Page 54 of Grave Revelations

Hang on, Light.

He pressed down, forcing essence into her too-thin frame.

Rebecca swallowed, drinking his life force down. Her eyelids fluttered, wounds along her abdomen and chest sealing closed. Ten creatures charged him, and Azazel erased them with half a thought. They were the worst army she could have sent after him—soulless creatures with no will of their own.

Only free will could stand against his might. Only the ability to choose was a weapon against one such as him. And now that he had damned himself for all eternity, he would stop at nothing to keep her alive for however long her body would allow it.

Rebecca sucked in a sharp breath, coughing violently.

Spying an aged, cracked box in the room’s corner, he scooped it up, cradling Rebecca against his chest, and darted out of the cave.

Behind him, walls crumbled in on themselves, blocking the creature's path and crushing any who dared to follow.

Azazel broke free, soaring into the night, and chased the moon across the sky. Rebecca twisted in his arm, squirming to get closer to him as he flew.

The sun greeted them when he touched down on a thick blanket of snow outside a four-story mansion on a sprawling countryside estate. It peeked over the horizon, brimming along a white landscape cascading off sparkling treetops.

He moved to the front door, thinking of the pattern to unlock it, and it clicked twice before swinging wide. A blaring alarm made Rebecca twitch in his embrace, and he silenced it with a thought. He carried her up the stairs, into the room painted in shades of pink, and laid her gently on a multi-colored throw.

Setting the box down in the room's corner, Azazel returned to her side, slicing his wrist once more. Lifting his arm to her lips, he brushed a curl back from her battered face.You must drink it, Light.

Her brows furrowed in that lovely way they did when she was prepared to argue, but her eyes never opened, and her throat moved as she swallowed moreof his blood. When the cut sealed, he wiped the last drops of golden blood from her lips and pressed a gentle kiss to them.

“Gabriel,” she breathed.

Rebecca’s cheeks flushed a lovely shade of pink in the warm room, and her skin was already beginning to look brighter. Her eyes were sealed, dark lashes pinned together, and a smile quirked the edge of his mouth.

She dreamed of him.

His chest seized at the thought. It wasn’thim; she dreamed of the seraph who had selflessly protected her. The one who gave her as many chances at life as her father’s twisted magic would allow, even knowing it meant he would not have her by his side.

Some desperate part of him had always hoped—believed—he could be that seraph again, fall at his father’s feet and beg for forgiveness for his place in Alaxia.

That hope was gone now. He’d forever sealed his fate when he accepted his place as a ruler of Primoria, squarely setting himself against his father in the coming war. And with his and Mahazael’s change in allegiance, the war was all but imminent.

His only hope now was to keep Rebecca alive. She had to survive; to do that, she must awaken her seraph side.

Chapter 36

Rebecca

Rebecca blinked, searing heat burning her chest. She opened her eyes, staring up at a ceiling she’d seen more than a thousand times.Home.

Was she dead?

If this was Heaven, she was going to be pissed. She’d spent her whole damn life in Bath, North Carolina. If she were stuck there for her afterlife, too, she’d be writing a letter to her nearest representative in complaint.

A dark chuckle sent a chill up her spine.

She knew that chuckle, and it wouldn’t be in Heaven. She turned her gaze to the left, a sharp pain behind her eyes pinching her eyebrows together.

Azazel’s glowering face stared back at her.

That wasn’t right. He’d just been laughing.

Not in Heaven. Never… Heaven.

Oh. She stared down at her hands. He wasn’t touching her. How was she hearing his thoughts?

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