She kissed Bailey on the cheek and slid him into Gage’s arms. Bailey frowned at Raphael when he spotted the angel near the front of the crowd. “You told me I had to let her go, but she’s still here,” Bailey said to him.
River froze beside me, her eyes narrowed as her gaze went from Bailey to Raphael. “What is he talking about?” she demanded.
“He told me I had to let you go,” Bailey said, unaware of his sister’s hostility toward Raphael.
“They told me I have to let you go,” River whispered as her gaze shifted to me. “When Gage and Bailey came to see me before we left the wall, Bailey said those words to me. I’d assumed it was the soldiers, or Gage, or someone else who had told him he had to let me go.” Her eyes latched onto Raphael again. “But it was theangelstelling him that.”
“Yes,” Raphael admitted. “Ariel briefly communicated with the child to offer you and him comfort. We knew it would be difficult for all of you to be apart, and if your mother could be spoken with, then we thought one of the children could be reached too.”
“The angels can communicate with Bailey,” River murmured. “What about Gage?”
“No angels are talking to me!” Gage blurted.
“He does not possess the ability,” Raphael confirmed. “Whatever power he possesses hasn’t shown itself yet, or it is so latent it will never be known.”
“You tell the angels to leave Bailey alone,” River commanded. “Look at the damage they did to our mother.”
“He is young—”
“Leave him be!” she shouted.
“There is no reason for them to communicate with him now,” Raphael murmured.
“Make sure it stays that way,” she said.
“I cannot promise that. There is no way to know if it may become necessary for them to speak with him in the future.”
I rested my hand on River’s shoulder when fire blazed over her hands and up to her wrists. A protective demon mother had nothing on River right now.
“Whoa,” Gage murmured and Bailey’s eyes widened on her.
“No matter what happens, we will be here to guide Bailey and Gage through it,” I promised her. “Your mother had no idea what was happening to her, but they will know it all.”
River’s fire died away as she looked to her youngest sibling. “Are you okay with that, B?”
He smiled back at her. “Sure.”
“Gage?” she asked.
“Uh yeah, sure.”
River turned to me, and I took her hand. Leading her to the smaller throne, I helped her settle on it. She gasped and her hands clinched onto the arms. White sparks burst to life on her fingers, but gold marked the tips of the energy flowing up to her wrists. From there, the energy wrapped around the arms of the throne and swirled around to the back of it as if it were binding her to the chair.
I doubted any other Chosen had received this reaction from their throne, but then they would have been entirely demon. River was not, and the being had forged the angels as well as the varcolac and these thrones. The throne was reacting to the knowledge that a more angelic queen now sat on it.
“Amazing,” River breathed, her eyes a deeper shade of violet when they met mine. “There is so much power here.”
“There is,” I agreed.
“Oh, you are definitely telling meeverything,” Gage said as he watched his sister with fascination.
Walking over to my throne, I turned to face everyone before sitting on it. Power immediately lashed into my body as all the symbols on the chair shifted toward me. The symbols felt like water flowing over me as they slid effortless into my flesh before running into the throne again.
Fire flared to life from my fingers. It encompassed my wrists before becoming the umber light that had poured forth to grant me entrance to the Fires of Creation.
That glow spread to the entire throne. Lucifer had sat on this throne for six thousand years, within the throne room, and never been able to unlock the power either of them possessed. If he had, he would have leveled Hell thousands of years ago, but when he’d severed his bond with life, he’d severed any connection he might have had to the thrones and the being too.
River possessed that connection though. Reaching out, I rested my hand over hers. Her power spread out to my wrist at the same time mine fastened onto hers. The umber and golden-white lights swirled together until it became impossible to separate one from the other.
