My team swarmed Taig, switching targets like the well-oiled machine they were. He was still arching at that impossible angle and Homefires was already making smoke raise from his skin. In my chest, behind my bruised ribs, agony was encapsulated. The angel, the glowing, hideous thing, unfurled from above him.
Taig.
It had.
Taig.
And the banishment spell was coming to a close.
He’d be worse than dead.
One of his hands lifted. He ripped off his helmet and threw it aside. It wasn’t Taig—or not just him. Not anymore.
The crackle of the fire rose and fell in time with the chanting around us. Dierdre was sobbing.
My heart. My bones. My soul. Trembled.
Ached.
And I just stood there, feeling the swelling, spreading hopelessness. There was no answer. I knew there was no answer. We couldn’t not banish an angel. The cost in lives would be horrific.
He was gone.
I couldn’t draw air into my lungs or make my body work. Taig. I remembered the way we’d bumped into each other when I’d first started with my coven, how I’d picked him for a hard arse. And he was, but he had a good heart, too. That combination was everything. And now I was going to lose him.
His gaze swung toward me. And I barely saw the angel behind him.
There were seconds left. The spell would banish him with the angel. And there was so much I wanted to tell him, still. So much I wanted to do. We could hang out, shoot the shit. And maybe I’d be brave enough to let myself melt against him, if only I had some time to let myself heal, first.
But I didn’t have that time. And soon, I wouldn’t have him.
I could hear in my head my Oma’s voice. Give it what it wants, it’ll chill its beans. Was that what Dierdre had done? Given Clint what he wanted?
Horror and hope bloomed in my chest, a toxic flower. I knew. I knew what Taig wanted. My heart twisted like an overstretched elastic band. I knew. And I couldn’t—
But I couldn’t not.
I doubted I could fake it. But I didn’t need to fake it. Oh, fuck. I was so far gone and I hadn’t even known. He stared at me across the distance like I was his whole world.
Power was heavy in the air, and the spell rose and fell around me. That thing would take him with it.
Deirdre was pulled away by someone, and she dropped out of my sight. Everything around us fell away. It was just a cold, dark morning, some thick mist, and two people with too much tension between them for too long.
The rise and fall of the end.
He reached for me and I fit into his arms. I felt the obsidian knife in my hand vibrating. It heated, cooled, and cracked in a split second. His armored vest was peppered with obsidian dust but it didn’t matter. A bit of dust wouldn’t be enough to even slow a manifesting angel at full force. His not-Taig eyes stared into me, starving.
I closed my eyes, my heart in my throat. I couldn’t look.
But I moved closer and felt his hands. His. They scooped up my hair securely, firm but gentle, sexy and sweet. And my heart screamed.
His lips were cold and gritty but I didn’t care. I poured myself into the kiss, let myself be a pathetic fucking puddle. I gave him everything I had and more. His hands were on me, grabbing, holding, as he never had. Not Taig. There was a coldness to his skin, an order in his hands.
YES.
The word shook my bones, the utter truth of it.
I let myself melt into him, begging him, silently, with my kiss, with my heart, to come back. He took, though. He just took and drank, and it was all I could do to keep pouring those feeling in, to keep him with me. To feed the beast that wanted to control us all. Tears burned and he feasted.
So, I let him.
His lips were hard against mine but it didn’t matter. I surrendered. The hurt fell away, and the fear.
The spell burned. My tears seared, carving a path down my cheeks. I could feel where they displaced the flimsy barrier of that obsidian dust. But it was irrelevant, now.
My spell swam through me, offering itself. From the depths of my soul, the marrow of my bones, the beating of my heart, I drew on every fiber of magick I had, gathered it all up and infused those words. And I cast.
Through this dome none shall leave or come, unless it is with me.
Every word. So clear. So powerful. So huge.
With me. My choice.
I fisted my hands in his vest as he devoured me, barely even feeling him, now. The banishment spell rose, trembling on the cusp of completion.
And, gently, I pushed Taig through my ward. Him, but not the angel.
He screamed.
And the angel roared in fury, the noise reverberating in my bones and swamping me with agony.
But they were separate sounds. Love conquers all, fucker.
The banishment spell closed.
My spell shattered and I fell, agony in every cell of my body. The world went grey and the angel was over me. Four wings. Talons. Eyes, everywhere. So bright, so pure, it hurt.
And Taig on the other side of my ward, somehow, as the world spun, cracked, and collapsed.