Page 120 of Grave Revelations

Sanura’s screams died with her, and Rebecca pulled the lance free, dropping beside Simon and Sophia’s crumpled forms. She rested her hand on Simon’s cheek before sliding his eyes closed. He was so peaceful in death.

“I’m so sorry.”

Tears ran down her cheeks, soaking his shirt as she dropped her head against his chest. The silent stillness where a heart had only just begun to beat again, now gone forever, cleaved a new ache through her.

Rebecca lifted her head, brushed the hair back from his still face, and kissed his cheek. “I never wanted this for you.”

She found his fingers and laced them between hers, her free hand straying to his smooth brow and tracing its shape. So often, she’d seen those brows dipped low, angry at the world. Now, Simon was free of all the oppressive burdens life had thrust upon him.

Rebecca pressed another kiss to his cheek, stifling a sob, and released his hand.

Her bleary gaze moved to Sophia, brushing soft fingers over her lids and closing them. She straightened her tangled mane of hair over one shoulder, just the way Sophia liked it.

A woman dropped to her knees beside her, wailing as she said Sophia’s name over and over, and Rebecca rested her hand on Angeliki’s back. Sophia’s mother pressed a palm to either side of her daughter’s face and sobbed something incomprehensible.

“I’m sorry,” she said for the third time, hollowness settling in her chest.

Rebecca backed up, giving them space as several other women knelt beside Sophia, laying their hands on her. “Pythia,” they chanted, stroking her hair, her arms, her face.

She leaned down, tugging Simon’s limp form, trying to lift him to carry him with her, when a hand came down on her wrist.

“He was one of us. We will mourn him.”

Rebecca looked at the sea of faces, blinking back tears. One by one, they dipped their chins. “Sotiria. Sotiras,” they whispered, nodding their respect.

Simon had never found his place in life, but he would be among his people in death.

She released him, letting him fall back into their waiting arms. As with Sophia, they laid their hands on him, chanting in their language, and she backed up, wiping hot tears from her cheeks.

The earth rocked, sending Rebecca to her knees. Tearing, wrenching pain speared her heart, and she fell to the ground, clutching her chest as two dark forms tumbled over the ground, rolling to a stop several yards away.

“Noooooooooo!” she shrieked, struggling to her feet. She stumbled toward him, but the gaping hole in her chest yawned wider with each step as it pulled her down.

Azazel lay unmoving on the ground as Samael dug taloned nails into his chest.

Rebecca screamed again, raising the lance high as she charged the devil pinning her soulmate under him.

Samael looked up, grinning madly. “I’ll carve the soul from him, little Naphil, and you will feel it just as I did when you ripped my mate from me.”

He was lying. He must be. Azazel was immortal. But even as Samael said the words, Rebecca felt a terrible wrenching at the center of her being. He was tearing their bond in two, ending him.

She ran at him, swinging the lance for his side.

Samael slammed one hand down atop the earth, and it shook.

A rolling wave erupted over its surface, sending Rebecca to the ground. She jumped to her feet, raising the lance overhead. The pain in her chest doubled, and she gasped around it, charging toward him.

“Get off him!” she screamed.

Samael’s enormous hand came down again, but she was ready for it this time, sending air magic under her feet to lift her off the ground.

She swung the lance as she came down, catching the edge of his finger and embedding it in the meaty flesh there.

He tsked, raising his hand before she could pull the lance free. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he said, extracting his talons from Azazel’s chest, golden blood dripping from their sharp tips.

Rebecca’s horrified gaze shot to the gaping wound in her mate’s chest as blood poured in rivulets, running down his side into the snow. Where it fell, new life erupted from the ground, pushing through packed ice. Amethyst blooms unfurled from the earth, tipped in gold, and strained toward him, just as she did.

Az. Please wake up.

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