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“Raven.” I’m not even sure if I’ve said her name out loud, but bright light consumes me, and tingles prickle across my skin. The pain melts away, leaving behind a vision of Raven. But not as the woman I know. She is the woman I once knew. Grace.
Am I dead? No. If I were dead, I’d wake up surrounded in flames. This vision is a memory. A peek at what Heaven was for me in another life.
A smile lights Grace’s beautiful face. “Elias, you gave me quite the fright. Are you well?”
I don’t respond. I can’t. Her beauty, love, and light entrance me just as it had the day I laid my eyes on her, crying alone in the rain at the gravesite of her lost Hope, her little sister, a young woman taken by the travesty of Scarlet Fever. Grace’s prayers called to me in such a way I couldn’t ignore. I stood over her, expanding my wings, protecting her from the rain in her moment of grief that wouldn’t let me leave her.
“Elias, my angel?” Grace’s eyes sheen over.
Still, I can’t reply.
Light engulfs Grace, and I jerk my arms up, trying to catch her before the saviors steal her away. A surprised yelp sounds through the air. I blink in confusion, staring at Raven lying beneath me. My hands press into the tan carpet on each side of her head as I orient myself to what’s happening. She clutches the front of my shirt in her fingers, keeping space between us.
“Elias, damn it. You scared the shit out of me. I thought you just died.” Raven crinkles her nose, looking so breathtaking as she stares up at me.
The déjà vu hits me in full force as a dozen more memories click together. And this time, the knowledge comes with more than just facts. It comes with the all-consuming truth of who she is to me. How her soul matches mine, kissed by the essence of the heavenly power I once had.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur, my mind now ultra-aware that I’m between her legs with our bodies touching. The intimacy turns me on, and my cock throbs, knowing how close it is to the sexiest woman in the universe. Of all time. “I’m not doing so good. My demonic soul keeper was right. I’m running out of time.”
“We will get you out of this before that happens,” she says, blinking until the sheen disappears from her eyes.
I force myself to roll off Raven and lie on the floor beside her. “I need to be prepared in case. I just...”
She shifts and rests on her elbow, staring at me in silence without prodding for me to finish my comment. Her messy hair veils her face, but I can still see her endless eyes capturing mine through her midnight tresses. I resist the urge to push the strands out of her face again, sensing she needs the protection from me as much as I need it from her. Because if I can see her clearly, peer right into her soul, I know I’ll do something stupid. I’ll kiss her and steal her away from her soul keepers. The persistent memories that spin through my mind make it hard to think of anything else.
There has to be another way to help her that doesn’t involve the devils. If I can break my contract with Vincent on my own, it’ll buy me a tiny bit of time to figure things out. My soulmate doesn’t deserve this fate. She’s at the mercy of Hell because of me.
If I could just get her away...
I sigh, shaking my head, knowing that if I draw out the silence any longer that I’ll lose my nerve. This might be my only chance to be alone with her again because I don’t even know if tomorrow will even come for me.
“Raven,” I finally say, testing to see if she lets me cover her hand with mine. “If I die before you get things—”
“Don’t.” She scoots closer and touches my cheek. “My devils won’t let that happen. They won’t.”
“You can’t truly know that, darlin’. As much as I hate raining on your flame of hope, I have to. I have a dying request.” I wet my lips with my tongue. “If I die before things get handled, will you ensure to return my body to my family? I want them to handle my burial. Your soul keepers might throw me in the trash or something, and I want my family to know what happened.”
“I would never allow such a thing,” Raven says, her eyes widening. “But I understand, and I will humor your request even though it won’t be necessary.”
I nod, remaining expressionless. “I wish I could see them, you know. They’re probably assuming the worst.” I feel guilty as fuck to bring this up, using Raven’s concern for me like this, but I can’t help it. These memories blooming in my mind get to me. I can’t just sit back and watch as her soul keepers steal her away from me. She’s my soulmate. That must count for something, even if our history isn’t all unicorn farts and confetti rain showers.
“You’re lucky you have family who cares for you. Mine hasn’t answered my calls in months. They wouldn’t even care if I died.” She lowers her voice with her words and averts her eyes to gaze at my hand resting on hers.
I grimace at her admission. “I’m sure that’s not true.”
She shrugs. “It is. They hated my ex-fiancé and disowned me because of it. I should’ve listened to their warnings. I just—I don’t know how to explain it.”
Sorrow sinks into me, and I can’t help wondering what our lives would’ve been like had the Higher Power not used time and death to keep us apart. Would I have found her sooner? Remembered on my own? Would it have been possible for us to have a normal life? I wish I knew.
“But whatever,” she adds, bumping her shoulder against mine. “It doesn’t matter. It also gives me a thought. What if I convinced Kase and Dante to allow you one more visit to see your family?”
I clench my jaw, both loving and hating how I predicted how her thought-process would work. She has an angelic soul with a devil streak, but in the end, she’s always been mortal.
“A favor like that comes at a cost I can’t afford and definitely would never ask you to pay,” I respond, meeting her eyes again. Call me a selfish bastard, but I need this. I need her. The strange innate desire inside me won’t allow anything else otherwise. This same need might have been the same reason I abandoned grace.
“There isn’t a price for anything, Elias. Trust me. Let me talk to them. I’ll get it worked out.” Raven’s expression lights up, a wicked grin widening her smile.
And damn it. She is sexy as sin.
