“I promise, sweetheart,” Aspen said on a sorrowful breath. “I’ll keep your cordistella alive and hope one day I’ll be worthy of someone’s love, like I wished I’d been worthy of yours.”
Aspen grabbed the knife.
A jolt tore through my chest and flung him backward. He slammed into the ground with Tsal-mawet still clenched in his palm.
Then he began to glow.
Not the pale blue I knew.
The deep, bruised color that ringed his eyes.
When he rose, wings of living fire erupted from his back, beautiful and terrifying.
He was power.
He was flame.
The first born Seraphim.
The gates fully opened, and demons poured through.
Do not take her away from me.
Ronen,I whispered in his mind.
Lucille?he answered, shock rippling through our bond.Hang on. I’m coming for you, gorgeous.
Aspen detonated, shaking the land as dark blue fire tore outward, consuming everything it touched.
And every silence after,I vowed.
Ronen
The warmth in her voice sent me to my knees.
No.
It wasn’t her warmth.
It was the lack of it.
There was a ripping in my soul so profound that I felt like I was dying—or that I wished I was.
It was the feeling of my entire world, our story, being ripped away from me.
My shadows dissipated, losing their will to fight and revealing a fierce blue flame ripping through the forest in the distance, demolishing trees and everything in its path.
It came with speed.
Without mercy.
Once it hit the Spinewalkers, the infected realized it was over.
Some fled.
Others were unable to.
Alexei knelt in front of me, taking me by the shoulders.
