I opened the door and kept her hand in mine while she climbed out. She brought my hand up between us and held it against her chest.
“I had to,” she whispered. “I never would have chosen to leave you, not if things could have been different. You would have done the same thing.”
I drew her flush against me. “I would have, but I am immortal.”
“Yes, but even if it destroyed you, you would have done the same thing. I knew you could get free of Hell, knew you would look after my brothers, but the gateway had to be closed before all the seals fell. It might have been the death of everyone, and maybeeverything,if it remained open.”
My teeth ground together as I tried to deny her words, but I knew they were true. I would have done the same and expected River to continue without me. Clasping her cheeks, I drew her closer and kissed her until her knees went weak and she was holding onto me for support. I lost myself in the scent and taste of her as I ran my tongue over her lips before dipping inside her mouth to take possession of it. Blood flowed into my cock, hardening it against her belly. I desired her with a savagery I’d never experienced before, but now was not the time.
Her eyes were dazed, her lips swollen when I broke the kiss to gaze down at her beloved face. It took me a minute to find my voice as I resisted the impulse to pull her away from here and take her into the woods to claim her. We wouldn’t leave here tonight though if I did that.
“I understand. I only wish you’d never had to make the choice, that I could have protected you better, or there had been another way,” I told her.
“You did protect me, from everything.”
“Except from yourself.”
“There was no other way,” she murmured.
“I know.” And I did know. It didn’t mean I had to like it. I took her hand and placed it against my cheek.
My attention was torn from her when Raphael landed a few feet away from us. Before he closed his white and gold wings behind his back, I spotted a starburst of gold feathers on the inside of his right wing. Those golden feathers formed a sun symbol. Unlike the fallen angels, he had no spikes coming out of the tops and bottoms of his wings. His wings were rounded and very much what humans had always imagined them to be.
His purple eyes landed on River. When he ruffled his feathers, a small wave of gold dust fell to speckle the road.
“Well slap me silly!” Lopan declared.
“I’ll volunteer for that,” Magnus said.
“The angels actually have angel dust!” Lopan continued as if Magnus hadn’t spoken.
“Thetrueangels do,” Raphael said with a pointed look at Caim.
“You mean the boring ones do,” Caim scoffed. “Or I should say, the ones who blindly obey and follow everything they are told even if it means turning on their own siblings. Yes,thoseones have angel dust.”
The remaining humans and demons gathered closer as the two angels stared at each other with equal disdain. “You chose a poor course,” Raphael replied. “That is no one’s fault, other than your own.”
“Ichose poorly?” Caim inquired as he pointed at his chest. “I think you forget thatIwas the only one trying to resolve things while the rest of you were all squabbling like spoiled children. The only choice I made was to question certain things.”
“Things that should not be questioned.”
Caim blinked at him. “I’d rather have the freedom to question than not have it.”
“And that freedom to question only got you the rule of Lucifer.”
“I don’t see Lucifer here, do you?”
“Enough!” I interrupted. “For all I care, the two of you can pluck each other to death after I have my answers, but I will have my answers first. Make sure the humans are given food,” I commanded the demon closest to me. “Establish a perimeter and kill any threat that comes close to it. We’re leaving in twenty minutes.”
I pointed to Corson, Bale, Shax, Magnus, Lopan, Calah, Hawk, Lix, Erin, and Vargas and gestured for them to follow me. Erin and Vargas kept glancing at Lopan and then looking quickly away before their gazes returned to him. Calah waved a hand at Verin, who sat mutely on the ground beside him.
“Stay, I’ll fill you in later,” I said in response to the question in his eyes.
I kept River pinned against my side as I led the others further away from the humans and demons. Until I knew what the angels would reveal, the humans couldn’t hear what we discussed.
“Where is Morax?” River inquired as she gazed over her shoulder at Verin.
“He didn’t make it out of Hell,” I replied.
