Thirty-Two
Zoe
Fusing my consciousness to Thorn's is the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Far worse than the centuries I spent being remade, time I now remember in excruciating detail.
Seraphiel kept me locked in a prison of my own body while he chipped away at my mind one memory at a time. Each one was precious to me, and though I’d been human for only weeks at that point, I remembered what it was to live. Until he took that as well.
Now, I will never live again. The descent to the Underworld is dizzying and faster than I anticipated. I hold Sin’s face in my mind—what is left of it anyway—for Thorn has had centuries of life lending him strength, where I have not even managed two years.
He struggles against my hold, cursing me, trying to tear my consciousness to shreds, but while whatever made me...me...will soon be gone, I was created for this purpose alone. I have the power to hold on long enough for the fires of Hell to surround us.
They’re getting closer now, and I marvel that I can feel them as if I still had a physical body. Opening my eyes, I gasp as I see that somehow, I do. In a way. We’re more like ghosts now. Echoes of what we once were. The first tongues of flames lick along our feet, and Thorn screams.
All around us, there’s nothing but endless suffering, and I can sense Lucifer’s presence looming just ahead. The devil laughs, almost gleeful. “How nice to see you again, you pathetic twat. You escaped right under my nose the last time, but now...you will be forever mine.“
“I freed myself once. I will do it again,” Thorn hisses, and I tighten my hold on his immortal soul.
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” I manage.
“You are nothing but a weak, pathetic human with a single touch of the divine, bitch.”
Lucifer chuckles again. “Hardly. She is a daughter of seraphim, and the bond she formed with you is unbreakable.”
Fiery shackles lock Thorn's ephemeral wrist to mine, and I take a small measure of joy—the last I’ll ever feel—from his scream.
The devil reaches for his pitchfork—I’d thought that was a myth until now—and stabs Thorn through the heart. The agony is like nothing I’ve ever felt, but I take solace from knowing that at least I saved the man I love.
Sin
“No! Zoe!”
Bureau agents stream into the facility, but I have eyes only for the woman I love. Her skin is ashen, her eyes open and staring, and when I pull her into my arms, I know.
She’s gone.
Her heart no longer beats, and it is little comfort knowing that Thorn died along with her. I kick his body out of the way so I can sit with her and plead with the Almighty to do something.
Fingers dig into my calf, and I tear my gaze from Zoe’s lifeless eyes. Dion is on her knees, tears glistening on her cheeks. “She knew she wouldn’t survive, Sin. She asked me to tell you...she loved you.”
Too weak to hold herself up any longer, Dion collapses, and Mad comes to her aid, helping her into the arms of one of the Bureau’s mages as I scan the room. The two human men are dead. As is Regina. I broke her neck when I batted her away, and whatever immortality she possessed must have been tied to Thorn. The other women on the dais are all still alive, though two of them are so far gone, they barely respond to the mages at all.
“Sinclair.” The commander stands over us, eyes glistening. “Tell me she isn’t dead.”
“She sacrificed herself to save the others,” I manage over the lump in my throat. “And to save me.”
“But how?”
Gabriel joins Eve, followed by Killian and Mad. I can’t look at any of them. Only Zoe. Her skin is cold now, her lips blue, and I cannot stop my tears from falling as I hold her close and tell her over and over again that I will love her until my last breath.
The archangel is saying something. Explaining, I think. But I care little. Until Mad claps his hand on my shoulder. “Sin. Did you hear what Killian said?”
Blinking hard so I can see the warlock’s face through my anguish, I shake my head.
“If Gabriel is correct—“
“Of course I’m correct. I’m a fucking angel, you British bastard.”
“Shut it,” Killian snaps before returning his focus to me. “Zoe bound her consciousness to that arse’s and descended into the Underworld, yeah?”
“Yes,” I say softly.
“And there are only two ways out of Hell. Either Lucifer decides to let you go, or an angel comes to retrieve you.”
“An angel can only retrieve a physical being,” I say, almost too weary to continue this conversation. It will not bring Zoe back to me, and I wish to be alone with my grief. “That is how Gabriel and the others freed me, but it will not work with a soul. That requires a tether to a consciousness in the earthen or celestial realm, and more power than has ever been amassed before.”
Mad kneels next to me, pride shining in his eyes. “You don’t know my mate, Sin. He brought me back to life. And he knows more about magic than any witch of this age.”
“Warlock,” Killian says with a sigh. “Why can’t people get it through their heads...” Throwing up his hands, he makes an exasperated groan. “Never mind. Sin, many years ago, my mentor gave me a book of ancient spells and told me to memorize them because one day, I’d need them. Most were rubbish, but one...” He runs a hand through his dark hair, then looks to Gabriel. “If you can gather enough angelic power, I think I can create the tether.”
“How much do you need?” Gabriel asks.
“As much as you can give me.”
The archangel steps into the center of the now empty room. Only the commander, Mad and Killian remain with me and Zoe’s body.
“Brace yourselves.” Gabriel closes his eyes, unfurls his wings, and raises his hands in supplication. “This...is going to hurt.”
For several moments, nothing happens, but then the air in the room thickens, and the building’s walls shake, bits of concrete falling from the ceiling. Killian shields us, his magic sending the shards bouncing away harmlessly, until power explodes in a massive circle around Gabriel, blowing the entire top floor of the power house away so the night sky and a full moon illuminate a cloud of dust.
When it settles, we gape at the sight. Six angels, including Michael himself, stand with Gabriel, and the archangel I once considered the biggest asshole in the celestial realm glances around with a smug grin. “Is this enough...warlock?”
Killian staggers to his feet and wipes a bit of blood from his ear. The pressure change when one angel appears is enough to damage a human eardrum. Six? I am amazed any of us are still alive.
“Not bad, angel. Not bad at all.”
I refuse to let go of Zoe. “If I maintain contact with her physical body, it will strengthen my consciousness,” I say, and Killian frowns.
“It might, but it will be harder for me to pull you back along the tether if you fail.”
“You assume I am going to fail.”
“This plan is as daft as they come,” the warlock says. “It will take a miracle for you to be able to separate her from Thorn down there, and that’s assuming you can even find her. I know I can pull you back to this realm with the tether. The rest...? It’s a bloody crapshoot.”