“Really?” I gasped. “I didn’t know that could happen.”
“Neither did I, but it was like a jolt of electricity that ran through him and into me. You are becoming stronger, and Lucifer knows that.”
“He’ll come for me again,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
“But he’ll be coming for me to get you too.”
His eyes revealed no emotion when they met mine again. “And he will die because of it.”
“Yes,” I agreed, but unease churned in my belly.
“We will get through all of this together.”
“Yes, we will,” I vowed. My gaze was drawn to the passenger window when a blue glow shone over the trees. “It’s one of the dragons.”
“It’s a drakón,” Kobal replied.
“Drakón,” I murmured. “I saw them both exit the gateway. One of them flew by me while…”
“While what?” he inquired when a lump lodged in my throat.
“While I was dying.” I focused on him again when his hand clenched around mine. “I died.”
“I know,” he grated from between his teeth. “I watched it happen, until the gate closed over me.”
“I knew you would be able to get out. Otherwise, I would have waited until you were free before…” I swallowed the lump. I had been the one to drive the blade through my heart; I had to be able to say it out loud. “Before I stabbed myself.”
A vein throbbed to life in Kobal’s forehead as he released my hand to grip the wheel. “I realize that.”
“But?” I asked when I sensed more behind his words.
“But you killed yourself, River. You took a sword and plunged it through your heart.”
“There was no other way.”
Fire skimmed the tips of his fingers, the rubbery scent of the wheel melting filled the cab before he doused the flames. He lifted his hands from the perfect imprints he’d left behind and repositioned them on the wheel.
“It wasn’t an easy choice,” I whispered. “I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to leave you behind, or Gage and Bailey. I promised Bailey I would see him again, and I knew my actions would break that promise. But I couldn’t stand back and leteveryonedie when there was something I could do to stop what was happening. I tried to be brave, but when I felt it all slipping away, when I knew it was the end…”
I gazed out the window as I recalled those last moments.
“What?” Kobal inquired.
“I’ve never been more terrified, but even still, I somehow knew it would be okay and I felt peace.”
Releasing the wheel, he lifted my hand and drew it to his lips to place a kiss against the back of it.
“And then there was nothing,” I murmured. “Until I opened my eyes to see Raphael. How long was I dead?”
“Minutes only, but it felt like years.”
My heart twisted at his words and the anguish I knew I’d inflicted on him.
“How long did it feel to you?” he asked.
“Like one second to the next. I was gone, and then I was back. There was no white light to lead me on, no gateway, just a space of time that I can’t recall, but Iknowit passed.”
