Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
AKIRA
“What did you say?” I bit out.
My ears better be deceiving me.
Sakura danced past my face. “Gabriel is here to help you make a choice.”
Fury turned my blood cold.
“You can try saving him,” the voice continued. “Or you can help save the world from the coming darkness.”
I winced, smacking back a bolt of grief coming for my soul. “You… You can’t—”
“Take the Cherry Blade, wield it to strike fear in the hearts of the mazoku once again. We have given you this small window, but you must be swift. Our efforts pour into the healing of the world, which allowed the mazoku to abuse our magic.”
G wasn’t dying tonight.
“We need a chosen warrior to hunt The Nine, to obliterate them while we hold back a greater tide.”
Ominous. Scary.
Not my problem while G suffered.
“The choice is yours, Akira. Save Gabriel for you both to die. Or let him go to save the many.”
Choice. My choice. And only one existed.
Gabriel would be saved, no questions asked.
No fucking alternative.
“If you do not claim the sword, he dies, and you die, bound to her for eternity. And she will roam unchecked without the wielder of the blade to hunt her.”
My choice.
He didn’t have to die.
“Take up the sword, and you will have the means to kill her and spare Gabriel’s soul. He will go in peace.”
Leaving me alone, in the cold, sorrow an endless deluge.
Fuck that.
“Give him peace. Avenge him. Choose.”
I balled my hands into fists.
“You must choose.”
We died together. Selfish of me for sure, but I wasn’t letting him die alone. Let us be bound to that Bony Hag. At least we’d…at least we’d be together.
“So close, yet so far, forbidden to ever consummate the burning, aching love again, even with mere feet between them.”
Oh, fuck. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t the choice before me.
The price.
Always a consequence.
G suffering because of her? If it were me, I could take it. I didn’t care about myself, but him? Man, I didn’t want that for him. He deserved so much more. At least dead he would be safe from her, free from—
I retched, barely keeping the puke down. “I can’t…I can’t do this.”
“You have seconds left to choose, Akira. And you must choose before the window closes. We are weakened by the greater tide. Please. We need you. The Cherry Blade is a potent concentration of our power, perfect to be bonded with your tenshi blood. While our eyes are on the greater tide, the sword’s power will break through any barriers and conditions the mazoku’s magical abuse has created. ”
“I can’t. I can’t be without him.”
“And the world cannot be without a warrior, especially one with your tenshi blood,” the voice continued. “We are not enough. With a warrior to fight in our name, The Nine can be destroyed so the healing force of the Cherry Moon may continue.”
And a world without G wasn’t a world I wanted to live in.
“I can’t…”
“Eight seconds to go,” the voice said. “Then it is done.”
No. Not seconds. I needed more time to find a loophole. Because I didn’t want the world to suffer either. I did care. I’d always care.
“Please… We’re supposed to be getting married.”
“Five… Four…”
“I can’t…I can’t be without him…”
“Three… Two… O—”
I saw movement, a body swooping in.
Zach pulled the blade from the ground, holding it aloft.
The crash in the cottage. Had that been him?
A bolt of pink lightning burst from the moon, striking the tip. It snaked down the steel, spreading along his arms until it reached his wrists, branding them with glowing pink Japanese script.
桜
(Sakura)
The markings smoldered like embers on his skin. His eye turned red like the ripest of cherries, shining so brightly it hurt my own peepers.
“Zach…”
My brother launched himself at Bony Hag with the katana. She hissed, going in for the attack. I got up, fueled by adrenaline and a cocktail of emotions.
G. G. G. G.
I slammed into the hourglass, punching, punching, punching. Magic poured into me, my hands alight with pink energy. They were hot as fuck, helping me damage this damn barrier.
Because of love.
Because of us.
Fissures spiderwebbed across the surface, the whole thing quaking.
“Gabriel!” I screamed. “I want my Gabriel!”
A burst of light, and my fist went through the glass, sand rushing out. I grabbed the edges of the hole, tearing off chunks until I could get through. The glass sliced my palm, blood running down my arm.
G. G. G. G.
The jagged edges of the hole bit at my flesh, tearing my clothing. And I didn’t care. Fuck the pain, fuck everything.
Wading through the sand, I reached the tree. With nothing sharp to hand, I jumped up to reach the branch. If I shook it hard enough, it’d break and he’d be free. That wire was tied too tightly for me to undo.
He looks so bad.
No. He was unconscious. Not dead, unconscious.
“Hold on!” I pleaded.
I got a grip on the branch. Using the trunk for extra purchase, I held on with both hands, shaking, tugging with all my might.
G bounced, the wood creaking, cherries and leaves falling around me.
“Come on!”
Shake. Shake. Scream.
The first time I saw you, I knew I wanted you.
You are my everything.
You don’t get to leave me.
My worst fears were coming true. This was it, the end of our time together, the cruel sting of the endless forward march of time burrowing into my heart.
“Please, G!” I wailed, shaking, pulling, desperate.
Do you remember our first kiss? In my living room of the Grays Inn Road flat? Man, I was so fucked up, so confused. Thought I’d behaved like such a wanker, because, let’s face it, I could be a mega wanker.
Talk about a gobshite!
But I loved kissing you then, and I’ve loved every kiss since. That moment, there on the floor with all the bedding and pillows and stuff, was the beginning of the end of the dead stars. Time for the glorious alive stars you bring every day.
You saved me.
You loved me.
“You’re not leaving me!” I roared.
The branch snapped. I went down, landing beside him on my back. He was so still, his eyes closed.
Oh, shit. He wasn’t breathing.
I rolled over, straddling him, pulling off the wire and then immediately started CPR.
Why do his lips look so blue?
Compressions, mouth-to-mouth. Rinse, repeat.
“Come on, G.”
No response.
I’m gonna lose—
“No, you’re fucking not!” I boomed.
It took me a while to realize my feelings for you, eh? Slow-burn at its finest. But when they bloomed, they seriously bloomed.
“Wake up, G!” I delivered another round of the kiss of life. “Don’t die! Don’t die! Don’t die!”
I remember the first time you bought me flowers. Yellow roses. For no reason. Just because you could.
No response.
No response.
There’s nothing I could ever say to best describe our love, G. I could wax lyrical for hours, paint a thousand canvasses to try and capture the feeling and still never get there. It’s bigger than anything, so beyond colors and words that even the stars don’t have a clue what to say.
“G!” I sobbed. “Please!”
An angry red line marked the skin of his neck.
“Please…”
We survived so much darkness, didn’t we? We got to come out of the fire, covered in ash for sure, but on the better side of the pyre.
Our love is not a weakness. Bony Hag doesn’t have a clue what love is, only how its destruction tastes.
She can go hump a grenade. She doesn’t get to break us.
Nothing will break us.
I don’t want to be afraid anymore.
I just want to love you.
Time is precious.
And so are you.
“Gabriel.” I was weakening so I took a pause. I gazed down at him. Sweat dripped off the tip of my nose to splash his cheeks. “I’m not letting you go.”
Another kiss.
Just another kiss.
I pressed my lips to his again, closing my eyes.