your butt.”

“Great,” I said. “That’s just great. Just a perfect little cherry to put on top of this day.”

“Less talking, more writing!” Cecilia snapped.

So, I stood up and slowly copied Tobias’s healing spell onto a whiteboard while I was standing in a hospital gown, showing my diapered ass to a dozen magic students.

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It took a while, and I had to redo a couple runes before I turned it over to Cecilia, but I finally got it. She decided to test it on me, healing some minor damage and internal injuries that remained after Simon got me stable.

“Okay, it works,” Cecilia said. “You can go change your diaper now.”

* * *

Lydia and Denise waited outside while I took an ice-cold shower in the locker room, considering it the first step in the very long process of penance I had ahead of me.

But while Lydia and Denise respected me enough to stay out, Cecilia Hardy did not. I was thankfully to the point of putting a new pair of boots on when Cecilia walked in.

“I can’t stop you from blaming yourself,” she said. “But I need you to understand why I wouldn’t let you do the ‘right thing.’ I really did mean what I said back at the shop. Heroic sacrifice doesn’t work. Demons like to set up sacrifice traps, because if you fall for one, they know you’ll keep falling for it, over and over again.

“Please, at least try to see the big picture here. You did not kill your teammates. Demons did. And by forcing you to stay and fight, I didn’t help them kill three thousand people, I saved the tens of thousands you would kill if I let the demons have you.”

“Cecilia, they almost got me anyway!”

“Nah,” Cecilia said. “If threats and pain could break you, they would have broken you six months ago. As soon as they captured you, I knew you’d be back. I didn’t expect you to rip a hole in the universe first, but I knew you’d be back.

“I don’t know what you are,” she continued, “and I don’t have a year to waste finding out. All I know is you’re a weapon, and I will do whatever it takes to keep that weapon on our side.”

Cecilia made her exit, and I lingered in the locker room for a moment, thinking about what she said. Cecilia may have been able to sleep tonight, but I certainly would not.

I should have checked to see if there were any patients left to heal, but I just walked out of the locker room, briefly hugged Denise, and let Lydia take me home.

* * *

Titus and Aleister were lingering in the torture chamber, wondering how long it would be until Mammon noticed his army, his very expensive army, was dead.

“I have to go up and report this to our Master,” Titus said, causing Aleister to turn a lighter shade of yellow.

“Relax. I’ll take full responsibility and leave you out of it,” Titus said. “Just do me one favor. Whoever your next boss is, be sure and tell him, whatever you do, don’t ever take that boy’s soul out of his body again. That body is the only thing holding him back.”

* * *

And as much fun as it was to watch Titus and Aleister deal with the consequences of my escape, the anticipation was even better, as I wondered how long it would take them to realize, I was not the only thing that escaped from Hell that day.