Page 65 of Light

Jophiel’s eyes met hers. “He is fighting, but even he cannot fight so many.”

A jolt of fear shot through her. He was immortal, wasn’t he? He couldn’t be killed. That was what he had told her, but...

“I have a plan,” Jophiel said.

Adalaide listened, shaking her head every time the plan became more absurd. “What makes you think she would fall for that?”

“The amulet is what she truly wants. It is the only thing keeping her from returning to her analogous umbra. She would do anything to reclaim it.”

“She could send a demon.”

“For a prize this great, she would come for it herself.”

Adalaide stood, shaking out some of her nerves. Was she prepared to die? She had been before Gabriel had given her hope. But Jophiel was right. What world was she leaving for her sons when Sanura’s army might soon overrun it?

“I’ll take the boys to my cousin and give this one shot.” She stared down her nose at the angel who was looking at her solemnly. “If it doesn’t work, we will never speak of it again.”

She packed her bags quickly, tucking the leather journal and the real amulet into a bag filled with the boy’s things.

She packed their favorite stories, which she read to them each night, and the soft pink blanket they fought over while they listened. She loaded them into their bassinet and stuffed her overnight bag into a carriage, and they set off for Oxford.

When she safely deposited her sons in her cousin’s care, giving her step-by-step instructions and explaining she would be back in a fortnight, she departed, feeling a wholly new kind of ache in her chest.

She hoped she would see her sweet boys again, but if she couldn’t, she would leave the world a better place for them.

Hope had been reawoken in her, something she never dreamed she’d feel again.

Chapter 41

Gabriel

Gabriel grabbed his chest, sinking into the mud. Night-beings fell on him, biting and tearing, some ripping his wings. They were nothing. They were the biting of ants.

His chest had been torn in two. A deep, aching emptiness gutted him, just like the day half his soul had been torn from his body.

Chamuel, or one of his other siblings, pulled the nasdaqu-ush off him, yanking him up. Someone wrapped an arm around his waist, and then he was back in Alaxia, the pain receding but not gone.

Hands pressed to his wings, his neck, his back and arms.

He sucked in a sharp breath gasping as he sat up. Then he was running, running to the gates to welcome her, to claim her. He stopped just inside and watched, waiting for them to swing wide. Dina landed beside him.

The anger and pain he’d felt over her betrayal was replaced with such joy.

She was coming home. His light would be there soon.

Charmuel and Mary met them at the gates. A dozen others arrived, all circling him.

He glanced around nervously. What if she rejected him? What if she chose to rest with the human souls rather than remain with him in her seraph form?

He darted a nervous glance at Mary. “Where is Raphael?”

Her gaze slid to the gates where Raphael normally stood watch and back to him. “I am unsure.”

Gabriel’s fingers traced absently over his chest. The pain of her dying had been more terrible than he’d expected. A wrenching at their soul. Surely, their soul would have warmed at the prospect of completing the bond, of coming home.

His gaze trailed over the sea of siblings who had gathered and were now murmuring to one another.

“Uriel,” he called.

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