Chapter 58 Kaden
KADEN
“Now.” Isaiah’s voice flooded my head.
Isaiah had found her, that crazy bastard.
The neck I squeezed in the crook of my elbow snapped, and the soldier went limp.
He had caught me trying to check out one of the comm rooms. I grabbed what papers and data chips I could, stuffing them beneath my armor before charging toward the nearest window.
My body lengthened, and scales rolled over my new form, wings exploding from where my arms had been as I ripped a hole in the ship and shot skywards.
A loud alarm shook the air, spurring me on as I chased after my brother’s retreating form.
The streets of Goldpass, so busy before, now sat empty. Isaiah transformed back into his mortal form as we landed in the town square, Imogen’s limp body cradled protectively in his arms. He pulled her tighter against his chest and looked at me as I shifted back.
“Thank you.”
“Yeah, yeah, stop fucking saying and thinking it. I—”
Another siren blared, adding to the cacophony that assaulted my ears.
I watched as the adrueth soldiers took to the air, winging toward a ship hovering low over the river.
A figure wearing shining silver armor was caught in a beam of bright light, his head thrown back and his arms spread out to his sides, clearly unconscious as he was pulled toward the ship.
They were taking Samkiel.
Fuck. Whatever battle we had missed had gone so horribly wrong that even Samkiel was taken.
Fear raced like blood in my veins. Dianna was never too far from him, which meant …
I searched the remaining soldiers as they hurried onto the ship, looking for Dianna.
Was she already on board? There was no way she would have just let them take him.
I started forward as the doors closed and the ship lifted into the air, determined to go after her.
A roar of hatred and rage so intense it bordered on wrath made me flinch. Heavy wing beats heralded Dianna taking to the sky.
“Fool,” I hissed.
Gods dammit. She had no idea the firepower Milani had.
I watched as she charged after the ship like an idiot.
Who would have thought she had it in her to be such a fool in love?
As I began to transform, I wondered if there had ever been a time when she would have fought for me like this.
Had I done things differently, could she have loved me like this?
Was this what I killed before it ever had a chance to be?
I crouched, preparing to go after her and stop her, but it was too late.
A cannon emerged from the back of the ship, and I watched in frozen horror as it rotated, opening its power reservoir and firing.
Energy crackled from the burst meant to shred her to tiny burning bits.
Dianna spun and tucked her wings tightly against her body, avoiding the blast. If she weren’t so stupid, I would have been impressed.
Another gun fired, and learning her tricks, this time, when she dodged, she flew into a wall of flames.
Her screech pierced my cold, dead heart, and I ran toward her falling form, momentarily forgetting that I had wings.
She spun, her side sizzling as she fell through the open air.
My Ig’Morruthen raged to protect her and took over, crouching and launching me like a spear.
I was airborne within seconds, but it was almost too late.
My wings curved around her moments before we hit the ground.
I took the brunt of the fall, the street bending under my body.
Pain settled into my bones as we came to a skidding stop.
I groaned and huffed as we both returned to our mortal forms.
It had been years since I last held Dianna in my arms, and an old familiar feeling stirred in my chest. If I were being honest with myself, I had loved her for a thousand years and would love her far longer.
I had attacked it so many times, feeding on Tobias’s and Alistair’s derision and repudiation of Dianna and her place in my life.
I allowed their words, Nismera’s orders, and my own weakness to maul it and attempt to destroy her.
My efforts were successful, but whatever salvageable parts remained within me were destroyed in the process.
I sat up, carefully cradling her limp form on my lap.
One side of her body was burned from her scalp to her toes.
My hand shook as it hovered over her head and the small clumps of hair that remained.
I looked over the burned parts of her body and the clothes that barely clung to her form, trying to find some way to touch her without causing her more damage.
Her body was already healing, but I didn’t want to cause her more pain.
I had done enough of that to last both of our lifetimes ten times over.
Isaiah strode toward us, Imogen still unconscious and cradled against his chest. “You okay?” he asked, his voice filled with concern.
“Yeah,” I answered, carefully slipping my arms under Dianna and pushing to my feet.
Isaiah squinted between the growing smoke and sunlight peeking through it, glancing toward the sky, and then at me.
“We can leave with them,” he said, and I knew he meant every word. “We can leave Samkiel where he is, get a jumpstart on finding a cure for Imogen, and find out what Nismera is truly doing. Fuck, maybe we can even find a loophole around this bond. We can go wherever we want and just disappear.”
We could. The offer was so tempting that a part of me ached to do just that.
I glanced down at Dianna’s sleeping form, wishing with the entirety of my shriveled black heart that I could keep her.
A voice that sounded suspiciously like Death’s whispered in my ear that I could.
I could repeat the same mistakes I had made throughout our time together.
I could lock her up, keep her to myself once more, build a barrier so strong that not even the King of Gods could enter.
Who knows, maybe Milani would take him to Nismera to die by her hand.
My arms tightened around Dianna as I watched her breathe.
Her eyes fluttered as she fought for consciousness, her skin slowly knitting.
My heart screamed that this was not the same lost girl from the desert.
This Dianna was not the one who had begged me for her sister’s life.
She was not the one who, at one point, looked at me with affection, even if it was a pale imitation of how she looked at Samkiel.
No. Dianna was not mine.
“No,” I finally said, casting a glance back at Isaiah and opening a blazing portal in front of us. “We’re heading back.”
Isaiah nodded, accepting my decision and following me as always.
Perhaps Death had truly changed me. I knew that at one time, the old me would have jumped at the possibility of claiming her.
Would have offered Isaiah the same opportunity he gave me, but I knew then and there that not only had I died on that planet, but I hadn’t come back whole either.
I adjusted Dianna in my arms, and she groaned from the jolt.
With not even a second glance at the carnage behind us, we stepped through the portal, leaving the burning city to itself.