I stumbled back.
He wanted me to stab her?
No.
He had wanted me to burn her.
Did he want me to expose myself? To expose all of us? Or did he say it just to hurt me?
“Take it,” Lucifer demanded, shoving it toward me.
I staggered, and that same strong arm came around me. But the person behind it wasn’t Ronen.
“If it’s such anhonor, then let me do it,” Aspen retorted, tightening his grip. “After all, I was part of the problem.”
He should’ve never spoken. I shouldn’t even want him to touch me. I was about to jerk out of his hold when I noticed my father’s lip curl and his hand rise.
The guardian bond flushed through me, strengthening my legs, pushing away my grief and horror, and demanding I protect him. I reached for my father’s icicle at the same time Ronen did, but Ronen beat me to it.
“Close your eyes,” he warned and drove the icicle toward my mother’s heart.
Aspen covered my eyes before I could stop him. A bright light burst behind his hand, and a powerful force sucked at my body, threatening to drag me toward the funerary dais if not for Aspen’s strong arm around my waist.
“What’s happening?” I gasped over the sound of pelting debris.
“It’s the soul-burst process,” Aspen explained softly, right as the pulling force suddenly stopped. A small object grazed my head, falling to the ground as gravity righted itself. “The dormant soul reawakens, untethers from the body, and the Eternal Forest keeps a part of their essence for us to honor, while the rest of their soul enters Limbo.”
The light glowing through the cracks of Aspen’s fingers grew stronger, forcing me to cover my eyes. A second passed. Then a powerful pulse knocked us off our feet.
Aspen’s hand ripped from my face as we flew back. I tensed for a hard landing, but it never came. A glowing, vanilla-scented energy captured me in an embrace, gently set me down, and then seeped into the ground. Her white light rippled across the grass and shot into the tree trunks one final time. They burned brighter with her energy, leaves shivering with the echoes of her laughter.
Whispers and gasps sounded around the clearing. But I closed my eyes, ignoring their noise to absorb my mother’s melody.
It was beautiful, crushing, and suddenly very cold.
“The Eternal Forest honors her, and in that honor, her bones will nourish its roots,” my father forced out, sounding almost angry.
The snow falling through the hole in the sky intensified, thickening until it pelted my skin. Angels stood and brushed themselves off as I remained on the cool grass. They moved closer to the funerary dais just as the ground vibrated. A hole, the size of my mother, yawned open. It signaled a finality I didn’t know how to process. An end and a new beginning, but not a better one.
I lifted my gaze from the grave, needing to see her one last time, and a strangled gasp ripped from my throat.
Her flesh was stripped, leaving bones that glinted with specks of light like the beads on our clothing.
When a nearby Dominion used their telekinetic powers to lift her bones and set her in the perfectly sized opening, my eyes never strayed.Not even when I heard Alexei and Aspen speak to me. Or when a Power used their elemental magic to cover her grave with dirt. It wasn’t until I looked upon my father, hoping to find hints of pain—some sign that he hurt as much as I did.
He bowed his head, along with all the angels. I should’ve followed suit, but I was captured by the tension in the creases of his face. He squeezed his eyes so tightly, I knew he was holding back tears. In this one moment, without everyone looking, he didn’t hide how much he had cared. It helped me to know I wasn’t alone, even if he blamed me.
A male with white hair moved quietly behind my father. He paused inches away, staring at the back of my father’s head. At first, I thought it was part of the ceremony. I waited for him to perform whatever was next, hoping it’d be over fast. Then he glanced at me and grinned. My father lifted his head, frowning as if sensing his presence. He twisted toward the blond male right as he dove onto my father’s neck.
I lurched up as my father roared. Ice shards shot toward the male as he luscelered away, and then the screaming started.
Chapter
Five
Ronen
Lucifer bellowed.
