“What is going on?” I ask as I crawl to my feet and nearly scream at the sight of Henry on his knees, blood dripping from the dozens of cuts on his chest and face. I go running to him, but Riley catches me, holding me locked to him. Oliver and his idiotic angel friends all stand around the room, and I pause when I see two waterfalls of fire. One is white, burning white fire pouring down through the rock, and the other is black fire, spitting harshly as it sinks down into the ground. I can’t stop staring at the black fire until Riley grabs my chin and turns my face to his.
“We are graduating early, baby,” he says, and I snap my head from his grip. I smack my hands against his chest until he lets go and nods to his friends. They rush over and grab an arm each, holding on tightly so I can’t move. They laugh between themselves, and I realise somehow Riley has become their little gang leader.
How did that even happen? He isn’t even an angel yet!
“Let me and Henry go. Why are you doing this? Whatever this is!” I shout at Riley. “I used to love you like a brother, and now you are ruining that!”
Riley looks back at me once, a cool and determined expression on his face. “Just watch.”
I stay frozen as Riley walks headfirst into the white fire, and time seems to stand still. Every breath of mine is laboured as nothing happens, and then Riley appears. He walks out of the fire, letting white embers drop off his new white wings with every step he takes. Only the white fire and the light angel don’t call to me, my gaze drifts to the black fire, wishing I could run headfirst into it.
Riley is laughing like a mad man until he suddenly stops, and his words are even crazier. “I am a light angel, and you are my mate, Kaitlyn Lightson.”
“Mate?” I question in a daze, still staring at the black fire.
Riley with his kind eyes and evil heart walks right up to me, and the hands holding me let go. Good little slaves he has there.
“Angels have soul mates, and the only way we can be together is if you become a light angel.”
“You’re not my soulmate, and I never want to be a light angel. I’m sorry, but I know what my choice is,” I tell him, feeling stronger than I am right in this moment.
“Who said you get a choice?” he asks and laughs like the cruel boy he truly is. Becoming an angel changed my best friend into a monster, and I ignored it because I couldn’t face it yet.
And I’m a fool.
“Fine, I will do what you want if you let Henry go,” I say, still eyeing Henry who looks worse by the minute. “He doesn’t deserve to die because of me. Just let him go.”
“We aren’t negotiating, and I’m never going to let Henry go. He dies tonight, just after he sees you turned into a light angel.”
Chapter 27
“No!” I scream at Riley, the utter lunatic. “Even if I was a light angel, I will never love you. I will never be your mate.”
“You will love me in time, when you forget about him and that gardener,” he sneers. “We can go back to our town and be together like we were. I always knew we would end up together; I made sure no guy in the school would date you. Other than Jordon, but he was a tool.” He shakes his head. “That doesn’t matter now, because we live in a world where we can be mated forever. We will be together forever because the light above wants that for us. Why else would we have died together at the same time? It was a sign.”
“I don’t love you like that, and I never will. If you kill Henry and Thallon, I still won’t love you,” I softly tell him. “This isn’t the way to get what you want, and we both know it.”
“But you do love me more than them. I’m the only one who knows all your secrets, understands your past, understands you!”
“That is because you were my best friend!” I scream back, tears falling into my lips. Their salty burn is all I can focus on for a second.
“It’s because I’m meant to be your mate, and you will see that soon enough.”
“Let her go!” Henry roars, and I run to him, falling on my knees as close as I can get to him.
Riley’s hand falls on my shoulder, and I roughly push him off me. “You have a minute to say goodbye.”
Searching Henry’s angry eyes, I haven’t a clue what to say. “I don’t know how to get us out of this.”
“Maybe this is the end for us,” he almost jokes, and it makes me smile, despite everything. “I always knew you would be trouble, darlin’.”
I frown because the thought of Henry and me never seeing each other again seems impossible.
“Never-ending sounds a lot better for us. We are both too stubborn to give up easily.”
“Run, fight, do something. Don’t let him win,” Henry whispers to me, and in his eyes, I see the moment he decides to ask me one more thing, even when it means telling me another secret. “Call Erendriel and see if he can help.”
“How do you know Ren?” I whisper in pure shock, and Henry’s eyes give it all away. He knows my secret, he always did.
And he knows who Ren is and likely more secrets I wouldn’t even know to ask for.
“Minute is up,” Riley states as he grabs my arm. “In fact, our time is up.”
“No, no, no!” I scream as Riley effortlessly drags me towards the fire waterfalls until I can feel their heat on my skin. I struggle, tugging at his hand on my upper arm, hitting his chest and face, but he is like a stone.
“We will see how you feel when you come out of this,” Riley whispers to me.
“REN!” I scream as Riley pushes me forward, and I start to fall. I twist around just as Ren appears so close to me and reaches both his hands out to catch me, even when he can’t. As I fall into the fire and it burns my back, I grab Ren’s hand, and somehow we touch, and I drag him into light angel fire with me.
Chapter 28
Bright white light burns in front of my eyes as I sit in a pool of white fire. It flickers around me, almost like a dance, never hurting me like I suspected it would.
Almost like I wish it would.
“I didn’t choose the light.”
My words seem to echo around the fire, and they don’t respond. The white fire seems endless, and I wonder if I’m going to die now.
I don’t know if life as a light angel would be worth living at this point.
My best friend is a monster who betrayed me in the worst way.
Henry and Thallon might be seriously hurt, if not dead.
My parents don’t remember who I am.
Even I don’t know who I am anymore.
“You’re mine.” I look up to see Ren, not ghost Ren, but he is real as he walks through the flames to me. His clothes are the same, still torn in places and very outdated. His skin is no longer a ghostly pale, but flushed and tanned. Everything about Ren is more like this, and it makes me wonder if I’m really dead now. Maybe the white fire killed me, knowing this wasn’t the future I wanted. Tears form in the corners of my eyes as he picks me up off the fire floor and holds me to him. Ren walks, still holding me, through the fire even as it hits his skin, and he flinches. He still keeps walking as he grits his teeth, and I hold onto his neck. Without realising it, large white wings cover Ren and me.