I couldn’t let that happen. I should never have let them go without me.
Stalking to the door, I reached for the knob, but as my fingers closed around the golden handle, I froze.
The thought of standing before Razielmade me lock up.
The feeling of his eyes boring into me and the idea of his hands on my body rocked through me as if it were truly happening, and my knees buckled.
Why did he make me so fucking weak?
Why couldn’t I push past this?
My eyes stung with angry tears at my own inability to push through my trauma response, and I sat there helplessly as I tried to force my body to move.
This was exactly why they hadn’t wanted me to come.
Ihated it.I hated that they’d been right.
“Gabriel…” I hissed, wiping the back of my wrist across my eyes, angrily wiping away my frustrated tears.
I was still staring at the doorknob on my knees nearly an hour later when a new feeling came ripping down our bond.
My heart stopped.
Pain.
He was in pain.
He was hurt!
I stumbled to my feet; fear and rage like I’d never felt before gripped me by the bones, and myhellcats manifested around me in agitation.
I hovered for one more precious second before our bond shuddered and blinked in and out of focus.
What did that mean?
I panicked, and before I could think twice, I was out the door and fuckingrunning.
Blinking in and out of the shadows, I ripped through Salem, following the now weak and flickering bond that connected me to the demon I loved.
The demon I fuckinglovedbut had never said the words to.
Suddenly, my own pain didn’t matter.
Not when I was faced with losing the only thing that had ever really mattered to me.
I allowed my fury to possess me as I appeared before the church, the tall, ornate doors taunting me.
I hesitated only for a moment when Raziel’s voice slithered across my mind.
‘Hello, Shemhazai,’ hecooed, obviously delighted that I’d come to find him.‘Come and see what I’ve done to your lover.’
I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists, hatred and rage feeding my hellcats and urging them to grow into massive, snarling beasts.
I would fucking kill him.
Tugging on our weakened bond, I felt Gabe’s barely conscious mind flicker in and out of focus. He didn’t want me to enter the church, but I was beyond reason.
This was fucking ending tonight, and if I needed to trade my life for Gabriel’s, then so be it.
