He blinked.
And her heart stuttered in pain. “I am here for you.”
“I… I’m a husk of who I once was…”
Tears gathered, and she shut her burning eyes for a moment, then met his unblinking stare. “You’re so much more than your powers or your wings, Lore. You are the soul that lives within you, and the one that calls out to me.”
Another blink. “I-I…”
“I will be with you while you heal. For always, if you’ll let me.” At his silence, she rubbed her chilled hands on her jeans-clad thighs. “I know you’ve been through something I cannot even fathom. Let me do what you’ve always done for me. Lean on me. Let me be your strength, my love…”
He blinked at her endearment.
Taking encouragement from the little flicker, she held out a hand to him and prayed he would take it.
Lord, please, please give him back to me.
Slowly, he reached for her, and hope soared. Their fingertips touched?—
His body glitched and blurred.
“Lore!” She lunged for him, but her hands went straight through his body as he fell.
He was no longer corporeal.
Chapter
Thirty-One
“Michael!”Nia yelled, terror flaying her.
Lore lay on his side, unmoving on the ground, a ground she could seethroughhim.
Oh, God, please, please?—
The archangel appeared on the other side of Lore. He carefully touched him, but his hands slipped straight through Lore’s chest, and his entire being shuddered like a hologram glitching. A groan of sheer agony escaped him.
“Michael, what’s happening? What’s wrong with him?”
“I don’t know. Whitefire can be brutal, from what I’ve heard, but something must have gone wrong during his fall. He shouldn’t be…” His features grim, he shot to his feet. “He’s dying. Keep talking to him. I’ll be back.” Michael vanished in a swirl of dank cave air.
No, no, no!Her heart lodged in her throat, she whispered, “Lore, I’m right here, my love.”
He didn’t respond, unconscious now. His fuzzy silhouette settled into a solid form, but she knew it was a lie due to the occasional glitches. The coppery odor grew stronger. She couldn’t see any blood?—
His back!
She scrambled to her feet and hurried behind him. Her breath caught, pain shimmering through her.
Oh, dear God!
The brightening morning sun highlighted every gruesome detail. His beautiful wings were gone, revealing the true horror of the wounds running down his shoulder blades like excavations. Snapped bones protruded where his wings had been, and blood gushed, seeping into the ground.
Tears crowded her eyes and dripped down her face as she gently wiped the blood from his back, only for her fingers to slip through him, distorting his body again.
“Stay with me, Lore,” she choked out. “Michael will find a way to heal you, save you. I can’t lose you.”
Just silence answered her.
