Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
GAbrIEL
Thick darkness clung to the edges of a pathway of glowing cherry blossoms. They floated upward as we ran, drifting in slow motion around us.
Out in the shadows I could see the Cherry Moon, a small, distant disk overseeing everything. Feeding the light in my hands and the hope in my heart.
I’m coming, Aki.
My skull ached, yearning for his face. Full to the brim with so many thoughts, Akira at the very top of the pile. Nothing else mattered until I found him.
Zach kept pace with me, just as laser-focused on the task ahead.
“Help Akira find his path.”
A new life for my fiancé. Back to the big fights, the life-threatening drama.
He can’t go back.
I won’t let him.
The wolves began to slow, the path curving to the left. In the distance, a wall of off-white stone waited.
Rose stopped, glancing back at us.
“Through there?” I asked.
Bob looked next, then they both vanished through the wall.
In other words, yes.
I sped up until the wall stopped me.
This wasn’t stone. It was bone.
Zach arrived beside me, catching his breath.
Behind this wall I sensed him, felt his warmth, his light. Even smelled him baking his dark chocolate and raspberry brownies—his undisputed masterpiece.
Aki…
Stretching my limbs, I inspected the wall. It was smooth, most of it hidden by the darkness around us, apart from this exposed section.
Touching it sent a chill rushing through my veins, a freezing rejection of me. I resisted, pressing harder, feeling for any sign of weakness. My heart was pounding, my love an incredible swell.
The lights in my fingertips blinked one by one, then sent ripples of pink across the bone. It warmed up, beating back the chilly rebuff, letting me see a flash of him.
“Aki…”
Zach’s breath shivered behind me, his hand landing on my shoulder. More warmth flooded my system, twinning with my love. Churning it, whipping it up into incredible force.
The sibling and the soulmate were here to kick ass.
A growl rumbled in my chest. “Let him go.”
The bone heated up further, tiny cracks appearing across the surface. The cold tried fighting back, but my hand pressed harder into it, Zach pouring more magic into me.
“He is mine. He is ours.” I bared my teeth, echoes of my wolf nature always there to feed my strength, to show the world they didn’t get to mess with what was mine.
“Break!” I roared. “Break and let him go!”
Pink sparks shot across the surface, the cracks widening, the heat intensifying.
“Aki!” I bellowed. “My Aki!”
Almost there, the bone about to give.
The promise I’d made remained intact. He was going to be okay.
Zach practically crushed my shoulder, his love for his brother a powerful tsunami.
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
“Let him go!”
The final roar triggered a violent explosion, sending me flying backward.
I hit the path, the blossoms cushioning most of the fall. Zach landed beside me. A spray of bone fragments rained down on us and I brought my arms up, protecting my face. They hit, biting into my exposed skin, not causing any substantial damage.
“G?”
Aki!
I sat up, quickly glancing at Zach. He was splayed on his back like a starfish with a few cuts on his face, but fine.
He signed for me to go.
I thanked him and leapt to my feet, hurrying toward the smoking hole where the bone wall used to be. I dove through it, hitting pink sand face-first, my right-side colliding with a body.
“Fuck!” Aki yelped.
I righted myself, running on a speedy autopilot, cleaving through the sand until his eyes met mine.
“Hey,” he whispered.
I went to grab him, but something snapped around my neck and tightened, crushing my windpipe.
“G!”
Colorful dots burst across my vision. I jammed my fingers under the bitingly cold wire, only enough to buy me a short amount of time.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Aki howled at a presence behind me.
“Love is such a weakness!” a horrible voice returned.
The same horrible voice who tried telling me Aki had died.
My love came at me, reaching for the contracting wire.
As he got within inches of touching me, I was yanked back, sent spinning through light and color and sound until I appeared in my central garden.
Bathed in the light of the holy moon, hanging from the highest branch of the cherry tree, trapped in an hourglass quickly filling with pink sand.