“He’s trying to retake control.” Terrified, I claw at my flesh, shoving the grasping hands inward, delaying Adrial from stretching me wide and ripping me open. “Help me!” I scream.
Zuriel stops, staring at me. I thrash harder, agonized.
“Summer?”
“Stop him!” I shriek, fighting my sobs.
Zuriel rushes closer and cradles me against him. “Hold still.”
I barely hear him, writhing as Adrial’s hands reach my throat, stealing my breath. Wrapping my hands around my neck, I stifle myself, desperate to stop him from tearing out of me.
Zuriel pins me to the ground. Straddling me, he braces my seizing chest with his hands over my brands.
His touch burns.
There’s no comfort in his contact, and a terrible screech rips from my throat, forcing it open.
“Summer,” his voice is low, his fire growing, scorching me. “Forgive me.”
There’s a blast of light, focused on my chest. The pain sears, boils me, becoming more than I can endure. I fade away…
Blinking, I resurface. Adrial’s pressure has disappeared, and all that’s left are the physical wounds, the aches from before. I wince and clutch my head.
Zuriel shifts my hands and forces me to look at him, our noses close. Blinking away tears, I slump with a cry.
He draws me to his chest. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers, his voice hoarse. With one hand behind my head and the other clutching my lower back, he holds me to him. “Please be okay.”
Licking my raw lips, I don’t know what to say.
I’m not okay.
I still feel Adrial inside me. The pressure of his darkness is building again.
“You need to do more,” I croak.
His arms tighten around me. “I can’t keep hurting you.”
I shake my head. “He’s rising.” My back arcs as the stabbing starts again, starting with my lower belly. “I can’t hold out much longer. You can do this. You have to do this.”
Zuriel cups my cheeks. “It will kill you.”
“Earlier your light illuminated his Hell. Use that. He’s contained within me now. Fill me from the inside.” I flinch as Adrial’s claws morph into worms. They wiggle, squirm, gnawing as they slither up my chest. “Don’t hold back.” I shut my eyes against the sickening expansion inside me.
“There’s another way.”
“There’s not another way!”
“It won’t work—it will only kill you.”
“Trust me! I’m going to die anyway! If you don’t try—” I sob, feeling Adrial clawing up my aching throat “—he’s going to learn your name.”
The torture will end if you give me what I want.Adrial’s words ring through my head, like the drums from before.
“Please,” I beg, shimmying my hands up Zuriel’s chest, his head. “Please!”
Grabbing his horns, I use the last of my strength, lifting, pressing my lips to his, and kissing him. It’s shallow yet wild, frantic with pain.
He holds still and doesn’t kiss me back.
