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Adalaide watched Jophiel as she paced the room. She took another sip of water. “How am I to accomplish such a thing when he’s opposed?”

Jophiel spun to face her. “You’re not, then? You would have him?”

“I would.” The words left Adalaide’s mouth of their own accord, and she tasted their truth. She didn’t know him. Nor he her, but if there was a way to tie herself to him inexorably, she was sure she would do it.

Jophiel nodded once. “We have little time. Sanura could be back at any moment, but I have a plan.”

Chapter 21

Gabriel

Gabriel stumbled into the archway of his room, leaning against it. He was bone weary, and although the magic all seraphim possessed wiped them of dirt and grime, he had a momentary thought that a long bath would be heavenly.

He snorted. Only the sirens who ascended frolicked about in the fountains in Alaxia. He would turn the realm on its head if he splashed beside them.

“Gabriel,” Dina stopped just outside his room, sounding breathless. “I need you. Come, quickly.”

He sighed. After weeks of slaying demons, he was due a reprieve. “Not today, Dina.”

She wrapped pale fingers around his shoulders to face him. “It’s urgent.”

Something in her words made his chest constrict. She’d been caring for Adalaide while he fought her war. Her only mission of late was to see to her care. If something had happened to Adalaide… But it was what he was waiting for, wasn’t it? The thought speared pain through him.

He left the room, following at a clipped pace.

Dina reached the edge of Alaxia and dropped.

He followed, landing on the cobbled street outside Adalaide’s home and sucked in a sharp breath as a spasm of pain tore through him, nearly sending him to his knees.

He pushed past Dina, shoving the door open and darted up the stairs to Adalaide’s room, falling to her side. She was breathing, the shallow rise and fall of her chest a sign he was not too late, but dark lashes rested heavily against too-pale skin, and he could see no tint of color on her cheeks.

“What happened?”

Dina moved to stand beside him. “She was attacked by six demons at once. She was quite brave, but their poison penetrated her skin. Ultimately, she destroyed them all with her magic, but I fear it was too much. Her physical wounds are healed.” She slid back the sheets, revealing two thin scars along Adalaide’s abdomen. “But she will not wake.”

Gabriel took in her scars. The rise and fall of her stomach. The slow rhythm of her heart and, more disturbing, the faint hum of her soul, clinging to a body that had not determined its fate. His own pain had receded to a dull ache, telling him her soul was intact. But he’d felt nothing until the moment he set foot on the mortal plane.

He hadn’t felt it when she was injured. What did it mean? Terror seized him. Had she finally rejected him? Did it break their bond? No. He could feel their connection, weak though it was.

“Leave us.” He didn’t look up, didn't spare another glance at Dina. He pressed a gentle hand to Adalaide’s cool cheek. She didn’t move, and her mind was troublingly blank. “Adalaide, don’t give up.”

Her soul warmed just a fraction, and he knew it was responding to his nearness. He laid both hands on her chest, just over the place where her soul rested and whispered the healing prayer to revive her.

White light glowed under his palms, but she didn’t stir. He leaned closer, listening. Her soul hummed a quiet tune. It wasn’t singing, not the way it had when they met. It was quietly contemplating what came next.

He whispered the words again, watching as light flared under his palms. Her soul gave a pulse in response. Weak, but it gave him hope. Hope that she would come out of this.

Settling onto the bed beside her, he pressed into her, letting their bodies touch. His flicker of a soul soared at their contact, warming under his skin. He felt her soul do the same.

He slid down on the bed, leaning his head down until it rested against her cheek.

With each movement, each point of contact, her soul warmed, reviving. He draped a hand across her torso and let the gentle rhythm of their souls, syncing with one another, cherish this nearness.

“I never knew I could want to share a part of my being with another. I was certain that the day I met the thief who had stolen it, I would want nothing more than to rip it from them and take back what was mine.” He lifted his head, checking to be sure she had not spontaneously awoken to hear his confession.

“I waited thousands of years for the day. I prepared to reunite with my soul in a joyous act and rid myself of the human who sought to take something that did not belong to them.

“These were the dark, insidious thoughts that kept me from the very act. I see it now so clearly.

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