Chapter 36

“Raine?” Raven shouted into the phone. “Tayla?”

He squeezed the phone tightly against his ear to catch a hint of their voices. Tayla’s muffled screams ripped through his chest. A loud thud, followed by static, echoed through the earpiece. He pressed it harder against his ear and squeezed the handset so tight it creaked under the pressure. He couldn’t make out what was happening.

Aric bolted toward him. “What the fuck's going on?”

Raven’s chest heaved, but he couldn’t suck in oxygen.

Aric squeezed his shoulder. “Man, is it Tayla?”

He nodded, slamming his fist against his chest. Pull yourself together. You have to get to her. “Tayla…Raine,” he choked. “Crash.”

“Where are they?” River stood before him, phone pressed against his ear.

“She said fifteen minutes…”

He roared as crippling pain ripped through his torso, like someone cutting out his organs one by one with a blunt blade and no anesthetic. He crashed to his knees and scratched his chest to make it stop.

“Raven. Snap out of it, man.” Aric kneeled in front of him and gripped his shoulders. “Show me where they are. Use the connection. It's the quickest way.”

He blinked several times, trying to focus on the fuzzy figure in front of him. “I can’t…”

His head jerked back as Aric’s fist clocked him square in the jaw.

“Fuck!”

“Get up and focus,” Aric barked.

River shoved his phone away. “EJ’s following the highway to Tayla’s cabin. I can’t get a connection with Raine.”

That snapped him to attention. Desperation to reach his soulmate consumed him. He would not fail her again.

He jumped to his feet and released his wings in one swift motion, shooting into the blackened sky, with Aric and River behind him.

Flapping his wings hard, he soared across the furious night, the harrowing wind ripped at his feathers. Of all the nights to have a freak storm. Of all the nights to leave her…

Closing his eyes, he focused on his connection with Tayla, which grew weaker and weaker by the minute.

Hang on, Tayla, he sent her the thoughts, I'm nearly there.

Hovering in midair, he scanned the darkness below for her car as Aric and River arrived on either side of him.

“This is the spot,” he shouted above the howling wind. “She's here, I know it. But I can't see a damn thing.”

He tucked his wings close together and shot toward the ground.

The Audi’s headlights shone in the distance and Raven sped toward them, not caring about dodging the trees.

He forced down a gag when he glimpsed her mangled car. The metal so twisted he had trouble telling the front from the rear. It had landed on the river bank with the trunk edging into the water, four wheels pointed up to the sky. Glass scattered over the muddy bank from the busted windows, a rear door hung open, and the engine pushed into the front cabin.

Raven's boots skidded on the ground, and he bolted to the wreckage. He spotted EJ on the far side, ripping off the driver's side door.

In his peripheral vision, Raine huddled next to a tree trunk, her arms wrapped around her legs, bloodied wings limp behind her. River crouched before her. In slow motion, River's head turned to Raven, eyes wide. “Raven, no,” he shouted.

Thick arms wrapped around Raven’s chest and his legs fumbled in the air.

“Let me fucking go,” Raven roared.

“Let EJ get…” Aric grunted.

Raven’s vision filled with red. He fought against the hold, but the arms wrapped tighter. He had to get to Tayla. His fingers stretched until they gripped the hilt of a dagger at his waist; he ripped it free and twisted it upside down to stab the underneath of Aric’s arm.

“Jesus!” Aric shouted, and he released one arm.

Raven twisted, escaped Aric’s hold, and shot forward. He hurtled over the wreckage in one swift movement to witness EJ lower Tayla onto the dirty ground, a jacket covered her torso.

He collapsed to his knees beside her.

There's so much blood…

He cradled her cold hand between both of his, his vision blurred. Her head lolled toward him, and the pain in her eyes flattened him.

“Tayla?” he choked. “Stay with me.” He smoothed bloodied hair from her face and tucked it behind her ears. “I'm here. We’ll get help.”

Tayla shivered. Raven ripped off his jacket to cover her legs.

“I love…” She coughed. “…you.”

“Oh god, don't try to speak. I love you, too. So fucking much.”

She attempted a smile, but it was short lived. Using his thumb, he wiped away the tears falling over her nose. The crippling pain in his chest intensified, squeezing the air from his lungs.

“S-should have stayed h-home.” Her teeth chattered.

He inched forward and lifted her head onto his lap.

“Shhh, honey. It's not your fault. Just, hang in there for me, okay, so we can go home together.” He brushed her jaw with his thumb. “God, I’ve loved you since the first moment I laid eyes on you.”

“Don’t give up…on B-Blaine. He needs…you. I’ll w-wait…for you…in the Heavens.”

“No.” He shook his head. “Don't you dare leave me here without you; I need you. I can't do this without you.”

“K-kiss me.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat and bent forward to lightly kiss her deep purple lips.

“All this time, all these centuries, I've been waiting…for you,” he whispered against her ear. He sensed the others around him, but he didn't give a shit, he needed her to hear the words. “I was so lost before you. So…broken.”

Tayla’s body convulsed. Her arm lifted slightly before dropping back to the ground. He leaned back and lifted it for her, and held it against his cheek.

He stared into her dim eyes. “You saved me. Pieced me back together and made me whole. Helped me feel again. Showed me how to…love. Truly love. You were the key to my faith this whole time.”

He pressed his lips against the inside of her cool palm.

Tayla coughed, harder this time. Her breaths labored, becoming more and more shallow.

“I’ll find my way back to the Heavens. To you,” he choked. “Whatever it takes, I’ll find a way.”

The corner of Tayla’s mouth lifted before she shifted to stare at the menacing clouds above. Suddenly, the rain ceased, as though the clouds realized there'd been enough disaster for one night and granted them a reprieve. In the wake of the rain, gentle snowflakes danced around them.

“S-so…beautiful,” Tayla murmured.

Her body shuddered again, and Raven tracked a single snowflake as it floated down in a slow and delicate motion to land on her pale cheek.

As quickly as it had arrived, the crippling, physical pain in his chest vanished with a snap. The realization ripped open his heart.

No. No, no, no…this can't be happening.

“No, Tayla, don't leave me.” He lifted her lifeless body to his chest. “Honey, wake up, please.”

But it was no use. He felt the moment her heart ceased beating, the exact moment their connection severed.

Scowling up at the Heavens, he roared until his throat scratched like sandpaper rubbed on concrete.

This had to be a dream. He was asleep, and any moment now, he’d wake from this sick nightmare to find Tayla snuggled beside him, her warm body pressed against his chest, her heart beating in sync with his.

Off to the side, a bright white light flashed before it gradually dimmed, revealing an Azrael standing in its wake. Prepared to escort Tayla’s soul to the Heavens.

No fucking way.

“Get the hell away from her, Cole,” he spat.

He cradled Tayla closer against his chest.

She's gone, Raven, Cole spoke in his mind with a calmness so out of place amid the chaos and pain.

“Then bring her back.”

Cole took a long stride toward him. “You know I can't do that.”

“Back off,” Raven growled.

“Her place is in the Heavens now, brother. Let me escort her there.”

He shook his head. This couldn’t be happening. How could Fate assign her to him only to take her away so soon? What the hell did he do wrong this time?

Heavy footsteps approached from behind a second before a firm hand squeezed his shoulder. A calming wave washed over him and opened wide the gates for his pain and sorrow to come gushing out, as though a dam had collapsed, and the mighty river came crashing over the rubble.

“Let her go, my friend.” Gabe's soothing voice broke through the chaos.

Raven lowered his head. There was nothing he could do for her now. He knew this day would come. The moment he woke without crimson wings, he knew her Chosen path was complete. But couldn’t it have been eighty years from now?

Eight hundred years from now?

With a shaky hand, he gently wiped away the blood from the side of her face and brushed his fingertips over her lids to close her beautiful eyes for the final time.

He cradled Tayla's lifeless body in his arms and he rose to face Cole.

The angel stood before him in his standard dress; a long black medieval tunic, tapered at the waist with gold embossed down the center and on the hems. The silk fabric unaffected by the gusty wind. Cole’s silvery-grey wings stretched out wide behind him, shimmering like millions of tiny diamonds twisting and spinning under the sun’s rays.

But there was no sun, only darkness in his nightmare.

Cole’s lips thinned, and he lowered the hood on his tunic to reveal his short midnight black hair and haunting grey eyes.

Raven leaned down and pressed his lips to Tayla's forehead one final time before transferring her into Cole's waiting arms.

Cole gave a curt nod and summoned the blinding white light around him.

Raven’s heart ripped from his chest the moment the heavenly light faded and Cole vanished into the darkness, along with the love of his fucking existence.