“Zoe!” Sin dives down and grabs both of my hands. I’m being torn apart, my soul split between life and death, and I can do nothing but focus on the pure, raw grief in Sin’s eyes.
Until Gabriel lifts off from the ground in the earthen realm and flies through the portal. His wings start to burn, but he doesn’t seem to notice or care. When he reaches me, he hauls his fist back and slams it into Thorn's face. “They have paid their debt, you pathetic piece of shit. But you have not even started.”
The demon falls, and Gabriel wraps an arm around my waist and helps us back to the edge of the portal. “Do not fear,” he says quietly. “This next part...is not easy.”
Everything around me fades into darkness, but though I’m terrified this has all been an illusion, I can still feel Sin holding me, and I give in to the overwhelming desire to rest.
Thirty-Four
Sin
I am shivering. After burning in the fires of Hell, everything around me feels frigid. I cannot see, but voices echo close by. What are they saying? The words are muffled. A cacophony that makes no sense.
Other sensations start to return. A tingle in my hands and feet, a softness against my chest. Breath.
Under my fingers, drying blood, sticky and cool. Wounds not yet healed. Zoe’s, not mine. The softness of her hair. Her scent.
“Sin.” Mad’s voice cuts through my jumbled thoughts. “Open your eyes, Sin.”
“Zoe,” I whisper. The single word takes all of my strength, but if she is not here with me, I do not want to go on.
“She’s alive. But she hasn’t moved yet, except to breathe. You have to help her, brother.”
Forcing my lids open, I thank God the angels are no longer lit up like the sun. Gabriel kneels next to Mad, his wings half burned away, and Michael supports Killian as he staggers over to us.
“You brought her back,” Gabriel says. “But a soul ripped from the body often needs convincing to return. She won’t believe anyone but you.”
Mad and Gabriel carry us over to a wall, propping me up with Zoe cradled in my arms. Her white gown is covered in blood, and she’s so very pale. But a tinge of pink colors her cheeks, and her chest rises and falls slowly.
“Zoe? Can you hear me, my love?” From the first day we met—for the second time—I have been able to sense her emotions, but now, I feel nothing. Only an empty void.
Placing my hand over her heart, I focus all my remaining strength on my love for her. “Feel me, Zoe. Hear me. Come back to me. We escaped Hell. Together. I will not lose you now.”
She shudders, and a burst of fear hits me square in the chest. Her fear. I would do anything to take it away from her, and I will, but for a brief second, I relish it, because it means her soul is fighting its way back.
“I love you, my pearl. Only you. Always you. I will never fail you again. I swear it.” Leaning down, I brush a kiss to her lips, and her fear ebbs, a small kernel of hope deep inside growing steadily stronger. “Fight, Zoe. Fight for us.” Another kiss, and this time, her lips part for me.
She is so very weak, but she gives me what little power she has.
I pull back, refusing to take what I know she cannot spare, and find her eyes open and a soft smile curving her lips. “Sin,” she whispers. “You...came for me.”
“I will always come for you.”
“We’re...safe?”
“Yes. He could not escape with us. Gabriel made sure of that.”
“M‘kay. Gonna pass out now,” she manages, then goes limp with a deep sigh.
Staring up at my brother with tears in my eyes, I want—no, I need—to ask him for one more favor. But he has done so much for me. He and his mate. And I do not deserve anything else.
Though we have spent most of our lives apart, Mad can still tell what I am thinking with only a look. He takes Killian’s hand, and the warlock draws strength from the touch and nods. “Together,” Killian says. “We can do it.”
Mad smiles at me, and though he is centuries younger than I am, he is wiser by the same measure. “We’ll get you home, Sin. Both of you. Rest now. Together.”
I close my eyes and nestle Zoe more securely in my arms. We found one another again, and this time, I will never let her go.
* * *
