“Foolish child,” Lucifer said. His breath was hot on my forehead as I gazed up at him, a dull burning beginning to take root in my gut where the metal blade touched flesh.
And I said, “You shouldn’t have touched my Committed.”
Then I raised my glowing hand and punched it through his chest. His golden eye bugged out of his head as I dug my blunt fingers into his heart. With the last spark of my strength, I sent my power down my arm and into his body. I smelled sage and smoke. I tasted oysters and truffle. His soul struggled in my grasp, but I tightened my grip.
“You’re going to meet the Maker,” I said as I absorbed the blackened evil rotting his spirit. “I hope you’re ready.”
His fingers closed around my neck, but it was too late. We glowed red, my electricity engulfing him as his energy buzzed through me, lighting me up. The pain of his sword in my gut was overshadowed by the decadence of his power, and I drank him down.
I pulled and pulled until Lucifer weakened. He fell to his knees, and his blade jerked out of my body. It hurt so much worse coming out than it did going in. Yet I barely felt it as I absorbed Lucifer’s Fallen soul. It was dark and black; it was bitter and sharp. But he was powerful, and my eyes rolled back into my head as I lost myself to the high.
Was it justice or vengeance? What kind of man did it make me that I couldn’t tell the difference? Maybe mercy was a choice, but in this moment, it wasn’t an option.
With a hard jerk, I yanked his heart from his chest. He made a strangled sound, his skin pasty and sunken, his golden hair limp. Then Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, the King of Hell’s army, fell back into the mud with a thump.
In one last, valiant effort to survive, his heart pulsed in my palm. I said, “And now, it is finished.” Then I crushed his soul into dust, forever expunging him from the tapestry of life.
His body cracked and solidified, his one good eye staring into the sky, Gideon’s dagger still protruding from his second eye socket. There was no last breath, no death rattle. He just ceased to exist.
As my power rolled wildly under my skin, I dropped Lucifer’s heart to the ground and staggered to my feet. My body shrieked as pain stabbed at every nerve ending. Lucifer’s energy fueled my own, swirling through me like a storm, and as my organs and flesh started to knit back together, I spun and stumbled to Gideon’s still body.
Blood flowed from his open throat, and I pressed both my filthy hands to the wound. I was drenched in blood immediately. It poured hot and thick over my fingers as his tattered muscles twitched under my touch.
Gideon’s chest spasmed as he tried and failed to inhale, blood filling his lungs. He blinked, eyes unseeing and vacant. I screamed his name as I tried to hold his neck together, but his throat was in mangled pieces, slipping through my wet fingers.
“Gideon, hold on. Just hold on.” I looked around me, but there was no one close by. The fighting hadn’t stopped even though my world was ending. No one even noticed. “Help! Help me. Please, help me. I need—he needs help. He’s—please, somebody.”
Sobbing, I lifted my face to the heavens and wailed my sorrow as our bond disintegrated in my grasp. The fire in my soul cooled, then snuffed out. The thread connecting us stretched and frayed. One small tug would snap it completely and separate Gideon from me forever.
“This will not happen. I will not let this happen! You hear me?” I shouted into the angry clouds. “You will not take him from me. I won’t let You!”
Pressing my forehead to Gideon’s, I wept. “This isn’t our ending. This can’t be how it ends. It can’t.”
Gideon didn’t answer. His green eyes were empty. His chest didn’t rise. His heartbeat was sluggish, toiling through every contraction. Until it stopped.
“No! No, no, no, no. Come back!” The thread connecting us splintered, but I grasped the tattered end and held on. “You will not leave me.”
“There is always more to give,” Hezekiah had said once, standing before my mother. He’d said it again in my bedroom as my heart fractured into three jagged shards. And now, I finally understood.
My mother’s sacrifice had not been forced. It had not been set in stone. It was not inevitable. She had made a choice. She’d chosen me. She’d chosen love. Even when it meant leaving this life for what lay beyond the sea. She had chosen selflessness. For there was no love without sacrifice.
And now, I had to make my choice. It was a very simple one. It wasn’t easy—no, it was far from easy. Because I didn’t want to go; I didn’t want to leave them. But as much as I wanted to stay, I couldn’t. Not when it meant losing him.
So I said, “I will always choose you.”
Closing my eyes, I called upon my power one final time. I’d asked so much of it, but I had one more request. The glowing orb in my chest responded, and my skin lit once more. With every pull, my body ached. My barely healed wounds split open anew, bathing me in fresh blood. My flesh parted, and all I knew was agony.
But still I pulled.
I heard my name. Over and over. The bonds in my chest were so fragile now. They trembled and cracked.
“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing they’d hear me. “I have to go.”
Jai said, “You promised you wouldn’t leave me.”
Noel said, “We’re supposed to be together for always!”
“I don’t regret a single moment of this life,” I told them.
“Don’t do this. Riley, don’t do this,” they said.
And I said, “Thank you for loving me.”
With a painful lurch, my soul wrenched apart, and the bonds—ah, the bonds—they shattered as every single piece of me flowed through my arms and settled into my hands. I opened my eyes. A sizzling dome encased Gideon and me. Jai and Noel stood on the other side, screaming my name. Noel was crying. Jai looked frantic.
I memorized their faces one last time and smiled as tears rolled down my cheeks. I cradled the glowing orb in my hands, my body broken and empty. Then I raised my hands and brought them down hard, forcing the light into Gideon’s chest.
For one suspended moment, I swore I saw my mother kneeling across from me, a dazzling smile on her face.
I said, “Ima?”
Then everything went white.
Chapter Twenty-Two
When I opened my eyes again, I was staring up at a blue, blue sky. The grass beneath me was soft on my cheeks, damp from morning dew. A fresh breeze ruffled my hair, scented with floral perfume. Tree branches swayed in my peripheral vision, green leaves and blossoms bursting with life.
I breathed.
Sitting up, I looked around my center. I hadn’t been here since my alter and I had merged, accepting the darkness inside us. I’d been too afraid to face the emptiness here. It seemed silly now.
My tree was healthy and vibrant, ribbon and rope coiling around the trunk. A ring of white fire that didn’t burn encircled the circumference of the tree. Blackbirds sang their songs from within the forested branches. A flower garden danced in the breeze.
And sitting across from me, legs folded criss-cross applesauce, was a child. A little boy no older than ten sat with his elbows digging into his knees, face cradled in his hands. He watched me with big, bright eyes. His skin was brown, hair black, eyes dark as the earth. He smiled, showing off a gap in his front teeth.