35. White Swan Pas de Deux
I scoop Luna up, one arm around her waist, the other hand shielding her head, and sprint just as a tree-sized rafter crashes down behind us. Fire, ash, cinders, and smoke explode in a cloud, singeing the air while more wood splinters and groans, the chapel collapsing piece by piece.
“Oh my God, we’re trapped!”
I curse.
She’s right.
Two beams pen us in on the stage. We could maybe climb between them, but the larger beam wobbles, on fire and still suspended from the ceiling, ready to fall with the next gust of wind. One of us may be able to slip through in time. But not both of us.
I search the gaps beyond the burning beams, but there’s no help in sight. Only fire.
Nightmares rush in with the heat, choking me worse than the smoke and making my hands ache. Blinding orange and red, the cloying stench of charred flesh… screaming flames.
“What do we do?” Luna cries, snapping me out of it.
Fuck. Luna .
I couldn’t hold back the fire then, but I have to get her out now.
“Orion?”
“Shh, it’s okay,” I murmur into her hair, rounding over her, protecting her from the heat already whipping my back as I analyze the best way through.
“Luna! Orion!” Nox’s voice breaks through the wood’s crackling groans.
Relief floods in my veins. I peer through the small opening between the flames from him to her, then lie through my teeth.
“We can make it. I’m going to lift the beam, you’re going to jump through, and I’ll be right behind you.”
She searches my face warily, eyes rimmed red from smoke and weeping. I wanted to wake up to that clearwater blue every day for the rest of my life.
I guess I did.
Something slams across the church, making Luna yelp. We’re running out of time.
My heart pounds as I look at my promised—but never to be—bride.
“You have to go first.”
She shakes her head, panic swimming in her glassy eyes. Tears wash streaks through the ash on her cheeks, drying as fast as they fall to the ground.
“No, we go at the same time. I’m not leaving you.”
“Please, baby…”
“You said you’d never leave me. You promised ,” she begs, lips trembling before she crashes into me in an unbreakable embrace.
Almost unbreakable.
“You promised. You promised. You promised.”
Her tears cool my neck as she repeats it through coughs, her voice so shredded by smoke that every plea only hardens my resolve.
The fire dances around us, closing in. I’m trying to shield her, wrapping my body around hers, but do the flames bite her skin too? Is she already burning?
Is this how Hatch felt when our momma sacrificed herself for him?
I can’t let it happen again. I won’t.
I tighten my grip around Luna and find Nox through the inferno. His eyes are wide with the kind of terror that sparks rage instead. It’s an emotion I can clock from a mile away, especially now with it coursing through me too.
He finally catches my stare, his gaze locking with mine. A moment spanning an eternity passes between us. It ends with a silent promise, and I nod.
Take care of her.
His hard expression softens with understanding, knowing what I have to do. What I’m about to give up. He exhales with the weight of it, then shakes out his limbs, preparing for the most important catch of his life. When he raises his arms, they’re loose, ready.
I gather Luna closer to me, covering her nose with my shirt, and inhale her sweet jasmine and honey scent one last time.
“Hold your breath, baby.”
She sucks a breath in through my tee, obeying me on instinct. My hands drop to her waist, and I steal one hard, selfish kiss, savoring a final taste of the woman I’d burn for, then whisper against her lips.
“I love you, Luna Bordeaux. But I’m sorry. I can’t keep my promise.”
Shock makes her go limp, and I move too swiftly for her to get her bearings, scooping her into my arm. I wedge my shoulder under an unburned section of the beam, muscles screaming from the weight, and spin her in one last dance.
Only this time, I let go.
My heart drops with her as she falls through the crevice. Her eyes widen with betrayal and terror, and the image overlays the horrible memory of her plummeting from the cliff.
For a split second, my legs twitch to dive after her again. Maybe I could make it.
But Whitby Rose gives up another of its bones as a rafter cracks and thunders to the floor, exploding pews before crashing onto the far end of the beam I’m holding, crushing my shoulder. I grunt, muscles tearing as I fight to keep it from toppling onto Luna.
She screams as she flies, her skirt flaring out like wings before she lands safely in her brother’s arms. I roar, rolling the beam off me, raining embers down my back. It crashes below, a wall of cinder and flame between me and them. Between death and life.
I stumble back, catching heaving breaths that burn from the inside out, and watch her through the fire.
She fights like I knew she would, writhing like a feral, furious little thing, clawing her brother to get back to me.
But he cages her in his arms, then lifts her like she weighs nothing and sprints through the sanctuary.
I blink, and they’re gone. Out of the church, out of danger, and into the darkness on the other side.
Relief makes me lightheaded, or maybe it’s the smoke. Either way, hazy images of Luna come easily. I picture her safe in the car with my family and hers, Dash flying down mountain roads like a bat out of hell, taking her back home. Back to New Orleans.
My thoughts cut to her being there, surrounded by everything and everyone she knows and loves. The terror squeezing my heart eases at that, because if I’m not with her, with her family is the safest place she could be. Sol and Nox will make sure of that.
Which means Luna is truly safe. And I… I’m gonna die.
And that’s okay. Maybe this, saving the woman I love, is what I was meant to do all along.
Smoke thickens around me, and I collapse under its weight. My skin begs for a balm as my nightmares burn into me like a fresh brand, the kind of pain that drags time to a halt.
Until a shadowy hand stretches through the flames.
I know that hand.
I blink. But it doesn’t go away. I smile up knowing who I’ll see, and I breathe past the smoke scorching my lungs.
“Momma.”
Her soft, blonde hair wafts in a phantom breeze. She brushes it back, giving me the sweet smile I’ve never forgotten.
This isn’t real. It can’t be. Lack of oxygen has gotten to my brain…
“Come with me, Orion.” Her voice is a whisper through Dark Corner pines and a gust in a wildfire all at once.
But even as she reaches for me, even as I’m desperate to follow, I hesitate. If I go, Fate will have decided, and Luna will be gone for good.
Momma smiles. “Trust me.”
She offers her hand through the flames. I exhale.
I loved you fiercely, Luna Bordeaux.
I push the emotion out with one final breath, hoping Luna can feel it. Gathering my courage and every ounce of my strength, I surrender, reaching for her to accept my bittersweet end?—
Momma’s hand is too rough, callused, and strong for such a small woman as it snatches mine in a painful grip. Her sweet face morphs, unveiling a furious demon in her place. His scars are both armor and a weapon, his smile twisted into something vicious, and his eyes fathomless midnight pits.
The demon roars, heaving aside the fallen beam. Ravenous flames devour everything but his void as he yanks my arm… and drags me with him to hell.