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Landing with a thud behind the dark soul, I latch my fingers onto his jacket and yank him away, sending him crashing into the wall. Raven gasps and screams, trying to run for her life, her body bloody and bruised, and the light of her soul twisting with a darkness that wants to devour her.
The ground rumbles with the growing shadow, and Kase charges into the alleyway in his wrathful form, his huge body towering over mine as he races to grab Raven.
“You can’t have her, Micah!” he shouts, his guttural voice growling through the air.
A shadow streaks across the ground, and I charge faster toward Raven. If either of them gets to her first, there will be nothing I can do.
“Raven, please! Let me help you!” I yell, pushing off the ground to fly the rest of the distance to her.
I grind my teeth, facing Kase head on just like the day he turned his back on the Higher Power. The same day I took his wings.
I will take this beautiful soul from him too.
Nothing can stop me.
Chapter 13
Saving Grace
RAVEN
“RAVEN, FIGHT HIM!” Kase hollers as he snarls and charges toward me in his hellish form.
My mind is clouded with fear from being left at the mercy of Micah. I knew what the plan was. I knew that things would get scary. But I can’t help wondering how far Kase and Dante would’ve let things go if Micah hadn’t intervened. Our ideas of what’s fucked up are obviously nowhere near aligned.
I squeeze my eyes shut, my body refusing to do anything as Micah and Kase rush at each other with me in the middle. I could very well get torn apart in a battle of who will leave with me.
A cool arm hooks around my waist, dragging me from the ground. Roaring, Kase yells for Dante to grab me. My hair and torn dress whip in the freezing wind, and I force my eyes to open despite my burning tears.
Micah dangles me in one muscular arm, flying higher and higher into the air. My stomach twists with fear. I’ve never even flown on a plane before, and this is far more terrifying than I could ever imagine. If Micah drops me, I’m dead.
But I might be dead anyways.
He was supposed to intervene and save me from a trip to Hell, and in doing so, prove he was willing to endanger the greater good on my behalf. This whole fucked up plan was to get under his skin and get him to change his course enough to fall from the grace of the Higher Power, and not for him to kidnap and fly away with me.
“Micah! Let my pretty soul go or I’ll tear off your damn wings myself!” Dante’s deep voice reverberates through my body as he soars above us, his expansive black wings shadowing me from the sun. “She’s been marked by Lucian. You can’t change that.”
Micah tightens his hold on me and drops a few dozen feet. My stomach feels as if it flies in my throat, and I open and close my mouth in a scream that doesn’t come. The world spins and flips and drops, my mind unable to keep up with the aerial acrobatics Micah performs to avoid Dante. I feel so utterly helpless at his mercy, and I can’t stand it.
Dante growls from above us and nose dives, falling like a speeding missile on course to detonate. Micah swings me up and against his chest, giving me no choice but to cling onto him if I don’t want to plummet who knows how far—thousands of feet at least. The air around me stings my skin from the icy cold, and it hurts to breathe normally.
“Don’t let go of me, heathen. I’m not going to hurt you, but your soul keeper will. He doesn’t have any regard for your life and eternity like I do.” Micah’s voice drifts through my mind, igniting a strange wave of calming relief through me.
“Raven! Fight him! I’ll catch you,” Dante yells, darting past us as Micah dodges out of the way. “I can’t go where he plans to take you. Please, you have to fight! I’m not ready for you to go to Hell just yet. Fight!”
Micah flaps his wings, shooting us upward. “He’s lying. He doesn’t care whether you live or die. He will torture your soul regardless. It’s what he does. It’s why he stood by and did nothing as the dark soul hurt you.”
So many thoughts spin through my mind. I knew Dante and Kase were willing to risk my life because they knew they’d get my soul regardless, but I want to believe there is more to it. They know Micah. He was once their brethren. Deep down, they had faith in his inability to see harm come to me, but does it change the fact that there was no guarantee that it’d work? I have no fucking idea. There are only two things I know for certain about my existence, and my deal with Lucian and my Hell-bound soul are the only things I can truly count on to happen. It sucks, but it is what it is. I shouldn’t be so conflicted about anything else.
“Raven, damn it!” Dante shouts again from below. “Fight! Let go!”
Dante ascends, stretching his arms to try to grab Micah’s boots. Folding in his wings, Micah surprises Dante by freefalling instead of flying higher. I don’t get a chance to convince myself to risk falling to my death to escape, because Micah summons a ball of bright light into his palm. Micah chucks it at Dante, hitting him in the chest. Dante hollers, letting the strange light eating at his flesh push him to fight harder. He flaps his wings and yanks Micah’s leg, sending the two of us spinning in the air.
I scream and cling on to Micah, my survival instincts not allowing me to let him go. Micah twists his body as we freefall a dozen feet and manages to throw his flaming sword at Dante, sinking it into his wing. My heart plummets into my stomach as fire ignites across Dante’s black feathers. He roars in anger and pain, twisting to try to get the flaming sword from his skin. I watch is shock and fear at his inability to keep flight.
“Dante!” I yell, stretching my hand out in disbelief.
From Micah’s arms, I watch Dante fall until Micah shifts me, not allowing me to see the rest of his descent.
