Despite the fact these were the last seconds of my life, a smile tugged at my lips as I realized the gateway was closed. My blood, and my connection to all things living, had succeeded in stopping the mass exodus from Hell. Dirt had never looked more beautiful to me, and if I’d been able to, I would be laughing while rolling through it right now.
A golden aura filled my vision as Angela knelt by my side. Her hand didn’t touch my cheek when she tried to hold it against me. She now had enough power fueling her to be seen by everyone, but she was still only a figure the angels had conjured to guide me.
And they had succeeded in guiding me on how to protect the others and give them a chance for a better future.
I hadn’t dared to let myself dream too far ahead throughout all of this, but I mourned the loss of dreams I hadn’t realized I had. A field of green grass rolled out before me. Children’s feet ran by me; their laughter floated on the breeze. I didn’t know if it was my brother’s laughter or that of the children I could have had with Kobal, but never would. Whoever it belonged to, it made me smile more as I thought of the numerous children who would get to laugh and run now.
Then, the children and the field faded away and I was left with only Angela’s white light. I would never have my dreams, but millions of others would.
Peace settled over me, my eyes slid closed, and I knew nothing more.
CHAPTER 33
Corson
Blinking rapidly, it took my burnt retinas a minute to adjust after the blinding radiance River emitted seconds before. When my vision finally cleared, I wished it hadn’t. I gazed between River’s unmoving body and the smooth patch of Earth where the gateway had been. My mind spun as it tried to process what happened andhowit happened.
“Ri… ver?” Erin whispered, her voice hitching as she edged toward River.
I didn’t tell her that River wasn’t going to answer her. She was as aware of it as I was, but it wasn’t something I wanted to acknowledge, and neither did Erin. What had River done?Why?
Even as I asked myself this question, I knew the answer. Because she had to.
Because closing the gateway was the only way to stem the tide. The only way to right some of the wrongs inflicted over the course of so many years. If there had been another way, River would have chosen it, but there was no other way.
Lucifer had opened a gateway into Hell six thousand years ago; now, the last of his line had closed the one he’d intended to use to destroy humanity. It would be oddly fitting it happened that way, if I wasn’t staring at River’s bloody, lifeless body. If it hadn’t beenRiverwho had to be sacrificed to close the gateway.
It should have been Lucifer lying there now, but the gateway wouldn’t have closed for him. The powerful magics used here had required a connection to life and a sacrifice. River had known that when she rammed the sword into her heart.
“River?” Erin whispered again. I gripped her arm when she inched closer, drawing her tear-filled eyes to me. “She’s—”
“Gone,” I said.
And she may have taken Kobal with her. I tried not to recall the desolation on my mother’s face while she’d watched my father’s demise. She’d thrown herself into the Hell fires rather than go on without her Chosen.
What would Kobal do? If he didn’t choose death, he may raze the entire planet to extract his revenge.
No, he wouldn’t do that. River had sacrificed herself for this planet, for all of us. He wouldn’t dishonor her sacrifice by destroying what she died to protect.
It shouldn’t have been River. She deserved better thanthis. She deserved to be able to live out whatever life she could with Kobal and her brothers. She deserved happiness and love. She hadn’t deserved a sword through the heart and dying in this burnt-out wasteland.
The sorrow twisting inside me was something I hadn’t experienced since the death of my parents, at least not with this intensity. My queen, myfriend,was gone and it made my chest feel like a vise squeezed it. I’d enjoyed living on Earth with the humans. I was aware it had brought about changes in me, but not of how much I’d come to care for others.
Angela kept her hand close to River’s face before she pulled it away. Lifting her hands, she dropped her head into them. Her shoulders hunched up as if she were crying. The angels may have led River to this, but they appeared to be grieving her death. Wasn’t this their goal for her?
My gaze slid to Caim. “Did you know this is what the angels planned for her?”
“I’m not exactly on speaking terms with my estranged brothers and sisters who reside above,” he replied.
“Did you know this is how the gateway had to be closed? Did you know what Lucifer had done to open his gateway?”
“No,” he said, his black eyes resigned when they met mine. “I had no idea how Lucifer entered Hell, or that this is what would be required of her.”
“Would you have stopped her if you did know?”
Caim opened his mouth before closing it again. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “The gatewayhadto be closed.”
“No,” Hawk said as he strode toward River. “I willnotallow this to happen.”
