Wicked Nights aotd-1 Page 35

  She was bleeding, bleeding some more, and she was hurting, but he was bleeding just as profusely and had to be hurting just as badly.

  “Just give up! Zacharel’s brought me nothing but pain and suffering, and I will do the same to him. I will not allow you to stop me.”

  She wouldn’t, couldn’t, give in. “If you really are his twin—” can’t be, he can’t be “—then you asked him to kill you. Commanded it.”

  “He did not have to heed me!”

  “What did you expect him to do? You kept trying to kill yourself.”

  “He could have tried harder to save me. He could have found a way to reach me in the darkness.”

  For a moment, only a moment, she caught a glimpse of the man he used to be: tormented, pain-filled, ruined. He was a darker version of Zacharel.

  This really was Hadrenial, she realized. Zacharel’s twin. He’d turned his back on his angel heritage and become a demon.

  Even still, how could she kill the man Zacharel had missed so deeply for so long? Even one as evil as this? Zacharel would never be able to forgive her.

  Forgive her.

  Unforgiveness.

  She caught the irony and laughed without humor. An argument took place in her mind, common sense warring with her love for Zacharel.

  You have to do this. It’s the only way. Besides, you’ll be dead, too, so you won’t witness Zacharel’s reaction.

  Yeah, but she would die knowing she had caused the man she loved unequivocal, eternal pain.

  If you don’t do it, Unforgiveness will continue to hurt Zacharel, you, and countless other families. Zacharel is a good man. He will forgive.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw that Koldo had returned. He was just as cut up and broken as she was, and he was not alone. Thane stood beside him, bleeding like everyone else. Koldo vanished and Thane remained in place.

  He created a sword of fire with one hand and stepped forward. Stopped, frowned. He patted at the air with the other, as if there was a barrier in front of him.

  “Thane!” she said.

  He met her gaze—and his eyes widened. He banged his fist against…nothing, his mouth moving, but she could not hear what he was saying.

  Unforgiveness swooped in, going for her neck. Teeth met skin, every muscle in her body suddenly vibrating with unimaginable pain. She punched at his temple, but failed to dislodge him. Warmth cascaded down her chest as his swallows became haphazard. Weakness stole through her, insidious and undeniable.

  “Thane,” she cried, even though she knew he couldn’t hear her, either. He continued to bang at the air.

  On my own. But that was okay. She was ready to die and take this demon with her, because she knew that was the easiest solution, but she knew the demon wouldn’t kill her like this. He only wanted to weaken her.

  Time to teach him better. She forced herself to relax into his dark embrace, letting her arm fall away from his shoulder, landing on his thigh—and she sliced into his femoral artery with her claws.

  She wouldn’t weaken.

  Roaring, he propelled away from her. Dizziness claimed her as she lumbered to her feet. She approached him.

  He did his best to remain out of reach. “Zacharel!” he shouted, turning…turning. Flames sprayed from the tips of his claws, creating a circle of fire around the two of them. “If you don’t enter this room I’ll burn her to death in it, I swear.”

  “He can’t hear you,” she said. “It’s just you and me.” She saw that Xerxes and Bjorn now joined Thane, and though Koldo kept popping in and out, he was once again missing in action.

  “Show yourself, Zacharel! I want you to experience all that was done to me. I want you to wallow in the knowledge that you failed someone else. That you failed the woman you love. I want you to suffer and suffer and suffer.”

  Smoke curled around her, twining up her legs, into her nose, making her cough.

  I’m sorry, Zacharel, she thought, spying a piece of the lamp at her feet. I have to do this.

  “Zacharel!” he shouted, and she swooped up the shard and launched at him.

  She sliced through his throat, blood welling, dripping, pooling on the floor. He collapsed to his knees, clutching the wound, gasping for breath. But when she went in for the killing blow, he grabbed hold of her wrist and jerked her down beside him, laughing all over again.

  “As if you could win against one such as me.” As he spoke, he scraped a horn against her neck, pricking the skin. Not deeply, but enough to burn.

  Her body began to twitch, finally cooling until…she could feel nothing. Neither hot nor cold, pleasure nor pain. More than that, she could no longer move.

  A self-satisfied Unforgiveness loomed over her, the flames licking all around them. “All this time I played with you, hoping he’d come. If he will not, if he continues to refuse, I’ll take you here and now and end you anyway. Let him find you violated, with your tormentor dead beside you.”

  I haven’t lost yet, she tried to project with her eyes. I will pull through.

  “Zacharel!” he shouted again, head thrown back, spine arched. “Have you no desire to save your female? This is your last chance.”

  Koldo stepped inside the fiery circle. “I do. I have a desire.”

  “How did you open the shield?” Thane demanded, rushing in behind him.

  “Easy. The shield is my cloud,” Koldo said, holding out his arm to stop the warrior’s progress.

  “Annabelle—”

  “Not yet.”

  Unforgiveness’s tail lashed out and slashed Koldo across the cheek. “Where’s Zacharel? Bring him here. Now.”

  “He is in the heavens. He is not coming.”

  A dark play of emotions passed over the demon’s face. “Very well. This ends now. But I won’t let you capture me and save her.” His tail jerked backward and poised at Annabelle’s throat, cutting into one of the puncture wounds. “If you want her to live, you’ll let me leave with her.”

  Finish him, Koldo. Please.

  Blood dripped down Koldo’s cheek. “No, you will not be leaving. I will be killing you. And I know that by killing you I am killing her, but that is the sacrifice she was willing to make. I will have to be content with the knowledge that I saved the world from your evil.”

  “Do this, and the angels will die.”

  “Impossible. They have already been saved.”

  “How— It doesn’t matter.” The barb dug ever deeper as Unforgiveness ground out, “Zacharel will not want me dead.”

  “What we want is not always what we need.”

  Koldo held out his hand, created a sword of fire and struck, removing the demon’s head—just as his tail sliced through her neck.

  Instantly black cascaded through her mind. She floated…floated away…floated into nothingness. For a fleeting moment, she thought she could hear Zacharel’s screaming.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  “NOOOOO!” ZACHAREL’S SCREAM echoed through the Deity’s throne room.

  He had tried to escape, and he had failed. He had beat at the double doors to no avail. He’d been forced to watch his woman combat his brother. The revelation of the monster his brother had become had nearly destroyed him, but his fear for Annabelle’s safety had proved stronger and had kept him fighting for his freedom. Still he’d failed, and ultimately he’d been forced to watch as one fought for the good of those she loved while the other fought for revenge, as they bled and Hadrenial cursed. Forced to watch as they both died.

  Once again, he’d watched his brother’s head roll away from his body. Only this time it was worse, because Zacharel’s woman died alongside him.

  “No!” He clawed at the walls, and suddenly he was clawing at air, the throne room gone and the hotel room in its place. He stood in the center of the charred circle, the smoke cleared and two dead bodies at his feet.

  Annabelle’s robe was ripped to shreds, her neck gaping open.

  Koldo stumbled out of the circle as if he’d been pushed, and may
be he had. He tried to get back in, but couldn’t. He and Thane, Bjorn and Xerxes tried to beat at an invisible wall to no avail.

  Zacharel fell to his knees, tears gliding down his cheeks. “Can one still be saved?”

  “Yes.” Though the Deity was not there, his voice echoed through the enclosure. “All you must do is choose.”

  “How can you do this to me? How can you ask me to choose between the only two people I have ever loved? And for someone else’s sin! Are you really so cruel?”

  “Cruel? What you have not yet learned is that the deaths you cause hurt me in ways you will never understand, and I’m glad that you will not. Such a burden you would not be able to bear. So, am I cruel for giving you a choice rather than leaving you with nothing?”

  Yes, he wanted to scream. But he knew it was a lie. “I’m sorry,” he said. “So sorry. Take me instead. I willingly give my life for theirs.”

  “Were I to do that, the two people you so love would know nothing but torment. They would fight for the rest of eternity.”

  His shoulders slumped, all that was left of his hope withering, dying. How could he do this thing?

  His Deity continued, “You think I know nothing of love, but the truth is, you are only just discovering what love really is. Your brother will gladly take all that you’ve learned and destroy you with it. He will bring great harm to your men. The men you took responsibility for. The men who need you now more than ever. And yet I offer him to you, knowing how much I will lose if you accept.”

  Zacharel’s mouth opened, closed. He was caught up in a storm, every emotion he’d ever suppressed surging up to drown him.

  Still the Deity was not done. “You want to speak with your brother, I know. You want to ask him why he did these things. You want to beg his forgiveness for what you did to him and for what he suffered. You want to hear him lash out at you, to rant and rail, and give you what you believe you deserve. You want closure. You want him to have the life he once deserved.”

  “Yes.” I want to hug him. I want to fly beside him and watch his features light. I want to hear him laugh with joy rather than cruelty.

  “You can have all of that. Simply take what is in the urn and place it inside Hadrenial’s body. Eventually, he will heal from his wounds, yes, even the beheading, and you will have all that you desire. Though it will take time, he will be restored to the man he used to be, before he became the demon Unforgiveness.”

  The urn appeared at Zacharel’s side. “And if I do that, what will happen to Annabelle?”

  “Her spirit will journey on.”

  So be it. Two bodies, motionless before him, spilling over him. Chilling with every second that passed. His beautiful Annabelle, the only pleasure he had ever known. His brother, the man he had betrayed and now owed. He saw his men, still outside the circle, still banging at walls they couldn’t see.

  They wanted to help him.

  They couldn’t help him.

  He reached inside the urn, the liquid warm, swirling up to greet him. He lifted his arm to the light. Life and death, resting in his palm right now.

  He twisted to face the bodies. Whatever happened, he knew the Deity would not allow him to choose and then miraculously bring the other to life, as well. Sacrifice was sacrifice, and like Koldo’s hair, it would mean nothing if it was easily replaced. Besides, what was in the urn was enough to save one, but not two.

  “I have made my decision.” And it had not really been a decision so much as saying goodbye to someone he loved. Zacharel placed his hand over Annabelle’s heart. Something else he’d learned since meeting her: you could not allow guilt and shame to make your choices for you. Only love should drive a man, and he loved this woman like no other.

  Annabelle was a part of him, his future, and if he must live, he knew he could not do so without her.

  The liquid spilled over her, soon absorbing into her skin…her soul…her spirit. Color washed over her too-pale skin, and her wounds began to heal, her flesh to weave together.

  “I’m sorry, Hadrenial,” he whispered. He’d said those same words before, so many times, countless times. He’d hurt then as he hurt now. He didn’t care what his brother had become. He loved Hadrenial still, and always would.

  Too, he would always remember the boy Hadrenial had been. Would never forget the bond they had shared.

  “What will happen to him?” he asked the Deity.

  “You will be pleased to know a part of him will live on through your Annabelle. Not through the piece of his demon self, for that piece has died, but through the essence of his love. And because you mixed something of yourself in there, she will be bound to you, now and always, your life for hers. She need only give you a piece of herself to complete the joining and stop the spread of your spiritual death.”

  “Thank you,” he found himself saying. “For this chance with her, I thank you.”

  “She was always meant to be yours. The question I needed answered was whether or not you could appreciate the gift.”

  “I can. I do.”

  “I know.”

  Breathing deeply, Annabelle jerked upright. As she patted her neck, her chest, perhaps searching for her fatal injury, her gaze searched the room. “What happened?” she croaked. “Why am I alive?”

  “I had a choice, and I chose you. I will always choose you.”

  “Zacharel?” Tears welling in her eyes, she threw herself into his arms. “I have the worst news! I fought your brother. He was alive. I… He… I’m so sorry. I killed him. There was no other way, and—”

  “I know.” He pulled back and righted her robe, shielding her breasts from view, then crushed her back into his chest. She clutched at him, and she cried, and all the while he shook. How close he’d come to losing her…how much he’d now gained. He cared not for who saw him in this weak moment.

  “Oh, Zacharel. I have so much to tell you.”

  “There’s nothing I do not already know, love. Unforgiveness is, was, my brother.”

  Her breath was a trembling rasp as she disengaged from his embrace to frown at him. “How did you know that?”

  “I was forced to watch the fight. I tried to reach you, would have done anything to reach you. I am sorry I did not.” He cupped her cheeks, so glad to feel the warmth flooding them. “I’m so very sorry for all you were forced to endure.”

  “Don’t you dare go into a shame spiral. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

  “At least try to hold a grudge.” He placed a soft kiss on her lips. “You’ll make me feel better.”

  The kindest of smiles flashed up at him. “I think that’s the first lie you’ve ever told. So, uh, how am I healed?”

  “I gave you the love my brother once carried.”

  The smile slowly faded. “Your greatest treasure. You shouldn’t have—”

  “You are my greatest treasure, Annabelle. Never doubt that.”

  Her eyes filled with another stream of tears. “How can you say that? I helped kill him.”

  He wiped away a tear with the pad of his thumb. “No matter what happened, I killed him, then and now. Never doubt that, either.” He would never have the closure he craved, but that was okay. That was life. He had Annabelle, and that was all that mattered. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too. And thank you. You’re my treasure, too.”

  “Good, because you now have a choice to make. You may meld to me, merging your life span with mine.”

  A gleam of hope in those blue—no, blue no longer, he realized. Watery eyes of gold peered up at him, a shade more precious than any he’d ever seen. “Or?”

  “Or nothing. That is your only choice.”

  She pressed a kiss into his lips, as soft and gentle as his had been. “I thought you said you knew how to bargain, but right now I’m just too happy to instruct you on the proper way. You’ve got yourself a wife. Or a consort. Or a mate. Or whatever you want to call me!”

  “You have been my wife since the beginning, I think. That very
first day, you taught me how to feel. You saw me at my worst, and helped make me better. What we do next will be a much stronger bond.”

  Cheers erupted around them, and he turned. His entire army now filled the room. Thane and Koldo must have summoned the rest of his men.

  Thane dropped to his knee, head bowed.

  Koldo did the same.

  Bjorn and Xerxes, too, then Axel, and then, one by one, the others joined, until the twenty members of his army were showing their respect.

  Zacharel pushed to his feet and helped Annabelle to hers. She pressed into his side, her head resting on his shoulder.

  “Don’t you dare think about busting on Koldo,” she said. “He might have tricked me into…uh, I mean, he saved the day. And he and the troublesome trio saved Jamila, I think.”

  Part of him wanted to throttle the man for daring to place Annabelle in such a dangerous position, but the other part of him recognized the desperate bid for victory. “Is this true?”

  Koldo nodded, remained silent.

  “He saved another angel, too, I think,” Annabelle added.

  The warrior did not nod this time, nor did he maintain his silence. “She is no one else’s concern. I will see to her.”

  Something about his tone…a hardness, a coldness Zacharel had once possessed. Like him, like Hadrenial, Koldo would end up on a path to destruction if he wasn’t careful.

  His gaze swept over the sea of angelic bodies, white-and-gold wings, hair a kaleidoscope of colors, from the blackest of jets to the lightest of snows. All of these warriors were as he had once been. Adrift, lost. They needed a leader.

  More of a leader than he had been.

  From this moment on, he would be that leader. With Annabelle at his side, he could be anything, do anything.

  “Rise,” he said, and they obeyed. “We are not like other armies, and so I will no longer treat you as such. We teeter on the edge of banishment, and I will allow none of you to fall. You are mine. Changes are coming, and I hope that you like them, but I won’t be bothered if you do not.”

  Silence.

  “You have all sensed the war brewing in the heavens. The greatest war we’ve ever known—and we’ve known plenty. When it will finally break, I’m not sure. I only know what has been whispered. The Deity’s angels will be fighting the Titans and Greeks—more and more have escaped from their immortal prison. All of this will happen despite the fact that a new queen sits on the Titan throne and she is on our side. Or maybe because she is on our side.