Iniquity (The Premonition, #5)(101)

Aodh’s soul sees what’s happening and tries to leave, but the souls of Lachlan and Faolan are on him, seizing his arms and binding them with rope. Tearing off his shirt, Faolan’s soul stuffs it in Aodh’s mouth so no one will hear him scream.

Xavier moans in agony. The sight of his blood running in rivers off the sides of the altar makes me blanch. I go to him, my hand hesitating above his flesh, not knowing where I can put it that will not cause him excruciating pain. I find his hand and hold it. Lifting his fingers to my lips I kiss them while tears roll down my cheeks. “I’m sorry, Xavier,” I whisper.

He opens his mismatched eyes and looks at me. “Now,” his feeble voice whispers, “you know how I feel every time I watch you suffer—every time I watch you die.” The agony in my chest won’t subside. I feel as though I can’t breathe.

“I have the advantage here,” I reply, wiping my nose with my sleeve, “because I can do something about it. I can take your pain from you.”

“Do not, Evie,” Xavier groans, his pain nearly unbearable.

“I can’t let you die, Xavier.”

“You have to,” he growls.

“No, I don’t.” I lay my hand on his chest, urging it to turn golden so that I can take away his pain. Seconds pass and nothing happens. Xavier’s breath becomes thready. He sounds as if he’s dying. Panic makes me press my palm to him in a different place on his chest, concentrating on taking his wounds into me, but the light that would do it doesn’t glow. My ability to heal is gone, or it just doesn’t work in this horrible place. I clench my fists again, trying to make it work, but nothing happens. I can’t take his wounds from him. I choke. Fresh, hot tears rush to my eyes. “I SURRENDER! DO YOU HEAR ME?” I yell. I look upward. “I surrender! I give up my stipulation in the contract! I forfeit my choice! Do you hear me? Please take Xavier back to Paradise! Don’t let him die! Please!” My face reddens and my eyes burn. I lay my forehead on Xavier’s chest and I cry my heart out.

The music of Angelic voices echoes around me, calling Xavier’s name. Opening my eyes, I don’t see them, but I feel Xavier’s chest fall. I lift my head from my crossed arms. He has become paper-thin, flickering with bursts of light. I lift my arms from his chest. He loses his features as they become dark. A galaxy of stars replaces them. The stars turn shadowy; it shrinks in size until it is just a pinpoint of light, and then Xavier is gone.

Among the blood and guts on the table, I find his ring—the one with the shield and sword on it. I pick it up and slip it into the knife holster on the side of my combat armor. Tilting my face upward, I strain to get the words, “Thank you,” past the constriction in my throat.

A scream of pain jolts me from my thoughts. Byzantyne falls to his knees, at least I think he’s Byzantyne. The wicked angel is slick with blood and so cut up that he’s unrecognizable, except for his hair and what is left of his wings. His head slumps forward on his chest. Reed walks behind him grasping Byzantyne’s head by the ear, he wraps his forearm around the evil Seraph’s forehead and jerks it to the side, breaking his neck and crushing in his skull.

Reed straightens and looks at me with sorrow in his green eyes. “I can hear them, Evie. They’re calling me.”

Tears spring to my eyes again. I hear them too, the whispering voices of a multitude of angels. “Then you have to go,” I whisper, because I know he can’t fight the call of Heaven.

“You could choose me, Evie. You can choose me as your love,” he says desperately, looking up at the ceiling as if something is there.

“I do choose you, Reed. I will always choose you as my love.” The most beautiful smile I have ever seen passes over his lips.

Reed’s body begins to flicker as if he’s a piece of film on a screen that isn’t threaded properly. His smile fades. “Say it again, Evie.”

I take a step closer, saying to him, “I choose you, Reed. You are my love.”

Reed’s body flashes with light, fading more and more each time. “No!” Reed cries. He becomes flat—two-dimensional. His features fade so that he is no more than a silhouette filled with stars that transforms to just a shadow, fading until he’s gone in a pinpoint of light.

“Reed!” I sob. I don’t move for a moment. I can’t move. Something shines on the floor beside me. I go to it. Crouching down, I pick up Reed’s ring and ball it in my fist. The faerie souls come to stand before me, waiting for me to give them an order. They’re all awake now, having freed one another from the curse that was on them. When I still don’t move, Other Finn approaches me. He crouches down to my eye level and touches my wing reverently. I glance at him. He extends my battle hammer to me. “Dis belongs ta me queen.” He speaks in Faerie to the weapon, it become small once more. He reaches out and puts it on my back. It clings there, singing its melody, trying in its own way to cheer me. I look down at the floor again, lost in sorrow—tristitiae.

Other Brennus comes to stand in front of me. He crouches down so that we’re face to face. His hand lifts to my cheek; he runs the back of his fingers over it, wiping away my tears. “Ye’re me queen. Tell me whah ye need and I will do it for ye.”

I lift my eyes to his. “I want to go home,” I whisper.

“Show me da way,” he replies.