“Promise,” she whispered.
“I promise,” he said brokenly, his body shaking with the tears he was holding back.
He lay down beside her, unable to hold himself up any longer, and draped his arm around her, willing her lungs to heal, her blood to stop draining from her.Damn it!This wasn’t supposed to happen.She was supposed to grow old and only after decades of being together was he to lose her.
“Don’t leave me,” he whispered, his voice ragged, choked with the tears falling down his face.“Don’t leave me,” he repeated.
“It’s best…this way.One less…key.”Her eyes closed.“Je t’aime,Christien.”
An anguished moan tore through him.“Je t’aime,Madelaine.Je t’aime.” He kissed her temple, cupped her face in his hands.“Je t’aime,”he kept repeating, almost frantically now, as if the words could stop the inevitable.
Her lips curled in a smile.And she stopped breathing.
Christien wept, his sobs shaking his body.He cried out, the pain so intense he didn’t think he could possibly live through it.He prayed to a God he was furious with to let him die with her.But God didn’t listen and Christien had to wonder if he ever had.He struggled to sit up, falling back a few times before he managed to get upright.He gathered Madelaine’s body to his chest, rocking her.
Someone crouched beside him and through his tears, Christien recognized Michael.The archangel’s eyes were full of sorrow and regret.He laid a hand on Christien’s shoulder.Christien wanted to shake the hand away, to curse and spit on the angel who brought him to this point, but his energy was nearly spent.
“You can’t die.You know that,” Michael said softly.
A weariness weighed upon Christien.No, he couldn’t die.Neither could Giselle nor Lucheux.They all would awaken and heal and go about their lives as they had before.For the other two the key was gone, but they’d continue looking into Madelaine’s past and soon discover she had a sister and all of this would begin again.
For seven hundred years he’d guarded that damn treasure.He’d lost everything in those seven centuries.The brothers he fought alongside, his family, everything he’d known and loved including Madelaine.
Most of all Madelaine.
There was only so much one could ask of a man and Christien had reached his limit.“I’m finished.”
Michael’s eyebrows went up.“Finished with what?”
Christien listed to the side.The only thing keeping him upright was Michael’s hand on his shoulder.“Everything.Your bloody treasure.Them.You.”
“You can’t be finished.”
“Find some other…fool to protect it.I don’t…care anymore.”What did it matter if the end of the world came?He could finally rest if it did.Rest.A concept he’d never before contemplated but one that felt so bloody right.His eyes drifted closed.He forced them open.He didn’t want to pass out while holding Madelaine.This would be the last time he’d be able to touch her.
“You would turn your back on what your brothers died for?”Michael asked.
“Yes.”
“You would turn your back on Madelaine’s sister?”
Christien wanted to say yes.He wanted to deny it all, but he’d promised Madelaine, so instead he said nothing.
Michael squeezed his shoulder.“Your anger is understandable.”
“Don’t,” Christien said harshly.“You have…no idea.”
“I have a very good idea.”
Nothing Michael said would make a difference.Madelaine was gone and Christien’s life was destroyed.He had no wish to live centuries more, protecting something he no longer cared about.
“They will be punished,” Michael said.
Christien’s head snapped up, but the effort cost him.Pain exploded throughout his body and he groaned.“Will they burn in the…pit of hell?Will they suffer for…eternity?”
Michael didn’t answer.
“I don’t want to hear about punishment.Let them loose on this earth.I don’t care…anymore.”
