the face of temptation and pain can her spirit soar."
Chapter 44
Dayne put the contract down on the bedside table. Unlike the contract that Adam had brought over, this one was short and to the point. The main clause, written in large print and plain English, specified that she would be able to do miraculous healing for her entire life—that she would be able to make the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute talk, and the lame walk. She would be able to reverse the effects of cancer, of AIDS, of madness, of massive trauma, and of the excesses of lives saturated with high-fat foods and television watching.
The second clause was very clear, too. On her death, her soul would go straight to Hell. "Do not pass GO, do not collect two hundred dollars," she muttered. The remark wasn't funny under the circumstances, but it was the first thing that came to her mind.
In the meantime, she would be able to cure anyone. She would be able to cure everyone, of everything.
Maybe.
She looked up at the fallen angel who was waiting for her signature with obvious eagerness. Dayne, however, was not eager to sign. It wasn't just the going to Hell, though the thought of that terrified her. She also faced the long history of stories that indicated that contracts with Hell always contained appalling loopholes geared towards making the human's sacrifice of his soul an empty one. This contract seemed too straightforward. One page. Two clauses.
The loopholes must be in the omissions.
She considered those for a moment. The first, obvious omission was how much time she would be given to work these miracles. She might drop dead immediately after signing, she realized—and then she would have sold her soul to the Devil for nothing. The more she considered that, the more likely it seemed.
"How long do I have?"
"To sign?"
"No—to live."
Jezerael frowned. "I have no way of knowing that. None of us does. Only God can foresee the future—he was very tight