I didn’t have it in me to care about them.
Once the people of Salem were tucked back into their homes, Luna and Willow returned, sitting on each side of Hec, who was in a meditative state as she worked to save Gabe’s life.
“Thank you,” I whispered to them as they lent their own life sources to the cause. Hecate drew from both her friends and the energy of the earth to slowly coax Gabriel back to life.
I held his head in my lap through the entire ordeal, telling him how much I loved him and how much I needed him. I told him that I was sorry I wasn’t there to save him and begged him to come back to me.
It took so long that I truly didn’t believe Hecwould be successful.
I was already wondering how the fuck I was supposed to spend the rest of eternity without him when his eyes suddenly fluttered. My heart leapt as his dark lashes brushed his pale cheeks.
“Gabriel?” I breathed, barely willing to allow myself to believe that he was really waking up.
His eyes opened, and those citrine irises were cloudy with confusion at first, but as he regained consciousness, they cleared, and he gave me a gentle smile.
He reached up to touch my face, but I grabbed his hand, lacing my fingers in his, choking on a sob.
“Hey, hellcat…” he croaked, and I coughed on more tears, curling around his head and peppering his face with kisses,
“You’re alive… holy fuck… thankfuck…baby… I thought I had lost you…” I shook as I held him, and he reached up with the hand I wasn’t already grasping with lethal intensity to gently stroke my hair.
“I told you I would never leave you, baby.” He coughed, and I bit back the urge to snap at him.
“If it wasn’t for Hec, you would have died, you asshole.”
Okay, maybe I didn’t bite back the urgethathard.
He chuckled, groaning as he tried to sit up.
I helped him move, and my heart broke at the sight of the bloody stubs that marked where his wings used to be.
Hecate was completely drained. I wanted to ask her if she could fix his wings, but Luna was glaring at me and shaking her head.
Hec had used all her energy to save Gabe’s life. She didn’t have anything left to fix his wings, too.
“Hecate needs to rest,” Luna said firmly, helping her friend to her feet.
I nodded, moving to do the same with Gabriel.
“Wait… one more thing,” Hec said, looking around the bloody atrocity of a church that Raziel had built.
“Burn it the fuck down,” she growled, and I felt a smile snake across my face at her words.
I nodded.
“Don’t have to ask me twice, sweetheart.”
Shemhazai and I stood outside the Church of Seraphim.
He gripped my hand tightly as we watched it burn, and I did my best to comfort him while he worked through what I was sure were complicated feelings.
My back hurt where Raziel had hacked off my wings, and as sad as I was to have lost them, it was bittersweet.
I was alive, and so was Shemhazai.
The angel that had hurt him was gone, and I no longer needed my wings to protect him from his all-seeing eyes.
I had known going in that I wasn’t going to come out of my battle with the seraphim unscathed. I may have lost my ability to fly, but if that meant I got to live the rest of my immortal life with Shemhazai by my side, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.
