His words and grounding presence wrapped around me, allowing a fragile relief to snake through my core. I clung to it with both hands as I forced deep, steadying inhales and exhales.
“I’m alive,” I chanted over and over as my hands fell to fist in the material of his pants. “I’m okay. Somehow.”
The last word was whispered like a prayer, unsure of who I was even sending it to.
“Archangels are retreating! Pursue them!”
“Wyverns, close ranks! Box them in!”
The sudden shift on the battlefield had my heart skipping a beat and clutching Gabe harder. I guess the battle didn’t stop for miracles to occur. Hope lit up within my chest once more as I struggled to push to my feet, hating the helpless sensation of laying against the ground, my position vulnerable.
Steel clashed against steel. Wyverns dove in synchronized units overhead in their pursuit.
I knew Gabe would protect me, but my instincts roared at me to get us both to our feet. His hands were steady and firm on my waist as he stood against my back, still unwilling to let go of me.
“She’s alive!” Gabe yelled at the guys defending us, knowing they were far too busy to glance back and see what was happening.
My throat was suddenly thick with emotion at the thought of how hard they were fighting, even with thinking I’d been slain. The agony and heartbreak they were carrying.
Ronan appeared through the haze first, dirt streaked across his jaw and chest heaving. Fury burned in his eyes at first, but when they fell on me, everything changed. Rage quickly gave way to a parted mouth that sharply inhaled as his eyes widened in relief.
He closed the distance between us, sandwiching me between himself and Gabe.
“Beauty,” he muttered, voice hoarse as his hand lifted to trace down my cheek in reverence. “I watched that bastard cut your throat. How–”
Before I could respond, an Alfemir soldier dove toward us and I was yanked back by Gabe. Ronan immediately surged upward, shadows bursting ahead of him, blade flashing as he met the threat head-on.
His roar ripped through the air to the angels joining our fight in droves. “Drive them back! Don’t let a single one through!”
My breath hitched at the sight of Alfemir angels joining us. Had my words truly gotten through to them, or was seeing my father slice my throat open what tipped them to our side? Whatever it was, it accomplished a task I never thought could happen.
Overhead, a darker shadow swept across the field, dragging my focus to his vast wings that blotted out the crowded sky.Niz.His large wyvern form tore through the smoke, black andgreen scales gleaming like wet stone, acid spilling from his jaws in a stream that melted armor and flesh alike. Soldiers scattered beneath him, their screams swallowed by the hiss of dissolving steel.
I blinked at him, in complete awe of his enormous body cutting a wide arc above the execution platform. My mind stuttered as his beady eyes met mine, and I swore I saw his relief rippling through his scales as they shifted.
Smoke and shouting pressed in from every side, the fight moving too fast to track as my mind felt weighed down with exhaustion and disbelief. Gabe’s arm cinched tighter around me as my legs began to tremble. The touch dragged my gaze back down from the sky, away from Niz’s shadow blotting out the field.
Bastian appeared suddenly and without warning. Blood coated his fingers, his grin sharp enough to draw focus first instead of how badly he shook. His stained hand brushed clumsily against my cheek, leaving a streak of someone else’s blood across my skin.
“Darling,” he rasped, his voice breaking on the word. “You’ve never looked better. Breathing suits you.” His signature smirk turned to a scowl with a single breath. “I love your blood, but not when it’s spilled by someone else.”
The grief in his tone made me want to wrap him in my arms. To tell him I hadn’t chosen this and that I’d fought to come back, but the words wouldn’t form. My throat felt too raw and thick with my own emotions at the thought of almost dying and being ripped from them.
Before I could blink, he pressed a kiss to my temple, hot and trembling. The scent of iron clung to him, but I wasn’t disgusted in the slightest. It was so purely Bash that it somehow brought me peace.
Then he was gone and Steele replaced him, like they were taking turns with protecting and reuniting. Even through the exhaustion in my head, I felt him before I saw him, a weight cutting through the fight around us. He had just driven his blood-slicked blade through an enemy, the body collapsing at his feet before stomping over to me and Gabe.
His eyes were razor sharp and his breath was harsh and uneven. My lips parted as his hand caught my chin, firm and unyielding.
“Your throat was open. Split wide. I saw the bone.”
His eyes raked over the exact spot, unblinking, daring the world to explain what he couldn’t.
“No one comes back from that. No one.” His voice faltered, low and trembling, before he forced the words out again. “And yet here you are, defying all odds, stopping me from having to find the gates of the other side to drag you back kicking and screaming.”
The heat of his palm burned through the numbness of my mind briefly, dragging me out of the haze. It was so very Steele: brutal in action, unwavering in control, but a vow all the same in the way he held me.
My voice felt like gravel as I finally spoke, a coy smile tugging at my lips. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
