Page 43 of Fated Angel

“It says that if I release the Spear, no one will be harmed. If I don’t, they’ll destroy the academy and everyone in it.” Gabby is breathless, fear making her eyes well up. “Will it really come down to saving my friends or saving the world?”

“No, it won't. Because they’re all about to be wiped from existence by a badass angel and her devoted demon.” Colt folds her against his chest, lightly squeezing her. “We have the Spear, and the whole word to fight for. They don’t stand a chance.”

“Let me show you the plan,” Blaise says, waving them over to a table covered in maps and floor plans of the school.

Colt and Gabby follow, hand in hand, and look at the map as Blaise points to the school.

“They have the whole place warded, no one can get in or out. As far as we can tell, they have the students and teachers locked up here, in the gymnasium.” Blaise sets her hand on the gymnasium where Colt taught Gabby how to fight.

Gabby squeezes Colt’s hand as she listens, and Colt runs his thumb over the back of her hand comfortingly. They both have good memories all over that school. The thought of losing it, of losing the people inside, has them both silent in thought.

“We should find a way to lure them away from the academy,” Gabby says, her voice strong. “Tease them, maybe? Say…” she trails off not sure what to do from there.

“What if we tell them I switched sides?” Colt suggests. “That I’ve got you held prisoner somewhere and that I’ll give them the Spear myself, for a price.”

“I don’t know,” Gabby says hesitantly, but a clap from Blaise draws their attention and cuts her off mid-sentence.

“That’s brilliant! Just a thing a demon would do, no offense, so it’s believable! This could work! But what would you want?”

“What every demon wants, to live. I’ll say if they take Gabby and I with them, if they let us live after the world is reshaped, I’ll give them the Spear.”

“A sacrifice of true love!” Sierra sighs, her eyes sparkling as she looks at the pair of them.

“Colt, I—” Gabby takes a deep breath, pulling him to the side and away from the other women as they start planning everything out.

“Angel, I know,” Colt whispers, pulling her behind a chimney and hugging her close. The semi privacy sends a thrill through him, and maybe it’s the thought of impending death or the excitement of battle, but he can’t hold himself back. He tilts Gabby’s face towards his and kisses her lightly on the lips.

“Whatever happens, I want to be in your arms in the end,” Gabby whispers against his lips, eyes fluttering closed.

“Always. It’s where you belong.” He stills, realizing the question he’s been wanting to ask for what feels like forever is now demanding to be spoken. That this moment is one he has to grasp. “When this is over… Gabby, when this is over, will you marry me?” Colt stills, waiting for her answer with trepidation.

Gabby’s shoulders shudder, and when she looks up at him again, a single tear drops from her eye. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been surer about anything in my long, long life. I lived so many years, and it wasn’t until I found you that I knew all this time and torture and loneliness was for a reason. My reward was waiting for me in the form of my most dire enemy, an angel. Now all I want is to spend my life with you. From this day until our last day.”

“Even if this day is our last day?”

“Especially if this day is our last day,” Colt smiles, holding his hand out between them. A flash of hellfire forms in his palm, and then darkness pools between his fingers and centers in the middle. “Celestial fire, my angel?” he whispers.

Gabby closes her hand over his and releases the slightest burst of celestial fire so it doesn’t scald him. When she lifts her hand away, a twist of smoke curls up, revealing a band of twined black and gold, with a sparkling diamond in the middle. It’s round, small, but it makes Gabby’s eyes light up with delight.

“The darkness of Hell, brimstone and lava,” Colt says, tracing the twisted black part of the ring. “The light of Heaven, bright and brilliant, like you…”

“And the diamond?” Gabby asks, breathless.

“Forged under cosmic Armageddon-level pressure, bonded by our love.”

“Yes!”

“Yes?” Colt’s not sure he heard her right, and his heart is ready to burst.

“Yes! I will marry you!”

17

Gabby

Colt gently, but oh-so-surely slips the ring on Gabby’s finger. She gazes at it in wonder. How can today be the most amazing one of her life?

---