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It felt like an eternity before his lids lifted, revealing his beautiful green eyes. I pulled his head to my chest, holding him there while I tried to keep back the tide of emotions that was trying to overwhelm me.
He was alive. He was going to be fine. I had to believe that. The alternative was unthinkable.
Nate collapsed into me, his arms wrapping around my waist. “I love you,” he whispered.
The air caught in my throat, and everything stilled around me. Nate loved me. I’d known that in my heart, but hearing him admit it still felt huge.
He sighed, and I felt his breath against my chest. “I love you,” he repeated. “I know I’m not free to give my heart away, but all the same, it’s yours.”
My own heart felt like it was breaking. After everything we’d been through in the past twenty-four hours—no, the past couple ofmonths—it felt like we deserved all the pain and fear to be over. Instead, we were lying broken on the floor of a warehouse hundreds of miles from home with zero promises of a happily-ever-after.
I stroked a hand through Nate’s hair as best I could with the handcuffs still around my wrists. “I love you too.”
He let out a breath, and I felt his arms slacken around me. His chest rose and fell steadily, and his body relaxed.
I was tempted to panic that he wouldn’t open his eyes again, but I couldn’t bring myself to try to wake him and bring him back to a world of pain. I shifted so his head was resting in my lap and continued to run my fingers through his hair. I wasn’t sure what else to do. I was terrified of touching his back or moving him at all really.
The gashes had stopped pouring blood, but they still looked bad. Golden blood was all over his back and the floor. Nate’s beautiful wings lay on the ground on either side of him. I couldn’t even look at them without feeling the need to vomit.
I squeezed my eyes shut against the memory of Nate’s screams when Dantalion had cut off his wings.
Keeping them closed, I started to pray.
Thank you for protecting us. I know I couldn’t have done any of this without You. And I know that I have no right to ask for anything more, but I don’t know what to do. I can’t lose him. Please. Help me. Helpus. This can’t all have been for nothing. I love him, Lord. Doesn’t that count for something?
I don’t know how much time passed while we sat there. All the smoke from the demons had cleared, as if they’d never been there at all.
Eventually I heard a pounding at the large garage-style door that took up most of the wall to our right. I thought I heard someone curse, and then the banging stopped.
Less than a minute later, footsteps came pounding down the stairs Nate had entered from earlier.
I looked up to see Samuel. I was momentarily stunned by the sight of him. He was shirtless, showing off a body just as ripped as Nate’s, and a pair of silver wings spread from his back. They were beautiful in a totally different way than Nate’s wings were. Samuel’s glowed softly, and it almost hurt to look at them. While Nate looked dangerous with his wings out, Samuel looked… regal.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered, taking in the sight before him. His face twisted with grief, and he shook his head.
The sight of his sorrow broke whatever shield I’d put up between myself and my emotions. Tears started streaming uncontrollably down my cheeks, and my whole body shuddered, fighting the need to break down and sob.
“Hey.” Samuel knelt beside me. “Talk to me. What happened?”
I took a deep breath and told him what happened from the moment I’d spoken to him on the phone in the airport to stabbing Dantalion with Nate’s knife.
“How could I use the knife? Nate said it was deadly to humans.”
“It is,” Samuel said. “But you’re not entirely human at the moment. You’re sharing your body with a partially angelic being.”
I glanced down at my perfectly flat stomach. It was still baffling to me that I was already pregnant and that every angel and demon I encountered seemed to be able to tell. The idea that my baby was already strong enough to allow me to wield knives infused with heavenly fire was a whole new level of amazing.
Samuel turned his attention to Nate and let out a long sigh. “This is going to be a pain in the ass,” he muttered. “You just had to go and lose your wings.”
I gasped in horror. How could he act so callous about this?
“Relax, darling, they’ll grow back. It’ll take a while and be uncomfortable as fuck, but he’ll be fine.”
“Your sympathy is overwhelming.” Nate groaned, blinking his eyes open.
“It’s not my job to coddle you. My job is to get you two out of here, and I don’t have a car because I was operating under the assumption that you could fly.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
