I’ve been so scared of her—of what she’d make me do—I couldn’t see what was right in front of me.
The Blade was created by love. Love is yours to give a voice.
I know what to do. But I can’t do it from here. I reach for my whisper in the dark, pulling her close and praying she’ll hear me.
“We have to break the chain, and we can end this. Together.”
Gabriel
The punch sends me spinning thirty feet off the ground. My teeth rattle. I bite halfway through my own damn tongue, and blood fills my mouth.
My adversary scents the air. “You’re tiring, angel. I’ll taste you soon. Then bind you to me for all eternity. Or at least until I get bored and have my Whisper Keeper end you for good.”
“Tiring? Hardly,” I scoff. “I can do this all night.”
I lunge for Hannah, but veer away at the last second. The move stuns her enough for me to grab the tip of her left wing and hurl her into the closest wall.
The impact should have left her body broken. Vampires can heal in seconds, but seconds are all I need to end her. If not for her stolen angelic strength, this fight would have been over long ago.
I slam into her from behind, banding my arms around her and pinning her wings to her back.
“Release me,” she purrs.
I can feel her compulsion slithering through my mind. It would be so easy to let go. Iamtired. Dying is exhausting. Coming back to life even more so.
No!
“Nice try, vampire. Youarestrong. But I have something you do not.” I take us higher, scanning the ruins of the building until I find what I am looking for.
“And what is that?” Her voice is even smoother now. Sweeter. Her Fae talents are learning me. Searching for weaknesses she can exploit. She’s wasting her energy.
“Love.”
She laughs. “Love? The woman youloveis mine. I’ll steal every fond memory she has of you and lock them away until I’m done with her. But I’ll give them all back the moment I make her take your life.”
Thrashing with all her might, she manages to get a hold of my right arm. Her fingers crush skin, muscle, and bone. Still, I refuse to release her.
Sweat dots my forehead. Fire licks up my forearm, and the fingers of my right hand go numb.
Below us, Willow struggles to her feet. Power glows within her, the most beautiful golden light I have ever seen. And with her…my God.
Her whisper stands at her side. They’re surrounded by eight other whispers, echoes of all the ones who came before. They hold hands, smiling, and focus all of their gazes on Hannah.
“I fought death for Willow—for love—and survived,” I say in Hannah’s ear. “It seems she has done the same.”
Willow
Accepting my whisper was the easiest thing I’ve ever done. But pulling all the whispers who’ve come before out of the voidwithme? That was almost impossible.
More than once I thought I’d fail. But when my consciousness returned to my body, my whisper was smiling down at me. The Blade’s fear—such a constant weight on my soul from that first afternoon in the cathedral—is gone.
I point the Blade at Hannah. She can’t hurt me anymore. Not with so many whispers surrounding me. “You took something that wasn’t yours,” I call. “Time to give it back.”
Magic heats the air. The Blade sings with it. The whispers do too.
Sinclair and Maddox flank Gabriel as he lowers Hannah to the ground. She shrieks obscenities at them, then turns her intense stare on me.
For a split second, I cringe, my mind cowering behind the weight of the blood bond. But I focus on the liquid gold of my angel’s eyes, and all that power falls away. “I thought I’d lost you.”
