Velli

We all slide toward Wulf. He stands, statuesque, glued to the floor.

“No, no, no, no, no,” I beg, I’m not sure to who. I try to reach for something and know it’s pointless. So right when he’s above me, I leap and bite.

I bite into the meat of his neck, a pressure point sure to cause a disorienting amount of pain. Wolves have howled less frighteningly than he does. His hands grip my back as he puts me in a bear hug and squeezes. I poke both his eyes with my fingers. The bear hug does not break, but his concentration slips, and we slide backward. We near the edge of the building.

He’s tough, but can he survive a fall from here? I doubt it.

But with your luck.

I headbutt him, half to shut Fate up and half to push ourselves a little closer to the edge.

Blurry. Everything. Blood, forehead, gush out fast. Taste, salty.

Slide, sliding closer, the edge we fall off. I can save Dream and Lue.

My head goes into his again. He screams. I smile, adjusting, things less blurry. Hurt, though. Can’t do again. Do again too blurry. His ankles reach the edge. One more big hit, and we’ll fall. I can do one more.

I pull my neck back for the strongest headbutt in the history of headbutts.

Wulf pushes his head against mine. I can’t get momentum. I push my forehead against his anyway. It does nothing. He tosses me in the air. My arms and legs scramble in an attempt to get control, and it’s impossible. Wulf grabs me by my neck with one massive hand as I descend. He hoists me as high as his arms can go. His heels still stand at the edge of the building. I kick at him. Front kick left foot, roundhouse kick right foot, side kick right foot then left foot. Each one he swats away with his free hand. He looks down at his feet and realizes exactly what I’m attempting.

I dare to glance back at Dream and Lue as they hang onto the refrigerator stuck supernaturally on top of the floor. Wulf’s head slams into mine.

“Why did you think you could ever kill me?” Wulf tosses me into the air again. I’m free. I’m high, well past where the roof was. Then I descend. He grabs me by my foot in midair, swings me over his head, and slams me into the floor.

I wish I could stop falling. I wish I could rest. I’m falling through another floor. Everything is going black. What about Dream?

“Get up!” someone yells.

I’m smacked awake and ushered up by two things that look like they came from Beauty and the Beast. A living brown wooden desk stand is like a human on my right, a short, stubby, circular table on my left. Both grab me and pull me up. Their legs have grown hands.

Wulf jumps through the hole in the floor above me and lands by my feet. “I said get up!” he commands.

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The furniture pushes me forward.

I go for a punch right in the middle of his jaw. It does nothing. He sends one back. Things go black. My body bangs twice on the floor. The desk and table kick my ribs, step on my thighs, and press on my neck until I rise again.

On wobbly feet, they back off.

“I said fight me!” Wulf growls. He bends and throws a piece of a lamp at me.

I’m not aware enough to dodge it. No, it wasn’t at me. He tosses it to me. It goes straight to my hand and transforms into a sword’s hilt, then the rest of the blade forms.

“Come on! I want you to do it!” He beats his chest. He’s really insane.

Who cares?

I swing in a wide arc to slice off his head. He ducks. I lower the sword straight down onto him. He slides to dodge but not fast enough. The sword lands on his shoulder.

“Gahhhh!” he screams.

Or I scream. Who can tell?

I press harder, trying to cut through his shoulder and slice off that large arm. He sinks to his knees.

His cloud-filled gray eyes never leave mine. “I built this tower with my sweat, boy.” He lifts one knee half an inch off the ground to rise slightly and keeps going. “Oh, Lue sacrificed, but so did I!”

I bite my tongue to get more pressure. It does nothing.

“I sacrificed everything, so I can’t lose.” He spits the words at me.

He rises to his full height and uppercuts me. I’m in the air then on the floor. Like a puppet, I’m yanked back up. He throws a pillow at me that turns into a machine gun. I’m too woozy to even shrug at the ridiculousness.

I fire at him. My ears ring, and the gun’s kickback slides my body backward. Little pieces of rubble come from all around the room to push every bullet away from Wulf. The legend presses forward, invincible. The machine gun clicks twice without firing bullets. I’m out.

“I am Wulf, and I was Cursed to win.”

I rush him with the butt of my gun. “I’m Velli, and I’m Cursed enough to know that’s stupid!”

I slam the butt into his face. No, he moves and catches it in his mouth. He bites it, and with only his mouth for power, he pulls it from my hands then spits it on the floor. Wulf slams his hands together, clapping my ears.

I go deaf. Everything is black. Oh no. That means—

I’m jolted back up by kicks all over my body. My ears ring and won’t stop. A chair flies in front of my face and turns into—a rocket launcher. Okay, it’s now or never. I put him in my scope. He can be cut. He bleeds. A rocket launcher can kill him. My hands shake. Something has to be able to kill him. He’s still right in my sights, hands out, waiting. He takes a big breath, ready to command me to do it.

I shoot first to throw him off guard.

My finger hits the trigger. The room shifts, tilting upward, or maybe I’m too woozy to stand. Maybe the world shakes me because it won’t allow Wulf to be beaten. Doesn’t matter. Either way, the missile goes straight through the hole in the ceiling and up into the sky.

A phoom fills the room. It hit something up there. No idea what. I wish it were Wulf.

He bangs his chest. “I am God here!”

His watch beeps.

“You’re not God if you can’t control time.” I smile.

The building shakes, and Wulf wobbles. He doesn’t go after me. He’s sad. The room flashes between being glorious and what it was before Wulf changed it—garbage, rotting filth, smelly, and ugly. Bottles, wood, brown dirt, and worms flash across the floor. The solid marble vanishes beneath my feet. I sink into the soft dirt. The building rumbles again. It collapses.

It’s loud and thunderous because it’s not just this building. My watch, designed by Wulf, crumbles into the dirt. Everything he’s made transforms back into its original form. I’m weightless as I fall into the pile of dirt. My descent marks a massive change in our society. One of the Heirs’ greatest allies, one of the greatest contributors to the economy of Division’s Hand has been defeated, a consequence that will reverberate through each of Division’s fingers, shifting the balance of power between the world-changing cliques and—I’m not going to pretend like I care. Everybody Unchosen was poor and miserable before Wulf and will be poor and miserable after. They’ll be rich and happy under me, though. I smile all the way down to the dirt.

Unfortunately, another layer falls on top of me.