She shouldn’t be dead. There’d been no Death Angel.
But Jade was still and quiet in his arms. Her heart didn’t beat. No air swept into her lungs.
Had the angel just come and claimed her too swiftly? Had he been so blinded by his grief that he’d missed that desperate moment? The scent of flowers was so strong in this wretched place. So many angels had been there. Were still there?
Tanner was alive. Az’s rage focused on the shifter who’d sent him on the wrong path. Why did Tanner still live? Why?
Why was anyone alive? If Jade couldn’t live . . .
Deep crevices opened beneath his feet. More tombs shattered.
“You had her for a little while. That will have to be enough,” Sam said as he backed away a few steps. His face was tight, his eyes staring at Az with—fear?
He should be afraid. Everyone should. Az wasn’t going to let her be taken from him.
The rage and grief tore through him. Brandt had broken her beautiful neck. In one, fast, brutal instant, Brandt took her from me. Az swallowed and tasted hate. “Is the time you have with Seline . . . enough?”
His brother flinched. “No.”
“Then get me that crossroads spirit.” The fury was breaking through. Fire burst beside him, racing right over the graves and scorching the ground. He tilted back his head and glared up at the starlight sky. “Bastion!”
“You can’t call back the dead.” This came from Tanner. Az pinned him with a scathing stare. The shifter swallowed and straightened his shoulders. “Even you aren’t that strong. It hurts, I know, but you have to let her go.”
He didn’t want to let her go. “I . . . need her.” She was so slight in his arms.
Why were his cheeks wet?
His gaze fell to her once more. “I-I love her.” Love. A human emotion. But a human had slipped into his heart. Now that human was breaking his heart.
Was this his true punishment? For all the sins he had committed, was this the end he’d been fated to receive?
Don’t take her. Please.
She should live. Be happy. Be free.
You aren’t that strong. Tanner’s words echoed in his ears. The shifter was right. He wasn’t strong. Without Jade, he was weak.
The angels should have known that. They should have taken better care . . .
Wind whipped against his cheeks. The scent of flowers teased his nose. The angel had heeded his call. Az kept his eyes on Seline and simply said, “Give her back.”
“I tried to tell you what was coming.” No emotion shadowed Bastion’s voice. “I am sorry, Azrael. But this was meant to be.”
The words drifted in and out of his head. Jade’s face had bleached of color and raindrops began to fall on her face. Rain, from a cloudless sky. But thunder was rumbling. Lightning flashing across the heavens.
Power leaked from him. Holding her with one arm, he raised his gun and aimed it at Bastion. He still had two bullets left in the chamber. “Bring her back or see what it’s like to die.” His head pounded and the scream echoing in his mind just wouldn’t end. That scream—it was Jade’s voice. Jade calling his name, over and over. She wanted him to help her.
Jade.
Flashes flew through his mind, images of her.
Jade . . . smiling at him.
Kissing him.
I . . . wasn’t using you, Az. I was loving you.
And he’d been loving her, but he’d just been too blind and foolish to realize it sooner.
“I can’t,” Bastion said, almost sounding regretful. “It’s too late. She’s gone—”
The screams in his mind grew louder. Jade is calling me. Az fired. The bullet burned right through Bastion’s chest. “If she’s dead, then so are you.”
A howling filled his ears, blending with the chaos of the screams. The fires around him flared higher, hotter, destroying everything in sight.
“Azrael!” Sam’s horrified yell tore through the blaze. “What have you done?”
Smoke drifted from the hole in Bastion’s chest. “He took her.” Az knew he had. Bastion had been close the whole time. And when Jade’s neck had broken . . . “He took her from me—took her, when I’d just found her!” A woman who could love the darkest of the angels.
Gone.
Sam stood behind the line of blazing fire. “You’re out of control. You need to—”
Az aimed the gun at him. “I told you to summon the witch.” Angels couldn’t help him. Rule followers. But the witch . . . Mateo followed no one’s rules. He’d cheat death.