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But I didn’t say anything. I had to remind myself that I was inside someone’s body—Victus’s lover. Nadira’s mother. Joleen must have just given birth.
The cave turned dark, then the torchlights flickered.
“My love, wake up.”
I opened my eyes to the smooth velvety voice. Joleen must have fallen asleep. But I was standing inside the same cave with Victus and a two-year-old Nadira.
“I love you,” I said to Victus, unfurling my alabaster and gilded wings halfway out.
Joleen was a Seraphim? I’d never heard her name before. How ironic he hated angels and especially Seraphim. But something didn’t seem right about this situation.
Victus cupped my cheeks. Not mine but Joleen’s.
His intense gaze pierced through mine, then traveled all over my face as if he was trying to memorize every detail. “No matter what happens today, know I love you with every breath and every beat of my heart. You are my Little Dove and we belong together. My love. My life. My everything. We are two halves of the same soul. We will find each other again. Either in this life time or the next.”
“This life time, my love. I can’t live without you and our child.” My heart squeezed and tears pooled in my eyes. I pressed my forehead to his as I said, “Two halves of the same soul.”
A boom thundered somewhere from a distance and rocked the ground. I swayed in Victus’s arms as he steadied us.
“I need to go.” My heart pounded out of my rib cage and fear I had never known seized me nearly immobile for the first time in my life.
Why did they have to separate? Then I recalled that Joleen was a Seraphim.
“I’ll hold them back as much as I can,” I said. “Take our daughter and run.” I lowered to Nadira and embraced her as tears slid down my face. “I love you, my precious one. Never forget that. I have to go fight the bad people and I’ll find you. And we will be a family again.”
I pulled back just as another blast exploded, closer this time. Markane and Abacus rushed toward us.
“I’ve rounded up everyone.” Markane hiked a thumb over his shoulder toward a tunnel. “We need to leave now. The OA is here.”
Abacus wrapped his arms around me and Markane did the same. The three of us stayed for good measure until another blast shook the earth, and the dirt on the ceiling rained down.
“Come back to us, Joleen.” Abacus dipped his head in reverence.
“Show them why I sometimes call you feathered bitch.” Markane gave me a curt nod.
I ruffled my feathers and pivoted to run when Victus grabbed my wrist and spun me to face him. He conquered my mouth as his arms held me tight. He kissed me with desperation, hunger, lust, and love.
Electrifying tingles shot through every inch of me and I didn’t want to let him go. I gave him back the toe-curling kiss with equal intensity. It awakened a part of me from a deep slumber—mine or Joleen’s I had no idea.
Victus made me feel emotions that didn’t belong to me.
He pulled back, breathless, but he ran a thumb tenderly along my cheek. “Little Dove, show them how powerful you are. We will reunite when the time is right.”
“Hurry. Do it, before I change my mind,” Joleen’s voice cracked.
Victus cupped my face and peered down at me, his irises turned crimson, golden, then dark. He looked at me with focused determination, as if he could talk to me with his mind.
I found it ironic Victus had called Joleen by the same nickname Zander called me. The first time Victus mentioned that nickname to Joleen, I’d thought it was a coincidence or my own memories bleeding into hers. The second time, I wasn’t sure anymore, but I brushed it off.
With another blast, smoke filled my vision, then the flames cleared. I stood alone, holding the divine sword, blade pointing downward. Must be my memory now. Zander, Levia, and I were in the same cave, and Victus and his people had just escaped into a tunnel.
“Hurry.” Levia glanced over her shoulder where the OA warriors’ footsteps pounded closer through a tunnel. “If you want to keep them safe, you must do this.”
“I can’t just wipe their memories,” I stammered. “It’s wrong. Besides, we’ve never done this before, and I have no idea what to do.”
Another blast.
“But it’s your sword.” Levia glared, sounding upset or afraid. “It’ll do what you want, won’t it?”
