And as it was promised, so shall it be done.
Chapter
Forty-Four
MERRI
They looked like they were sleeping. All four of them lay where they’d fallen. Grim still covered in Famine’s blood, Chaos beside him. Malice and Sin were behind me, curled on their sides.
“You can’t be dead. You told me you couldn’t die.” My words were a harsh whisper, my tears making it almost impossible to speak. “Lilith told me our souls were tied. That you’d live as long as I did.”
My grief was all-consuming, but so was my anger.
“You should have warned me!” I shouted—or tried to. “You know I never would have agreed to this if I had to lose you.”
My chest ached, my heart breaking over and over at the loss of my mates. I wouldn’t survive this. Not if this was how painful their deaths were.
“There, there, now. Dry your tears, crabapple. We can’t have your reunion be met with a puffy face and runny nose, now can we?” Lucifer’s voice was a balm, even if his words made no sense. He wrapped his arms around me from behind, holding me together in case I broke apart all over again. “On your feet, mydarling. You’ve had a difficult day, but if you’ll just look at me, you’ll see all is well.”
He couldn’t be serious. I knew he was self-absorbed on his best day, but this was ludicrous. I’d just lostfourof my five mates in one fell swoop. Surely he knew I needed time to grieve them?
He was pulling me up before I could verbalize my protest. I pounded my fists into his chest, the only way I could express myself without bursting into tears again.
“It’s all right, darling. Let it out.”
“They’re gone. How can you say it’s all right? It’ll never be all right again, Luc. Never.”
“Sweetheart, that’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
“I loved”—I gulped around the pain the word sent through me—“love them with every fiber of my being. I can’t just?—”
“Aw, past tense already, kitten?”
My shoulders stiffened at Sin’s voice. Spinning in Luc’s arms, I followed the sound and saw my men, all four of them standing there, whole and healthy.
“You assholes!” I shouted, unsure which one of them I wanted to go to first.
Malice’s eyes widened, and he glanced at Chaos. “I have to admit I was expecting a very different welcome.”
“That was such a dirty trick!”
“It wasn’t a trick—” Chaos tried, but I kept going.
“And you didn’t even give me a heads-up. I thought you”—I had to suck in a breath—“thought you died.”
“We did,” Grim said.
Malice shot him a glare. “Perhaps you could’ve softened that blow a bit.”
“You really died?” I asked.
“Yes, wildflower. We were unmade along with the horsewomen.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that would happen?” I asked, lower lip quivering as fresh tears blurred my vision.
“We didn’t know,” Sin said, much softer than the others as he took my hands in his. “You have to know we’d never willingly leave you, kitten.”
I took a hiccuping breath and buried my face in his chest, breathing in his scent. After a moment, I looked up and frowned as something dawned on me. “But if you died, how are you back?”
