Chapter Thirteen
Sebastian
Standing outside the infirmary, I leaned against the stone wall and flexed my fingers. My hand stopped fading once our powers returned, but I still remembered the way my cloak had loosened near the wrist when it began to turn translucent.
Strange—how all five fingers had still been there. I’d wiggled each one, rolled my wrist, even felt every sense that the hand was still intact. But I couldn’t grasp anything.
I wondered if that was what amputees felt—phantom limbs, ghost sensations in places that no longer existed.
When would it happen? When our powers disappeared again? Or would it start beforehand, like earlier? The memory of Isabella’s terrified expression twisted in my chest.
The realization that I was next—that I was fading, just like my father had—settled into me with a quiet clarity I didn’t want to acknowledge.
We were out of time.
Out of time with Isabella.
How I longed to be back on that beach with her. Even if just for a moment. I’d give anything to hear her laugh again, to feel the sun warming our skin.
But the world was dying.
The oceans were likely in ruin. The beach where I’d taken her—our place—was probably gone. And just like my fading hand, that future slipped through my fingers.
I never ran out of hope. But lately, I’ve been brimming with fear.
Shit.
We had no idea what Kitty was going through. Her essence still felt strong—but that didn’t mean she was safe.
I didn’t notice Isabella until her small hand slid up my neck, resting softly against my cheek.
Instinctively, I leaned into her touch, dipping my head to meet her reach.
I hadn’t felt my curse in so long—her energy overwhelmed it completely.
I’d touched her so much, so often, the curse had just… stopped working.
Even so, my little lightning bolt still refused to let me touch her when I was mortal. She was terrified that her darkness might kill me. I knew better.
Curse or not, she was mine.
That darkness inside her—it was hers. And she knew that now. But old fears didn’t vanish easily.
“Mmm.” I closed my eyes, relishing her electric touch. “That’s the good shit right there.”
She laughed, that gorgeous laugh I’d never stop chasing—until it halted.
When I opened my eyes, I saw tears pooling in hers.
“You don’t have to keep this energy up with me,” she whispered. “I know your thoughts. It’s okay to be tired.”
I turned my face, brushing a kiss against her palm. “I’m never tired thanks to you.”
She frowned gently. “You know what I mean. It’s exhausting trying to hold yourself together all the time. We’re allowed to break. We can fall apart and still stop our enemies. None of us expects the other to carry it alone.”
I thought of Harvest. Of what he’d do to Isabella if I faded.
The terror gripped me like water flooding my lungs.
No.
I couldn’t fall apart. I wouldn’t. Harvest could never touch her again.
We had to save Kitty. We had to stop Barron before he did something suicidal.
I pulled away from Isabella, praying to every fucking god left that she hadn’t caught any of those thoughts.
I kissed her forehead and tucked my trembling hands inside my cloak. “Let’s go check on Barron.”
When I opened the infirmary door, my jaw tightened, and the worry doubled. “Where the bloody hell is he? I was only out in the hall for a few minutes.”
“Can you get a read on him?” Isabella asked.
I closed my eyes, searching. I found his essence in the human world.
What the hell?
“Inform August where I’m going.”
“I can come—”
“No.” My tone was sharp. “All I’m doing is bringing him back. I’ll have Nova imprison him if I have to.”
I faded into the human world, arriving inside someone’s home. The house was perched high on a hill. Thunder crackled across the sky as lightning flashed, revealing towering trees to my left.
Stepping onto the balcony, I looked out and froze.
The entire city below was underwater.
Only the rooftops remained visible. House after house swallowed by the flood.
A tight, crawling unease wound through my chest. Hades…I prayed the humans were evacuated in time. But what if this wasn’t the only place like this?
No—
Don’t go there.
I made my choice to save Isabella back then.
And I’d make it a hundred times over, just to have those last few months with her again.
Turning away from the flood, I stepped inside—
And froze.
Barron stood behind a potbellied man who was a blubbering mess, crying and pleading for his soul.
The man was a ghost.
Barron yanked the poor soul back against his chest, and that’s when I noticed the rope in his grip. He didn’t offer the man a single word of reassurance as he strapped him down, tightening the rope across his chest like a harness.
What the hell was I witnessing?
When Barron spotted me, he tossed the line over the man’s shoulder and gestured.
“Help tighten this.”
“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice low with warning.
“You know exactly what I’m doing.” Barron tapped the man on the head. “Catching a ride to Heaven.”
Then, turning to the ghost: “Thanks for the help, Jimmy. I’m going to go get my mate—and stop the world from plunging any further into chaos.”
“Please, let me go,” the ghost whimpered. “I dedicated my life to the Lord…”
“I know.” Barron’s voice softened for a breath. “And I appreciate that more than you know.”
He materialized his scythe. The gate to Heaven cracked open before them, casting golden light into the dark room.
“Don’t you—”
Barron ran straight into the portal with the ghost before I could even finish speaking.
I froze, blinking as the gate winked out of existence.
No way.
No fucking way that worked.
We tried entering Heaven’s portal a hundred times back when we first started working for Dad—mostly for shits and giggles. It never worked. The barrier always threw us back as if we were ping-pong balls. But somehow…the ghost had tricked the gate.
Suddenly, my head spun with possibilities.
Holy shit.
We could rescue Kitty.
A loud crack split through the air as the bright light returned. I had no time to brace—hell, I hadn’t even known I needed to.
Barron’s broad back came flying toward me like a battering ram. When he collided with me, it was like getting hit by a goddamn semi-truck. We were launched out of the house, over the balcony. I couldn’t even scream.
I tumbled down a steep hill, groaning as I rolled. Something—maybe a stick—stabbed into my ribs. My breath vanished. For a second, I couldn’t tell if I was alive. I finally slid to a stop in the soggy grass, gasping.
Clutching my stomach, I slowly sat up. Could’ve been worse.
I eyed how close I’d come to rolling into the water. A few more feet, and I would’ve been swept into the flooded city below.
Shit.
Where was Barron?
Did he slide into the water?
A few feet to my left, I spotted him—and my stomach dropped.
Steam poured off his tattered body as rain pelted down on us. He was nude, skin scorched with burn marks, his entire form trembling from the aftermath.
“Barron!”
Idiot.
I ran toward my brother, heart pounding. Heaven might’ve thrown him back, but at least it let him live.