I blinked, and I was suddenly at Gabe’s side, cradling his auburn head in my lap, gently slapping his cheeks, trying to wake him up.
“Gabriel!Baby…fuck.Baby, I love you! I fuckinglove you.I should have told you before. You can’t die on me, I fuckinglove you,okay?!”
But he didn’t answer. His eyes were closed—maybe for fucking ever—because the piece of shit who had already taken so much from me decided he needed to take Gabe too.
One emotion latched onto my mind, and I felt my pupils blow as I recognized what it was.
Purefuryignited my veins.
A low growl built in my chest, and I looked up at Raziel, who was watching me mourn the loss of my soul mate with a disgustingly smug expression on his face.
I stood, Gabe’s head sliding out of my lap as I turned to face the angel that had raped and tortured me for millennia.
“Come, Shemhazai. Enough of that. You know deep down that you belong with me.” He gestured to Gabe’s lifeless body, and the vacancy in my chest where his bond had once lived throbbed with a bone-deep ache.
“Now that you don’t have anything to distract you, we can continue our work.”
“Ourwork?” I asked. My voice came out flat and detached. Cocking my head to the side, I locked my eyes on his as my shadow cats surrounded the seraphim.
He didn’t seem concerned.
He spun his Aetherium blades in his hands and nodded.
“Yes, Shemhazai. Ourwork.You need to be pure.”
“I never needed to bepure,” I said, my voice still that strange, even calm.
I stepped over Gabe’s body and slowly began to advance on the angel.
He frowned, his gaze darting around as if he were finally registering the fact that my hellcats had him surrounded.
“Enough, Shemhazai. You weretainted!You needed to be corrected. You needed to be taughtdiscipline!”
Finally, the calmnesssnapped,and the shadows around me erupted in response to my fury. The pews blew apart and shattered against the walls, splinters of wood tearing through paintings and knocking over chalices.The interior of Raziel’s church tore to shreds beneath my rage, and I hadn’t even lifted a finger.
“I was achild!” I bellowed, my anger causing my hellcats to multiply in size, their hissing yowls turning to terrifying growls as they closed in on the seraphim. “What Ineededwas to be cared for and fuckingloved.Not abused and tortured and taught to fuckinghate myself!”
“Shemhazai. Stand down,” Raziel growled, his eyes wide with a panic I had never expected to see on his face.
His fear amused me, and I laughed, though there was no humor in it.
“No.” I stepped closer, and he was backing away now.
The part of me that wanted to chase things weaker than me sparked to life, and I realized that I was stronger than him.
I hadalwaysbeen stronger than him, and that was why he hated me so much.
He wasthreatenedby me.
Raziel curled his wings around himself, using them as a protective shield between us.
The irony of it would have been hilarious if it didn’t make me so fucking sad.
Gabriel had always done that… forme.He’d used his wings to protect me from this angel… and now those wings were gone.
Gabrielwas gone.
And I would have my fuckingvengeance.
