None of my friends said anything as we waited. They’d all come armed with weapons, including some light blades, but that was more to make sure nothing came back through the portal than defending themselves against Gage. According to Dash, Gage’s instinct to go through the portal would override any urges he might have to attack us.
A pained sound suddenly tore from Gage’s throat and he dropped to the ground. I moved to go to him, but he threw a hand up, halting me.
“Get back,” he said, his voice already deepening.
Panic seized me that Gage would go off into the Netherworld without knowing how I really felt about him.
“I love you!” I blurted out and fell to his side on the ground. His face snapped in my direction, and he opened his mouth to respond, when a howl ripped from his throat and the bones in his face cracked and moved, jutting forward into a hellhound’s snout.
Desperation filled me as I swallowed down a sob. Strong arms suddenly gripped my upper biceps and then I was being hauled backward into Jacob’s arms.
“No,” I whimpered.
A smoking black and red portal grew in front of Gage as his body bulked and limbs snapped and reformed. By the time the portal was several feet in diameter, black fur covered all of him and his transformation into a beast was complete.
This time, Apollyon wasn’t on the other side of the portal—for that, at least, I was grateful—but apparently he didn’t need to be, because after a full-body shake Gage dashed forward, running through the portal without even a glance back. The portal snapped shut behind him, and just like that he was gone.
Pulling out of Jacob’s grip, I dropped to my knees.
I knew this moment would come, I’d been dreading it all month long, but the pain of seeing Gage disappear into the Netherworld was more intense than I remembered. I looked down at my chest, half convinced I’d see a bloody hole where my heart used to be.
I wanted to sob, I wanted to scream, but I was also numb, torn between feeling everything and nothing all at once.
This isn’t happening.
Skye’s face was suddenly in front of me. She hunched down to where I was kneeling on the ground and peered up at me. “I think he’s going to be all right,” she said.
“You saw it?” I asked, relief blooming in my chest. “You saw that he’d come back all right?”
Skye chewed on her lip, looking uncertain. “Not exactly. But Ifeellike he is.”
“How accurate are these feelings of yours usually?” I growled, needing to know with certainty that he was going to come back to me.
She winced, telling me all I needed to know. She wasn’treallysure, not like the other times she’d predicted things.
Anger bubbled up inside me. I wasn’t angry at Skye, but I was angry because this all could have been avoided. If Gage had just come back from Avalon whole, with wings and blessed with angelic powers, this never would have happened.
Enough is enough.
I got to my feet and clenched my fists. I was going to march into Avalon and demand answers, because this was some major bullcrap and I’d lost my patience with the angels.
“Skye, let’s go,” I ordered, and then stomped across the lawn toward the sanctuary and tore up the steps.
I heard Marlow ask where I was headed, but I ignored her. Skye asked what was going on and I didn’t answer her either, but she still followed me.
I walked through the sanctuary doors with no problem. The guards gave me a small nod as they usually did when I was going to training with Aurum, except this time I wasn’t going for training—not that they knew that.
I’d had fifty conversations with Cael in my head since Gage came back from Avalon stripped of his power with shorn-off wings. They were all angry rants and emotional outbursts, but I wasn’t going to do that.
Nope.
I was going to walk up to him cool, calm, and collected and simply ask him “Why?” Why on Earth would he strip Gage of Shade powers and not replace them with Lumen ones? Cael was an archangel. I had to believe he had a good reason for his actions.
I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that before I knew it I’d reached the portal.
“I need to see Cael, now,” I said to Skye, pointing to the portal. I knew she could use her soul magic to make it take me anywhere in Avalon. I needed her to do her thing so it would take me to wherever Cael was.
“What? No,” she said, shaking her head. “You can’t just storm into Avalon demanding to see Cael. It doesn’t work like that.”
