“You’ll miss it,” I whispered, tears streaming down my face.
Big John cleared his throat, placing an arm around me. “Tovah, I’ve seen it, too. Cade is right.”
Tovah was silent for a moment. Her green eyes looked over to the other guardians, who waited for her to speak.
“This is very touching. The humans are endearing. I’ve cared for them for centuries. We’ve helped them survive these two decades. But we couldn’t have done so without the law.”
“We have no need for it anymore. Rahab is gone,” Big John said.
“But the curse is not fully broken and anyone who covets power can easily take over. No, we must keep to the laws we’ve set in place. When Senna has fully recovered, she’ll go back with another archangel to complete it.”
“Tovahiel, surely, you can—”
“That’s enough, Jahoel,” she snapped. “The council’s decision has been made.” She whipped her hand open, and a flame lit in her palm. “Let us begin.”
Coretha stepped forward. Her dark hair blew in the wind as she circled around the stake behind Cade. “At least Hannah thought she was in love with a human, but a witch? That is unforgivable.”
With one swift movement, she ripped off one of his wings.
I screamed.
Cade arched his back. The bluish veins along the side of his neck popped out as he howled in torment.
“Stop it!” I cried. They were killing him, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. “Please Big John, make them stop!” Big John looked down at me with a pained expression on his face.
Ignoring my cries, Tovah and the guardians surrounded Cade with their lit torches.
“Don’t look, Senna,” Big John croaked.
As Cade moaned, she placed her long fingers on his other wing. “You don’t deserve to be one of us.”
Snarling her red lips, she yanked off his remaining wing.
Cade’s screams ripped through my chest, shredding my heart. Blood rolled in streams down the stake, pooling around his feet. Then he was suddenly silent. His head lolled onto his chest.
“Cade! Wake up. Fight! Please, wake up!” I cried.
Tovah touched her torch to the dry wood at his feet. Instantly, it went up in flames. The other guardians followed her lead.
“Big John, please do something,” I pleaded.
Sad brown eyes looked down at me. “There’s nothing I can do.”
Fire licked Cade’s feet. He moaned. Slowly, he lifted his head until pained eyes met mine. “I love you.”
“Damn it! Don’t you dare say good-bye,” I sobbed.
“I won’t if you won’t. I believe in you.”
He never stopped believing in me. Through it all, he knew exactly what I was capable of. And now, so did I.
I took a breath. As I slowly exhaled, I lifted my arms, muttering the language that voices had once whispered in my head. The ancient languages written on the pages my mother had protected.
Dark clouds whirled around. A hard wind whistled through the trees. Lightning arced across the sky followed by a crack of thunder.
I held my face up, smiling as the rain fell.
“This is no ordinary fire, Senna. It’s an archangel’s fire. Rain won’t stop it,” Big John said. “Nothing will.”
I whipped around. Even as the rain poured down, the flames remained. Hope was still in Cade’s eyes even as the fire licked his body.
There had to be something. I wasn’t going to let Cade die. He was a part of me. His pain was my pain. I could feel the fire searing my skin as it did his. As his breathing labored, I could feel my own life slip away.
Tovah and the guardians looked on with those same stoic expressions on their faces the day they killed Hannah.
Cade was right. They could never understand what Cade and I felt. All they knew was duty. They didn’t know what it meant to sacrifice for—
That’s it!
The ancient words from the spell fluttered through my mind. I knew now why it took both of us to read the spell. The last word. Ah’ava.
The word echoed in my mind.
Ah’ava.
Ah’ava.
I knew exactly what I had to do.
I ran to the fire.
As I plunged myself into the flames, Tovah and Big John’s voice yelled after me.
“Get her, Jahoel!”
“No, Senna!”
Fire singed my wet clothes, creating a cloud of smoke. Gritting my teeth against the flames searing my skin, I reached for Cade. The guardians’ voices silenced the moment I wrapped my arms around Cade’s body.
Cade looked down at me, his blue eyes filled with disbelief.
“I believe in us,” I said.
Our bodies trembled as we held each other, fighting against the stinging pain. With agonizing slowness, I stood on my toes to reach up to him. He ducked his head, his lips meeting mine in a final kiss.
The moment our lips touched, the pain disappeared. Was this what it was like to die?
“I don’t feel it anymore,” Cade said, lifting his head. “Are you doing that?”
“No. We’re doing it.”
The wind blew harder, swirling around us. There was a loud crack, followed by a smash. The sound was duplicated, echoing around us.
“It’s the poplar trees,” Big John cried. “The boundary is falling down.”
As the flames licked higher from the wind, a cooling trickle flowed over us, bathing us in a healing bubble. The relief was instantaneous. Suddenly, the air felt like it was being suctioned out. With a loud pop, the fire disappeared.
34
Nevada hunched over the fireplace, holding out her hands to take in the heat. “I don’t know about this place. You don’t have any electricity. And everything around here is so green.” She wiggled her fingers, which were now polished a bright yellow. “Ugh, my fingers are still numb. How do you keep warm with this little fireplace? It’s freezing.”
“You’d be surprised,” I said, setting seven plates on the table.
“Don’t get me wrong. It is pretty around here with the mountains and lake. But I don’t know if it’s for me.” Nevada plopped herself on the chair at the head of the table and propped her chin on the palm of her hand. “So explain to me what happened again because it sounds insane—even for me. You flung yourself into the fire? And that’s why your hair is so crazy short—which I think is cool by the way.”
I brushed my hand over my hair. The fire had singed the ends, making it look like burnt hay. Lukas’s mother had cropped it even shorter than I’d ever had it. She did her best to salvage some, but nothing could tame my cowlick. So we decided to go with the flow and intentionally make it spiky. My funky hair wasn’t the worst, though. My entire body was pink. Cade’s had been too, but being an archangel, he was back to normal within minutes. Thankfully, the pink was fading and I didn’t feel any pain. I chalked it up to the cooling wave right before the fire went out. It had healed me. Healed the world.
I couldn’t blame Nevada for finding it hard to believe. I could barely believe it myself.
When the fire went out, Tovah had demanded I be taken down the mountain and the fire started again. The guardians had stood frozen in shock, their eyes darting from Tovah to Cade and me. They were afraid to go near us. Everything was different. They could sense it.
Furious, Tovah started the flame on her torch and headed for Cade. Big John stopped her and insisted that she look around. Every single poplar tree was flat on the ground. The boundary between the Sanctuary and the rest of the world was gone. We didn’t need it anymore.
When Big John pointed to the city, Tovah finally broke, dropping her torch. The city’s lights twinkled in the distance, mirroring the stars above in the night. It was over. The curse had finally lifted.
“I had to,” I said, handing her a cup of hot tea.
“To save Cade?” She wrapped her fingers around the warm cup and took a sip. “Ah, that’s good.”
I pulled out a chair and sat next
to her. “I did it to save us. All of us.”
“But how did you know that you had to hurl yourself into the fire? Oh, wait. It had something to do with the spell, right? Am I right?”
I arched an eyebrow, impressed by her deduction. “Yes, how did you know?”
“You and me, girlfriend. Witchy brainwave connection.” She waved a finger between us.
I chuckled. “It was the spell. But it was also something Cade had said that reminded me. We had to do more than just to say the words—we had to live them.”
“What was the word?”
“Ah’ava. It’s the verb for love. Everything Cade did was to save us—to save me. Not because it was his duty, but because he truly cared for us.”
“Ugh, that Cade. I might have to actually like him now.” Her silver nose ring lifted as she wrinkled her nose.
“Did someone say my name?” Cade walked into the house with Lukas.
“No.” She let out a puff of air, blowing her long bangs out of her eyes. “We have more to talk about than dorky archangels.” She did her best to look annoyed at him, but there was a teasing glint in her eye.
“Nevada, we are guests here,” Deeth reprimanded as he stepped inside. Ely was behind him carrying Lily on his hip. She looked completely enamored with her newfound friend.
My heart filled with joy as I scanned across the crowded room of my small cottage. I felt like I finally had a family again. The only ones missing were Hannah and Sylas.
A few weeks after the curse was lifted, Nevada and her brothers drove into the Sanctuary on motorcycles abandoned by the hunters who had taken off to unknown places when they realized the battle had been lost and Rahab was gone.
When they approached the outskirts of the Sanctuary, Tovah and the guardians, swords in hand, had blocked their way, refusing to let them in until Big John explained who they were.
Even though word spread that the curse was lifted and we were safe, some people were uneasy about letting in strangers, especially ones who looked like them.
I had to admit they did make an intimidating-looking trio riding in on their motorcycles with their pale eyes, facial piercings, and tattoos lining their necks. Most of the children, who’d never seen motorcycles before, cried when they saw the metal contraptions. Not Lily. She had ran straight for the motorcycle Ely was riding and hammered him with dozens of questions. Ely was patient about answering each one. She took to him quickly. It was as if she could sense his sadness.
“Yeah, yeah. I remember what you said.” Nevada lowered her voice an octave and then said, mimicking him. “Be on your best behavior.”
He scowled.
“The food’s not ready yet. Go back and play with the motorcycles.” She waved them away. “Senna and I have a lot to catch up on.”
“Yay!” Lily squealed. “Take me on another ride, Ely.”
“But I wanted to show you something outside before dinner,” Cade said when Deeth and Ely went back outside.
“Okay.” I slapped a wooden spoon in Nevada’s hand. “Just stir the pot every few minutes so it won’t burn.”
She looked down at the spoon, balking.
“Uh, Senna,” Lukas said uneasily. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“Why?”
“She doesn’t cook.”
“I don’t cook.”
Cade and I looked at each other a moment after Lukas and Nevada answered in unison and then busted out laughing. They were so in sync with each other it was like they were the same person.
It was confusing watching them. The moment I saw the expression on Lukas’s face when he saw Nevada walking up the trail to the Sanctuary, I knew she was the one he was thinking of when he said he knew what it felt like to lose someone.
All this time, I thought he wanted to be with me. The images I had of him pulling me to him, yearning for me, what had they meant? He never looked at me the way he looked at her. His eyes filled with admiration as they followed her as she pushed the motorcycle through the village. Watching them together, I could see he thought of her as his equal. He never thought of me that way. I was always someone to take care of and watch over. Maybe he confused that with desire. Who knew? What I knew for sure was that Nevada was perfect for him.
“Did you give it to her?” Lukas asked Nevada.
“Oh, right.” She looked into her satchel and pulled out a locket. It was the one Niamh had worn around her neck. “This is for you.” She placed it in my hand.
“I can’t take this. Ely should have it.” It was clear Ely was still grieving. I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for him to have to kill his mother, even if she had betrayed her own kind.
“You’re meant to have it. Look inside.”
I opened it, and my mother’s face stared out at me. In her arms was a baby.
“I never saw Niamh without it. Even after she went to live in the tower, she always wore it. We thought maybe you would know why she had it.”
My fingers glided down the cool metal as I gazed at the photo. “I’m not sure. I would think you would know better than I would. Deeth said they were best friends once. Maybe she felt guilty about betraying her.”
“Maybe.” Nevada sighed. “I guess we’ll never know.”
Our fingers locked together, Cade and I walked hand in hand down the trail to the Kissing Tree. I kept gazing down at the locket. I had so many questions that no one could answer. Tovah might know, but she wouldn’t give me an answer. She kept herself locked inside the guardian’s temple. The only time she stepped out was when Nevada and her brothers arrived.
I placed my hand over the slashes on the tree, wishing Sylas had come with Nevada and her brothers. I couldn’t blame him for staying away. Reminders of Hannah were everywhere. Cade promised to fly me to the city to see him. Maybe after I told him how much the Sanctuary had changed, he’d come back home.
The angelic council had elected Big John to be the new leader. Tovah had adamantly fought, saying that her way was still needed. But everyone agreed that changes had to be made. And the first thing Big John did was tear down the stake on Flathead Mountain and declare that punishment like that would never happen again.
“So what did you want to show me?”
Cade turned me to face him. His eyes grew serious. “There’s something I wanted to tell you in private.”
My stomach fell. This was it. This was the moment I’d been dreading since the day I’d fallen for him. His job here was done. He wasn’t a guardian. Not that it mattered. With the danger gone, most of the guardians had already returned to their homes. There was no need for him to stay.
“Are you leaving?” I choked.
I held my breath as he cupped my face between his hands. Sapphire eyes gazed intently into mine. “Do you want me to?”
“No. I want you to stay.”
His lips curled into a delicious smile. “Good, because a new group of guardians are being sent down to help rebuild the city and guess who’s the archangel in charge?”
“Really?”
“Yep. And I’m restructuring the council. It will consist of people in the Sanctuary and the coven. Lukas, Deeth, and Nevada have already said yes. So how about you?”
My jaw dropped, flabbergasted. “You want me on the council?”
“Of course.”
His smile warmed my heart. He wasn’t the same egotistical archangel I’d first met. The arrogant façade he wore to protect himself from being loved was gone. He’d broken the heavy chains of his angelic duty. He was free.
“Yes, I’ll work with you.”
He let out a breath of relief. Sliding his hands down my shoulder and to my hips, he drew me into his chest. “Now, you know what this means.”
“What?”
He ducked his head, his lips closing in on mine. “We’ll be spending a lot of time together. Think you can handle it?”
My lips brushed against his as I whispered, “Being with you? That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
I didn’t kn
ow what my life would be like now. I wasn’t sure if the new world we were putting together would last. Angels like Tovah still didn’t trust the witch coven. And there was always the threat that another would try to take Rahab’s place. But as Cade kissed me, I knew all we needed to make it was hope and the belief we could do it.
Together.
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