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“Oh, fuck. What’s happening?” Panic rises through me. I search over Elias for signs of injury but don’t see anything.
“Dante, take him. Go now. Get him as far as you can,” Kase commands, using the wings to point.
I find myself stumbling toward Kase as Dante snatches Elias from Micah and launches into the air.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, steadying myself. I tip my head back and stare at the sky, watching Dante’s silhouette shrink with the distance growing between us.
“His essence recognizes his wings,” Kase says. He shakes the gross wings. “We have to destroy them.”
Summoning their devil forms again, Micah and Kase crack the ground open in front of me. Heat radiates from the open portal to Hell. I hug my arms over my chest, rocking nervously at the whispery voices humming from the fiery pit.
Together, Kase and Micah scorch the severed wings and toss them into Hell.
I heave a breath, a sharp pain in my chest winding me.
My soul aches.
So does my body.
It’s like my essence is stolen away from me and succumbs to Hell with the destruction of Elias’s wings.
Lifting me up, Micah cradles me in his arms. All I can do is stare at the sky, letting the whirlwind of emotions rage through me. Andre’s light glows around me, and I tip my head back and stare at him as he watches me with the hunters pleading at his feet.
My devils take me away.
Chapter 17
Fallen
RAVEN
I HOVER IN the doorway of Elias’s room. Darkness shrouds his figure asleep in his bed, but I can’t get myself to leave him alone. Kase, Dante, and Micah remain downstairs in the living room, discussing things that make my stomach twist.
I should leave Elias alone to rest. He’s been weak and fatigued for two days now. I know it’s best to let him be while we work on finding Vincent, but I can’t seem to get myself to head to Micah’s room to wait for him. Another part of me needs to close the space to Elias to prove to myself he’s still breathing. So that’s what I do.
I ease down on the edge of the bed and carefully rest my hand on his chest. It rises with a shallow breath, and I can’t stop my eyes from watering. How is it possible for me to feel so sad for Elias despite the short amount of time we’ve known each other...in this life? At first, I worried about what his state meant for me, but now? I’ve already grown used to having him around. It’s the strangest thing how familiar his presence alone feels. With him sleeping and the quiet of the world surrounding us, I can focus on just being here with him. How his heart beats beneath my palm and his body seemingly relaxes under my touch.
I don’t know what comes over me, but the urge to sneak into his bed and just snuggle next to him while he sleeps consumes me. It’s such a creep move, and I would punch him if he tried to climb into my bed while I slept. I can’t help myself though. I want to support him the only way I know how, especially after discovering the man he treated like a father was a ghost possessing a mortal, imprisoning the innocent soul all to use Elias in this life.
Curling on my side, I scoot closer to Elias, curling against his side. My movements stir him awake, but he doesn’t freak out and yell at me. He doesn’t get into defensive fighting mode or anything like I expect. All he does is shift his arm away from his side and lets me rest on the crook of his arm while he hugs it around me.
“Everything okay?” he murmurs, his eyelids heavy with sleep. “We’re not under attack by a demonic army or anything, right?”
I smirk and shake my head, drawing my finger across the front of his shirt. “My devils are currently devising plans and shit. Demonic affairs. I figured I’d check on you and...I don’t know why I’m here.”
Elias grazes his fingers up and down my arm. “I don’t need a reason. It doesn’t matter to me, Raven. I’m happy you did. It means that maybe I haven’t fucked everything completely up. I never wanted any of that bullshit to happen, especially with you there. I just—I screwed up. I was selfish.”
I frown, puckering my eyebrows. “You didn’t know.”
Turning over, he faces me, his eyes searching my face in the dimly lit room. “Every time I sit and think, fragmented memories of Grace return to me.”
“What does this have to do with anything?” I rest my head on his pillow, sharing his minty breath, fresh from brushing his teeth. Cigarette smoke faintly lingers on his clothes, but it doesn’t bother me, the familiarity of his smoky, citrusy scent soothes the worry digging deep into my soul.
Wrinkles crease his forehead with his frown. “It has everything to do with it. I asked you to take me to the hunters because I thought that maybe...I want—no, I need—to figure out how to keep us both safe. You carry a piece of me, and I feel it. It’s strange and fucking terrifying. I just—I don’t even know, Raven. Like I said, I fucked up. I’m selfish. I hate relying on demons, but even more so, it rips me open on a deeper level knowing that they get a part of my essence through you.”
“Oh.” I don’t know what else to say. How to feel. “Elias...”
“Raven, I know I don’t have the right to ask anything of you, but I have to know. If you could change things, would you? If there was a way out of Hell’s clutches, would you take it?” Elias grazes his fingers along my jawline, combing the strands of midnight hair falling into my face. His question sounds so sincere, his face full of emotion I don’t recognize.
