I didn’t argue with him, but my head finally turned toward the sound as I watched him stalk down the tunnel. Caim walked with him, but Raphael remained standing a few feet away from me.
I watched Wrath’s flames until they vanished, and we were plunged into darkness. Behind me, Raphael shifted, and his feathers ruffled. I sensed he had something to say, but neither of us spoke.
Then, from out of the darkness, Wrath’s flames bounced off the rocky walls. His fire danced across the statues, and as he passed one of the statues, it began to crumble, and a demon’s hand clawed its way out of the gold casing.
My heart bruised my ribs as I spun back to Fiora. Kneeling before her, I grasped her hands and held them in mine while I breathlessly waited for her to emerge.
Please.
The statue beside her remained completely still, while gold flecks fell away from Fiora’s black hair. Its silken strands, which fell to her ass, were freed before the gold flaked away from her forehead and eyes. Green eyes, the same shade as mine, blinked before widening on me.
I sensed her desperation to break free, but the gold still covered her mouth and the rest of her body. Then the casing disintegrated beneath my palms, and her hands seized mine. She hugged me as tears pooled in her eyes before spilling free.
I didn’t realize I was crying too until some of the cool drops landed on my thighs. I ignored their wetness sliding down my skin as my sister inhaled her first breath in centuries. Then she was in my arms, and we were clinging to each other as we sobbed and talked over each other and laughed and cried some more.
A few minutes passed before she stiffened in my arms and whispered in my ear in demonish, “Bale, there are angels behind you.”
I laughed as I hugged her closer. “It’s okay; those two are on our side. We speak the human English language around them, so they understand us. It’s become our main language in this foreign land. We have alotto catch up on.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Bale
When Fiora feltsteady enough to walk, we left the caves and the demons behind. Caim and Raphael flew Fiora and me to shore before Caim returned for Wrath. The horseman looked as irritated at being carried by Caim as the angel looked delighted to do it.
Wrath scowled, and Caim grinned from ear to ear before releasing him while he was still a few feet in the air. Flames briefly danced across Wrath’s hands before he doused them. I had a feeling he’d choke the angel if he could get his hands on him, but Caim’s laughter simply trailed behind him as he soared into the wood.
Outside of the caves, my nudity started to affect me as snow crunched beneath my bare feet and the cold air created goose bumps all over my flesh.
Before leaving the caves, we’d contemplated going to Wrath’s cavern to get some of his clothes. However, with more demons emerging from their shells, we decided it was best to leave sooner rather than later, especially since we didn’t know if Death and Pride were around or if they planned to return soon.
Fiora’s teeth chattered as she hugged herself and stared at her new world in awe. I kept an arm around her waist and helped her walk through the snow as her legs were weak from years of not being used. She was growing stronger with every passing minute, and once she fed, I had a feeling she would recover fast.
Raphael flew ahead to alert the others they’d found us, and Zorn emerged from the trees only minutes after we made it to shore. The horse nickered when he spotted Wrath and pranced toward him. Zorn circled Wrath as he ran his hand over the horse’s flesh and grinned at him while talking to him in low, soothing tones.
My heart swelled as I watched the two of them. They were like children as Zorn danced around him and Wrath turned to follow. Caim looked on with raised eyebrows. Fiora was too busy studying her new surroundings to notice the big bad horseman and his horse playing in the snow like children.
Once the two of them settled down, Wrath offered to let Fiora ride Zorn, but she shook her head as she stared at him with a mixture of curiosity and dread. She hadn’t known the horsemen in Hell, but we’d all heard stories of the chaos and damage they unleashed before they were sealed away.
Although, after watching Zorn and Wrath together, I would have believed those stories were all made up. He didn’t seem like such a big evil monster when his black eyes were twinkling and happiness and cold flushed his face.
No, he seemed like something far more dangerous as something inside me shifted and twisted and… and…loved. I shoved that ridiculous notion aside as I tried to get a grip on my roiling emotions.
Between Fiora’s return and Wrath’s… well, his adorableness, I was too emotional to think rationally, which was something Ineverbelieved would happen to me. But it had, and I wasn’t going to try to figure everything out until I had a better grip on myself.
When Wrath offered to let me ride Zorn, I refused. I preferred to walk with my sister while he walked beside me. Fiora’s gaze traveled continuously to the bites on my neck, but she didn’t comment as she revealed what happened to her through chattering teeth.
I learned she was aware of everything going on around her throughout all the centuries spent within her golden tomb.
“I think I went a little insane in the beginning,” she whispered, and I had to strain to hear her over the wind howling through the mountains and trees and whipping the snow around us. “I remember screaming and screaming and screaming but nothing happening.”
When my hands fisted, Wrath settled his palm on the small of my back and drew me a step closer to him.
“And then, I think I shut down. I’d wake up or come to or whatever sometimes, but I mostly slipped away.”
“Hibernated,” I said.
She gave me a tremulous smile. “Yeah, I hibernated. It was all I could do, because when I was awake and aware of my surroundings, the screaming would start again. I came out of it a little when the horsemen moved into Eldorata, but then I slipped away again… until I saw you kneeling before me. I started screaming again for you to kill me, to set me free, but you couldn’t hear me….” She turned away to focus on the snowy terrain. “No one could hear me.”
