Page 102 of Sleeping Redemption
Once Sylas tumbled off to the side, she didn’t hesitate to stand and step on his chest as she turned her predatory focus on us.
The nerves started to ratchet up inside me, and I couldn’t hide them from my voice. “Rook? You want to work a little faster?”
“Bloody patience, lad,” he mumbled.
Stalking ever closer to us, Kinley spoke quietly. “You’ve made a mess of things. I knew I should have listened when I was told to let you all go. You’ve done nothing but try to tame me.”
“Angel, you know that’s not true,” I argued.
Rook continued to swish his hand this way and that. He didn’t take his eyes off Kinley as he lowered his voice just soft enough for me to hear. “Hold on tight, you’re both going back to St. Cassius.”
Before I could question him, the surroundings whirled around me until I found myself back at the top of the fateful mountain.
Standing at the summit of St. Cassius was a bit startling. Memories of the last moments of my cambion lifetime came back to me. Despite knowing all this was a fabrication courtesy of Rook, it was still unsettling.
Ahead of me was the fair-haired angel staring off the cliff of the mountainside. I came up behind her, placing my hand on her shoulder.
Kinley spun to face me, her cheeks rosy from the freezing temperature. Her eyes were as blue as the ocean was deep.
Seeing the saturation of that blue color in her eyes again warmed my heart.
Smiling at her, I reached out my hand to caress her cheek. “Angel, why are you doing this?”
“He won’t stop. He will never stop until he gets what he wants. You, of all people, should know how ruthless he is,” she explained. “He killed you.”
I shook my head at her and spoke with nothing but tenderness in my voice, “He didn’t get what he wanted. I’m still alive, aren’t I?”
Her chin quivered as she stood there staring at me, all her emotions visible in this altered state.
Taking one step closer, I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her into my chest. I brought my mouth to her ear and whispered lovingly to her. “There is always a way, even if we can’t see it in the moment. If I can make my way back to you, I have faith you can come back from all that you’ve gone through.”
Kinley pressed her face into my chest, her hands grasping onto my sides tightly.
“He’s here, I can feel him in my head.” The mental anguish was evident in how she spoke those words.
I watched as the breathtaking view of the mountaintop flickered around us, the view of the nightclub breaking through. Rook must be burning through the last of his energy, meaning we were on borrowed time now.
“Kinley, you need to stop. You’re giving him what he wants by repeating history.” I hoped my words hit home. “I swear to you, we will find a way to overcome this.”
She pulled her face away from me to look up into my eyes in an almost childlike manner.
The white of the snow began to darken around us.
The dim interior of the nightclub began to replace the snow-covered mountain.
Kinley remained in my arms as the illusion tapered off. The sapphire coloring in her eyes slowly overtook the harsh black as awareness overcame her.
She gasped as her eyes darted around, pulling out of my arms.
Rook stood behind me, his hand clutching onto the slope of my shoulder while he breathed heavily from his exertions. Glancing back at him, I could see that Sylas had an arm supporting him as well.
“I-I thought that he was here, I swore,” she whispered as she looked at the remnants of her damage on the club and several of its occupants. Her wings quickly shrank into her back upon the realization of her actions.
“Kin, it’s okay,” Sylas said as gently as I had ever heard him talk to anybody.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she almost tripped over the human remains of a young woman.
Her voice was heavy with regret as she spoke. “It’s not okay, none of it. I’m just like him.”
