Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
EVEREST
For the first time in my long life, I was afraid of the darkness around me.
And it was all that was around me. There wasn’t a sliver of light or flash or sparkle of color.
No haunting red glow or red demon eyes lurking just out of sight in my peripheral vision.
There was no tickle down my spine, no whispered voices just beyond my ears.
There was no foreboding presence weighing on my chest saying everything could fall apart in the blink of an eye.
This was just suffocating darkness.
There was no up or down or left or right, there was just pitch-black.
And pain.
Every inch of my body was screaming in agony.
My skin was burning and peeling off my body.
My muscles were spasming into little knots that felt like being stabbed.
Something coiled around my wrists, ankles, and neck and pulled.
My bones were stretching and rattling. I clenched my teeth to stop myself from screaming out.
I would not give her that satisfaction. The pressure in my skull was so tight I thought my eyes might pop out of their sockets and my teeth might crumble.
I focused my thoughts on my soulmate. My wife.
My Celina. I just had to hold on for her.
She was there. She’d made it back. I’d seen her with my own eyes standing there with every freckle I’d missed for eight centuries and the white-feathered wings I wanted to run my fingers through.
She’d returned to me. Finally. Celina was back.
She was right there. Her fingertips on my chin had been warm.
The recognition in those pink eyes made me want to ugly cry.
She would find a way to save me.
Celina held a stubbornness unlike any other.
I just had to hold on a little longer. I had to suffer through this unspeakable pain.
Golden light flashed all around me—and then it was gone. The pain was gone. My skin cooled. My muscles relaxed. There was no stabbing or throbbing pain, nothing felt like it was being peeled off of me. There was no burning. No pressure. No suffocation.
There was only . . . peace.
I took a deep breath, then let it out roughly. I’d never experienced this sort of lightness, this sort of comfort in my own body. My breaths came easy and light. Oxygen filled my lungs without strain. My heart beat slow and steady. There were no knots in my stomach or tension in my neck.
Is this death?
Had The Coven listened to me and killed me with a Heavenly weapon? That would be the only explanation for this . . . this . . . peace.
Lilith was gone. I’d always felt a flicker of Mother in the corner of my mind, like a buzzing mosquito in my ear. I’d never been truly parted from her. Yet there was no trace of her in this darkness. Warmth rushed through my body like I’d wrapped myself in a cozy blanket by a fire.
The darkness around me began to brighten—inch-by-inch, like walking out of a tunnel into the light.
I took a deep breath to brace myself. I’d never let myself ponder what an afterlife would hold for me, not when Lilith was my mother.
But The Coven had managed to honor my only request and provided me with a mercy kill to free my soul of her forever .
. . well then I had no idea what that would look like.
At first the light was just white, but after a few seconds I realized it was a bright sky blue.
White puffy clouds slid across my view. I frowned.
A couple of birds chirped as they flew by.
I blinked—Wait. I BLINKED. I was awake. That was the earth beneath my body and a cool spring breeze through my hair. Warmth wrapped around my left hand.
And then she leaned into view.
My breath caught in my throat. It was like the first time I’d ever seen her all over again.
Her pale strawberry blonde hair was draped over her shoulder and falling in waves nearly down to the ground.
Those pale freckles running from ear-to-ear over her sun-tanned skin were my favorite constellations.
Her pink eyes sparkled like gemstones even while filled with tears. She was sobbing and smiling.
I reached up and cupped her face with one hand. “Celina.”
Tears splashed onto her cheeks and down onto my face as she nodded. She squeezed my hand against her face and nodded. “I’m here, Hayareshi. I’m here.”
I felt a smile pull at the corner of my lips. Hayareshi. That was what she had called me since the night we met. It meant my moon in the angelic language. I’d always called her Gali, which meant my wave in the same angelic language. I was her moon, and she was my wave.
Tears rolled from the corners of my eyes. “Gali.”
She nodded, tears still running rivers down her beautiful face. “Your waiting is over, Hayareshi. I’m here.”
And then everything faded away.