I embraced her against me while the drakóns circled above before disappearing over the trees.
“Why did they do that?” she whispered.
“You set them free.”
I turned my attention to the waning battle as more of Lucifer’s followers ran for the woods. The surviving angels had all fled. Without Lucifer, there was no one to lead them and they would be hunted down and dispatched of without mercy.
Focusing on River, I brushed the hair back from her flushed face and cupped her cheeks in my hands. “Are you injured?” I demanded.
“I’m fine. You though—”
She tried to pull away, but I kept her against me. “Already healing,” I assured her. I had more broken bones than I could count, but they were shifting back into place and already new teeth prodded at my gums.
Her fingers brushed over my crumpled cheekbone. “Look at what he did to you.”
“Some might say it’s an improvement,” I murmured, succeeding in coaxing a smile to her lips.
“Not me. We… we did it,” she breathed. “I mean, I know there are still some angels and craetons out there, butLuciferis dead.”
“Yes, Mah Kush-la, we did it.” I smiled at her as I ran my finger over her bottom lip before bending to kiss her. I inhaled her sweet breath as I tasted the salt of the sea on her mouth. My tongue stroked hers as I drew her closer.
“Pittah!”
The shout caused River to pull away from me. She spun to face Gage as he ran toward her with Bailey on his hip. Stepping forward, she opened her arms to her siblings and hugged them close when they barreled into her. Words, questions, and tears flowed so fast that I couldn’t follow what they said to each other, but they seemed to catch it all.
Over their shoulders, I watched as the others walked through the bodies on the ground. They dispatched of any enemies who still lived, while pulling free any allies who required help. Some of them ambled around the thrones, examining them.
It was time to take my rightful place on my throne. To finally claim what was mine for the first time in my fifteen hundred sixty-two years of existence, but I wouldn’t pull River away from her brothers. I’d waited this long to sit on it; I would wait longer.
River stepped away from her siblings. Her hands ran over their faces as if she couldn’t believe they were there. Then, she turned to me and the radiant smile she gave me robbed me of my breath. This woman had endured every single horrific thing thrown at her with more courage than any other being I’d ever known, and she was mine.
She stretched her hand out to me. I clasped it and rested it over my heart. “Gage, Bailey, this is Kobal,” she said. “My Chosen.”
“I’m not sure what that means, but hi,” Gage said with a shy wave at me.
“Hello,” I replied.
“A Chosen is like a husband, but he’s alsomorethan that,” River said. “I’ll explain it later.”
“Yeah you will,” Gage replied and grinned at her.
Bailey stuck a saliva-covered hand out to me, and I clasped it in mine.
“You have funny eyes,” he said and giggled as he dropped his head into the crook of River’s neck.
“That’s not polite, B,” River admonished and kissed the tip of his nose.
“It’s true; to humans, I have funny eyes,” I said, and Bailey giggled again while Gage gazed back and forth between the two of us.
“You are going to tell me what is going on witheverything, right?” he asked River.
“I’ll tell you everything,” she vowed as she started walking beside me toward our thrones. “I’m not sure you’ll believe it all.”
“Bailey was just bounced on the knee of Lucifer, and a skeletal dragon plucked you out of the sky. I’m sure I’ll believe anything you tell me,” Gage replied and River laughed.
“True,” she agreed.
The humans, demons, and angels stepped back when I led River around to the front of the thrones. “It’s time to claim what is mine,” I said to her.
