by Jenny McKane
She heard his footsteps as he raced toward her and she no longer heard Gideon beside her, dying. He was gone by the time Eli reached her.
Sunny soon followed.
Chapter Thirty-nine
Sunny woke up eventually. She had to.
Even she knew the story wasn’t over yet and that, despite trying his best, Gideon and the nox that dwelled with him hadn’t killed her. Just yet, anyway.
But had she killed him? She didn’t know.
No one seemed to, actually.
“By the time I reached you, there was blood on the snow next to you but no sign of him,” Eli reported to Sunny as she sat up in bed.
Outside, a new landscape greeted her, as she had slept all the way through leaving Norway and returning to Japan.
It was the only place with temples powerful enough to protect them while Sunny recovered and the summoning stones, though they belonged to Baal, were strong enough to keep them safe from the nox returning anytime soon.
The monks had agreed to let them make a temporary home in one of the older temples on a small, abandoned fishing island called Shima. Demon magic and protection still reigned strong there and Asmodeus had told them they had a bit of recovery work to do before they faced whatever fresh hell awaited them.
So, as Sunny took in the beautiful tropic views of the ocean and hoped her body and her heart would mend, again, Eli doted on her constantly, rivaled only by the attentions of Plaxo.
Sin was lost in his own sort of grief at losing Gideon, who he’d grown close to since leaving Austin, himself left wondering what was true and what was not among the moments they’d shared.
“He was like a brother in arms to me,” he said dejectedly over tea.
They had two novice monks living with them to help Sunny as the rest of the team had business to attend to before coming back. Gabriel returned to the angelic realm via a portal in Tokyo. Metatron had gone back to Austin to gather some of his scrolls and supplies and Asmodeus had gone to Europe to find a few of his own former belongings that might come in handy. Plaxo had to leave temporarily to return to his cohort with news of what was happening on this side, but had promised Eli he would return shortly.
He’d come back first, and they were all waiting on the archangels to return the day the call came in.
Being Asmodeus, he wasn’t about to rough it with no “technology” in the ancient temple, and upon his return the previous day, he’d brought some high-tech method of making a mobile hotspot out of nothing. Sunny hadn’t understood how and Asmodeus hadn’t offered an explanation. All she knew was that Asmodeus had himself a fully functioning operation going in the command room he’d set up in the third floor of the temple.
Sunny had a few weeks’ worth of recovery ahead of her, suffering two broken ribs and a serious concussion thanks to having her head smashed into a stone mountain. She wasn’t moving anytime soon, but it seemed like they weren’t in any immediate danger, either. No, Camael had spread his rampage to Portland, Las Vegas and San Diego and from those hubs, the demon takeover was spreading outward.
“And this isn’t even the true apocalypse yet, either,” Eli said with a miserable sigh. “This is just a juiced up Fallen archangel being an asshole.”
Sunny sighed and closed her eyes.
It was the first day the monk named Natsu had let her out of bed. He wasn’t much older than her, maybe mid 20s, but by the coloring of his robes, he was still considered an apprentice. But on this island, he’d been given free reign over the care of the patient, thanks to Asmodeus, and Natsu had taken his duties seriously.
He’d forbidden her, through Asmodeus, the only one who spoke Japanese among their group, from moving for the first four days since she’d woken up. He’d also forced incredibly pungent, thick teas and soups down her throat with grunts and disapproving glares when she fought him.
But she felt stronger. And finally, on the fifth day, he told Asmodeus to tell her that she needed to move around.
Eli held her arm as they moved around the open-air hallways (the climate seemed to be a constant sunny and 75 degrees during the day and a starry 40s at night) and Sunny got used to using her legs again, the least sturdy part on her.
“I was worried about you,” her friend said as he pulled more of her weight into his chest with the arm he had snaked around her back and under her armpits.
“I’m sorry,” she said simply.
She was too. She hadn’t missed the dark circles under Eli’s eyes or the fact that he’d lost some weight in his face. Eli was her rock.
After maneuvering the stairs slowly and steadily, they found themselves outside in the garden on a bench. Nearby, Asmodeus had an iPad on his lap and he was studying some sort of ancient map. Despite being curious, Sunny didn’t ask any questions.
She didn’t care at this point—that would be another day. Today, she simply wanted to focus on feeling better and feeling more whole. And walking outside with Eli’s help was doing an immense job of it.
The telltale ringtone of a Facetime call interrupted the serenity of the garden and when she looked over to Asmodeus, she saw him frowning.
“Don’t recognize this contact,” he said. Before Sunny could suggest he ignore it, he’d swiped the green “answer” button.
Later, Sunny would tell Asmodeus that he should have known better. That he should have listened to her, a sentiment that Sunny would be repeating many more times in the coming months. But for now, the three of them watched as the grinning, smug face of Camael came into focus on Asmodeus’ screen.
Sunny clenched her fist and she felt Eli stiffen beside her.
“How’s it going, Asmodeus, you old bastard?”
Camael was practically giddy and grinning ear to ear on the other end. For his part, Asmodeus simply shook his head. Both of these creatures predated Solomon and the events that got the archdemon locked up. She shouldn’t have been surprised that they knew each other.
“Camael,” Asmodeus said the name like a frustrated sigh. “What can I do for you?”
That got a laugh out of the ruler of Hell.
“You can’t even imagine the things you could do for me,” he practically sang. “But you could start by sending the Solomon’s head to me in a box. Gift wrapped. With a bow tie.”
The Fallen’s eyes met Sunny’s through the screen and she scowled.
“Shame to see you lived,” Camael said, crossing his arms over his chest. “My son was half certain he’d bashed your head concave before you cut him with that cheap blade of yours.”
Her throat constricted and she swallowed hard. Half of Sunny was happy to hear that Gideon hadn’t died, the other was shredded at the fact that he’d joined his father and recounted, probably in glee, that he’d almost killed her.
What the actual fuck?
She was a mess and as soon as this ill-fated video call was over, she had a long road of un-fucking the mess her head and her heart had been left in.
“The call is actually for the Solomon, no offense, old friend,” Camael continued. “I wanted to show her how miserably she’d failed at killing Gideon. To show her just what she was up against and to give her a chance to surrender now and save the human population a lot of suffering in the coming days.”
Sunny felt Eli’s warm hand on the small of her back and she pulled in a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. He was anchoring her and Sunny relaxed and let him. She didn’t have to face this alone—even the complicated feelings that were at war within her right now. Sunny had Eli, Plaxo, Sin and the rest of her team.
“I’m not going to roll over and die for you,” Sunny said, finding her strength. “And you’re definitely going to have to work on your negotiation skills. At this point you can fuck right off.”
Eli let out a puff of air as he laughed at her moxie, but Camael seemed to redden. Instead of just hanging up on her as she’d secretly hoped, he walked through whatever room he was in and brought another face into the frame with him.
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Gideon.
The very human, un—nox version of Gideon.
Sunny bit the inside of her cheek and pressed into Eli’s side harder to keep herself grounded, knowing that whatever Gideon was about to say would likely cut deeply.
Instead of speaking, Gideon lifted his shirt and his perfect abs flashed on the screen. Looking closer, she saw a black scar on his flank that was bumpy and rough-looking, but healed over.
“You couldn’t kill me, Sunshine,” Gideon’s voice floated across the space between them, sounding so much like her Gideon that it physically hurt her to listen to him. “You can’t kill me. And if you don’t take my father’s offer, your death is not only going to be a lot more painful, it’ll cause more bloodshed than you could ever imagine.”
Her mind caught on the my father part of his little speech, knowing that despite looking like Gideon, whatever transformation that had occurred within him was done. Gideon Lafayette would never call the archangel Camael, Fallen or not, my father.
“The choice is yours, Solomon,” Camael took control of the conversation. “Surrender now and save the lives of countless humans, or make us hunt you down and have that blood on your soul.”
It was a false dilemma, she knew that—but just how violent were they willing to get to capture her?
“I’m not falling for it, Camael. I’ll see you soon, if that’s what it comes down to,” she said bitterly. “And Gideon, make your peace. Next time I push my obsidian blade into your gut, I won’t pull my punch. Not even your angelic blood will save you.”
Without waiting, she reached over Asmodeus’ shoulder and ended the call before spinning on her heel and walking slowly and steadily back into the temple to begin preparations.
Epilogue
Eli
He’d known that things were off with Lafayette sometime back in Austin, but couldn’t quite put his finger on what. So cold to Sunny, then so hot and hormonal over her in Chicago, right when Selah left. Eli still couldn’t decide what role Selah played in the entire deception, if any, but it hadn’t sat right with him.
Sunny changed right along with Gideon, too. She’d seen it in Phoenix and the recognition that she was denying it was killing her on the inside. He’d like to think that part of it had to do with the fact that she’d tried hiding such a big secret from them all, but mostly she was realizing that the man she loved wasn’t who she thought he was.
The very thought of Sunny loving Gideon made his stomach clench.
He couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment he knew that he’d fallen head over heels for the badass little warrior, but he figured it had to be the first week of her obsidian training. Those dark early days when the sickness had been so violent that should couldn’t move without great effort and he’d demanded that she keep training—and without a complaint, she had.
Sunny had shown in that moment just who she was inside and out, and if he’d believed in beings like Cupid, he would have sworn that little diaper-wearing bastard shot an arrow straight into him.
Eli knew she had a broken heart—what, her third now thanks to this bastard? He knew that Sunshine Bonnard needed time and space to heal and that she had her back against the wall when it came to both the demons and angels hunting her down now, but he also knew that what he was feeling wasn’t subsiding. If anything, it was growing stronger.
Letting her cross the portal into Hell to rescue Lafayette had nearly done him in, but he told himself that she deserved the man she loved and he wasn’t going to stand in the way of anyone’s happily ever after. It’d killed him, too, watching her walk into danger after a man Eli knew couldn’t possibly deserve her. And when he’d shared the dreamspace with her for those precious few moments while she was in Hell? It’d nearly ripped his heart out of his chest to leave her there.
Once upon a time, Eli had been willing to walk away from his feelings for Sunshine so that she could have the ending she deserved with Gideon Lafayette. But when he’d fucked it up, whether it was his fault or not, Eli made the decision that he wasn’t going to just stand aside and let Sunny get chewed up and spit out.
He was going to put his heart on the line for the first time since Lacey and show her what a real love felt like.
Eventually.
For now, he was going to help her get stronger. He was going to help her up her fighting skills and be there for her as she learned to hone her legion of demons for the fight coming.
And for damn sure, he was going to be the man standing beside her as they faced whatever was coming for them.
~~~