Chapter 12
KASTIEL
Lirael had stepped out for a short break after their first training session, giving Isolde a few minutes to breathe. I stayed where I was, leaning against the far wall of the training suite, watching my mate process everything she’d learned.
She sat on the edge of the low bench, her elbows on her knees while she stared at her hands like she’d never seen them before.
The mate bond pulled at me harder than ever, an insistent thrum that made my demon restless.
She was trying so hard to be brave, and it only made me want to wrap her in shadows and shield her from the entire world.
“You’re doing better than you think. When Lirael assessed your powers yesterday, you couldn’t let a thread out without it sparking everywhere. After only a few hours of training, you held it steady for almost a minute. That’s a lot of progress in a short amount of time.”
Isolde looked up, her emerald eyes still shadowed with doubt. “My aura still feels like it wants out more than I want to let it.”
The air split with a violent crack that was becoming too familiar. This rift was worse than the others, tearing open near the center of the room—a jagged, pulsing wound in reality that bled thick black smoke.
The temperature plummeted to an icy cold. My shadows surged to the surface instinctively, coiling around my arms as I pushed off the wall and moved between Isolde and the rift.
A low, guttural snarl echoed from the tear. Then something massive and wrong slithered through.
This was an entity created in the depths of hell—taller than me, with elongated limbs ending in razor claws that dripped oily darkness. Its eyes were empty sockets that seemed to swallow light. And when it opened its jagged maw, I felt the pull of the void trying to drag everything toward it.
The rift pulsed wider behind it, and I worried what else might escape if it didn’t get sealed shut quickly enough to prevent any additional incursions.
“Isolde, stay behind me,” I growled, shadows lashing out in thick tendrils to form a barrier between us and the creature.
But the entity was fast. It lunged forward with unnatural speed, claws slashing through the air. One swipe caught my side before I could fully dodge, the void energy burning like acid through my shirt and into my flesh.
Pain flared hot and deep, but I didn’t have time to register it. My demon roared to the surface, flames flickering in my eyes as I unleashed a wave of shadows to slam the creature back toward the rift.
Isolde’s breath hitched behind me. I could feel her aura spiking with fear and determination, the crackling lightning she was still terrified to use now dancing along her fingertips.
The entity shrieked, the sound scraping against my senses. Then it twisted toward her, void eyes locking onto the bright sparks of her power like a predator scenting fresh blood.
She would never be his prey while I still had breath left in my body.
I surged forward, shadows exploding outward in razor-edged coils that slammed into the entity’s chest and drove it back a step.
The creature shrieked again, the sound scraping like broken glass across my nerves as it lashed out with dripping claws.
I twisted aside, but one slash still grazed my shoulder, burning like liquid ice.
Behind me, I felt Isolde’s aura spike.
“Stay back!” I barked, flinging another wave of shadows to form a protective wall between the beast and us.
But she didn’t listen.
Instead, she stepped up beside me, eyes wide with terror yet blazing with determination. “I’m not letting it hurt you!”
Her hands came up. A jagged bolt of crackling lightning erupted from her palms, far stronger than anything she’d managed in training this morning. It slammed into my shadows instead of dissipating harmlessly.
The moment her lightning touched my darkness, something extraordinary happened.
The two powers didn’t fight. They complemented each other.
My shadows thickened and sharpened where her lightning struck them, turning from flexible tendrils into gleaming obsidian blades edged with white-blue electricity. The entity recoiled as if burned, eyes widening in something close to pain.
Isolde gasped, but she didn’t pull back. “Kastiel, together!”
I fed more shadows into the strike, letting her lightning infuse them. The combined attack lashed forward like a living storm, with my darkness providing the reach and containment while her lightning delivered the devastating bite.
The entity howled as the electrified shadows wrapped around its limbs, pinning it in place while the lightning seared through its smoky form.
The rift behind it pulsed violently, and Isolde’s aura flared brighter, her fear giving way to instinct. Another bolt shot from her hands, feeding directly into my shadows. The synergy was breathtaking—her storm power charging my darkness until the air itself crackled with ozone and midnight.
“Close it!” I growled, shoving every ounce of power I had into the attack.
Together, we drove the entity back toward the rift. My shadows coiled tighter, dragging it screaming into the tear while Isolde’s lightning hammered at the edges of the rift itself, sealing the jagged wound with bursts of white-blue energy.
The creature gave one final, ear-splitting shriek as the rift snapped shut around it, severing its form. Black ichor splattered across the floor before evaporating into smoke.
I staggered, the burn in my side and shoulder suddenly roaring to life now that the immediate threat was gone. Deep claw slashes cut across my ribs and shoulder, blood soaking my shirt and dripping onto the obsidian floor.
Isolde spun toward me, her eyes wide with horror. “Kastiel!”
She dropped to her knees beside me as I sank against the wall, one hand pressed to the worst gash. Pain throbbed in time with my heartbeat, but all I could focus on was my mate. She was safe. That was the only thing that mattered.
“You’re hurt,” she whispered, her voice trembling. Her hands hovered over the wounds, shaking. “Because of me—”
“Not because of you,” I rasped, reaching for her with my good arm.
But she wasn’t listening. Tears tracked down her cheeks as she pressed her palms to the deepest slash on my side. The moment her skin touched mine, something shifted.
Her aura flowed into me instinctively, but it was unlike anything I’d felt before. It poured over the void burns, easing the acid bite and knitting torn flesh with gentle heat. The sensation was intimate in a way nothing else had ever been—her power wrapping around me, healing instead of taking.
Isolde’s eyes widened as she felt the difference too. She kept her hands on me, pouring more of herself into the wounds until the worst of the pain began to fade.
I stared at her, filled with awe and something far deeper than possession. I knew without a doubt that I would burn the world down before I ever let her starve herself again.
As the flow of blood slowed and the pain eased, I tried to pull her closer, needing to see for myself that she was unharmed.
“Isolde,” I rasped. “Are you hurt? Tell me you’re okay.”
She sniffled. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. You’re the one bleeding.”
I turned so she could get a better look at the worst injury. “Not so much anymore, thanks to you.”
Isolde’s breath hitched, her eyes flying open in shock. “I don’t know how I did that. I just wanted to help.”
“And you did, my little spark.” I covered one of her hands with my own, holding her palm against me. “Don’t pull back now. I’m almost completely healed because of you.”
She was still shaking, tears dripping onto my bloodied shirt, but she didn’t pull away. The mate bond flared brighter between us, the incomplete link humming with new strength as her aura fed mine in the gentlest way possible.
My fated mate had been terrified of her own power for years, yet the moment I was hurt, she reached for it instinctively to save me.
I cupped her face with my free hand, my thumb brushing away her tears. “Look at what you just did, baby.”
She let out a shaky sob, but her hands stayed pressed to my side. The worst of the void burns had already faded to angry red lines, the bleeding only the barest trickle. She leaned into me, resting her forehead against mine.
“I was so scared,” she whispered. “I thought I was going to lose you.”
“You won’t.” I pressed a kiss to her cheek, tasting salt from her tears. “Not when you can do this.”
She let out a small, broken laugh that sounded half like a sob, but she didn’t move away. Her hands stayed on me, her aura still gently soothing the last echoes of pain.
And I would spend the rest of my life proving to her that she was safe to let her powers shine.