She’s sobbing harder now, trying to twist out of Hannah’s hold. Rage fills the vampire’s brown eyes, turning them blood red.
“Answer me!” she screams.
Willow lets out a wail. “I can’t! Gabriel, I…lov?—“
A bone in Willow’s shoulder snaps. She collapses on top of me, but whether because of the magic within her or the iron-clad control Hannah has over her, she can’t let go of the Blade. My angelic power seeps into the weapon. Old wounds—long healed—open and bleed. The wings that carried me thousands of miles as we searched, blister once more. Soon, they will start to burn.
I have little strength left. But perhaps enough for one final miracle.
“Mea amor. Mea lux. Mea deliciae.Do not…be afraid. I will…always be…in your heart.”
Another bone snaps in Willow’s battered body. Her screams are getting weaker. As is her resistance. I feel everything. This vampire bitch will not continue to torture the woman I love. Not as long as I draw breath.
“Enough!” I roar. “You want…to know what I am? I…am the Archangel Gabriel. Bringer of…Justice. Revealer…of Truth. Interpreter…of the Almighty’s…Plan. And you…will let…Willow…go!”
“An angel? With your power, I will live forever!” She winds her fingers through the short chain around Willow’s neck. “Take it, my pet. And give it to me. Now!”
Willow tries to resist, but a human body cannot hold angelic power for long. Her free will, her very soul starts to fade. The horror of what I have done washes over me. She trembles, her whimpers turning to hoarse sobs. “I…I love...you, Gabriel. I’m sorry…”
A blast of Killian’s magic arcs across the cavernous space. The cage doors heave, metal screeching. The men and womentrapped inside start to fight. But before any of them can escape, the silent witch takes off at a run, flicking her fingers at each prisoner until they are all screaming in agony.
I cover Willow’s hand with mine and hold her gaze. “I chose this, my love. I go…to my death…at peace. Becauseyouwill survive. I will see you again…in the afterlife.”
“Gabriel, no!” she wails.
Wrenching her hand from the hilt of the Blade, I loose my wings. I cannot make it far. Thirty, forty feet into the air. But I can see the reservoir beyond these walls. I know what I have to do. My heart slows. I struggle to draw the shallowest of breaths.
Hannah screams. “He has the Blade!”
The raven-haired witch has her hands full fighting off Mist and Kàra. She sends Mist to her knees, then lifts her hand to spell me.
I yank the Blade from my chest and fling it over the top of the wall. It flies end over end, passes through the wards, and splashes into the depths of the frigid water.
“I love you,”I whisper, hoping somehow, Willow will hear me.
My heart thumps once. Twice. Then stops completely. Falling is so very much like flying. Almost…peaceful. I hit the ground, releasing one final breath. The Blade is gone.
Willow…someone needs to save…Willow.
THIRTY
Willow
Gabriel—my angel—his great, white wings stained with blood, but very much whole—locks his gaze onto mine.
He mouthes,“I love you,”before he crashes to the ground. I canhearhis bones shatter. One last, final breath rattles in his lungs.
“Gabriel! No!”
His power coils within me. It’s eating me alive. Pushing. Pulsing. Desperate to find its home. Hannah spins me around, one hand over my heart, the other tangled in the chain around my throat.
“Give it to me,” she growls. “All of it. You cannot resist me, Willow. The Whisper Keeper is only a conduit. She cannot take the power for herself.Youwill never be an angel. I will.”
The chain burns my skin. She’s in my head. Whispering.“Give it to me. You want to. You need to.”
The void races closer. Gabriel’s power resists, keeping me on the knife’s edge of nothingness and unending agony. I have to let it go.
Hannah’s will consumes me. Willow fades away. Smaller and smaller until I’m only a speck of dust in my own mind. All of Gabriel’s angelic power rushes from my body in a blaze of pure, white light.
