He blinked at me. “I had them feed you while you slept. I meant it when I said that I need Gathrriel’s help to stop her.”
“What?!” My vision blackened. No. I escaped. But now that I thought about it, it explained why Faye and her brother were so eager to flee. It wasn’t just because I’d saved them, but because they knew what was about to happen.
I groaned as my skin heated to the point of pain. My knees buckled, and my hands slammed against the ground. Unir stepped in front of me, and I glared up at him. My fangs erupted, cutting into my lips, and my voice deepened. “How could you? I told you what he’d do.”
“I’ll get you back once he helps me. I swear it.”
“No,” I said. “You don’t understand.”
I didn’t have a soul. Gathrriel would carve me out. I’d be lost, used, and gone. Tears burned my eyes as I fought the internal battle. Oh gods. Samkiel. If something happened to me, if I couldn’t get myself back, Samkiel would …
“You’ll damn the world,” I said through clenched teeth, sweat breaking out across my skin.
“No, I’m going to help you all save it.”
“He doesn’t have control of …” Oblivion. The last word cut off as my back bent as I fell forward, my body convulsing as I felt Gathrriel rise within me again. This time, he wasn’t just possessing me. He was taking over.
My body stretched and grew, his form replacing mine as he rose. Gathrriel stood and turned, matching Unir in height. He smiled and struck out with a clawed gauntlet, swiping through Unir’s face. His features wavered into whispers of smoke before he solidified once more.
“You are too late, general. I am already dead.”
Gathrriel looked at his hand, then at Unir. “You are truly desperate.”
“I have to know. Is there a way to destroy—”
The words had barely left his mouth before intricate gold runes formed in a circle around him. Unir’s eyes went wide, and for the first time, fear was present in his gaze. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, he was encased in golden light and sucked down through the wet stone. Gathrriel cocked his head and looked at the ground where Unir had disappeared for a moment before shrugging and stepping out of that alleyway. He hummed softly as he walked away with me entombed within the shell of what I used to be.
34
SAMKIEL
Cameron, Reggie, and I stood at the center of a burned and ruined small town. There was nothing left but rubble and cracked stone, and I knew only one being who could create destruction on this level.
We found no bodies or remains, and that scared me, but it was the footprint of an Ig’Morruthen far larger than Dianna that had fear lacing my veins. Cameron called out to my right as he ducked from the overhang of a crumbled building. He walked directly to me, carrying a small, crushed black device with intricate markings along its sides.
“Smell that?” he said, handing it to me.
I raised it to my nose and sniffed. My head reared back, my nose curling. Rage coiled in my gut, and I spun from the wreckage. I’d kill him again, even if he were my own father. I’d destroy the fabric of his godsdamned soul if he’d allowed that monster to take her over. Reggie stepped in front of me and gripped my arm. Only my love for him kept me from ripping his arms from his body.
“What?” I all but growled.
Reggie’s eyes dilated as if he saw some part of me I did not. It was enough of a shock that I felt it then. A cold swath of power had risen in me. I didn’t need to glance down to know that Oblivion wrapped around my arms like twisting snakes made of smoke.
“You need to know Dianna’s past, her history.”
“I know it.” I scowled, shaking his hand from me, afraid that if he continued to touch me, he’d die by Oblivion. “And now I need to find her before he takes her over. She’s strong, Reggie, but if he—”
“She can kill him,” Reggie said. “I believe she can burn the spirit that haunts her.”
“Her flame cannot do that,” I said. “No matter how much I, or you, wish for it.”
“It’s not just flame. You know of her father. Azrael was created by the trickster god Xeohr, but her mother, Victoria, was crafted by Elin. She was the Goddess of Light, and Dianna is her daughter. That light in her is what they have always wanted. What they stole.”
My mind spun, and my brows furrowed. What they stole? My anger had no bounds, especially when it came to her. She was and would always be my light. I’d known that the second she’d stepped into my life. Actually, she had crashed into it, waking me from a haunted, cruel nightmare. She was the spark that lit my entire world, dragging me from the darkness. I had always known her as light, and here was the confirmation.
Reggie stared at me intently, as if he were trying to imprint the meaning of both the words he said and those he couldn’t into me. “Her light burns brighter than the flame she wields, making her flames hotter than even Gathrriel’s. Use that if you must, for it may be the only way to free her if he has taken over.”
I sucked in a deep breath, calming myself. My wrath was not directed toward Reggie. It never really was. “I appreciate your counsel.”
