20 Scarlett
“Somewhere between heartbreak and desperation, I touched something divine.”
“No. No. No. No. No.” The words tear from my throat as I drop beside Asher.
Blood. There is so much blood. My hands slam against the wound in his chest, trying desperately to stop it. To hold him together. To keep him here.
“Asher!” His eyes flutter then close.
“No!” I scream.
Around me, chaos continues, someone is shouting, someone is calling for medical supplies. I don't care. Nothing matters except him and I cant feel his heart
“Stay with me,” I beg, my voice breaking. “Please stay with me.”
The realization hits me like a freight train. He's dying, the man I love is dying.
“Scarlett, move.” Grant's voice sounds distant. Like he's underwater. “Scarlett, I need to get to him.”
I shake my head violently.
“No.”
“Scarlett.”
“No!”
I press harder against the wound, as if enough pressure can force his heart to keep beating. Tears blur my vision. I can't lose him, not after everything. He saved me, taught me what it felt like to be loved, gave me family a home.
“You can't leave me,” I sob, my tears fall onto his face. “You promised.”
Grant kneels beside me.
“Scarlett, let me help him.”
“He needs me.”
“Scarlett—” I vaguely hear Harper I feel her try to help me up.
“He needs me!” I scream.
Grant reaches for my shoulder and I shrug him off, I refuse to let go. When he tries to pull me back, I wrap myself around Asher's body and hold on with everything I have. Like if I let go for even a second, he'll disappear. Like if I stop touching him, he'll be gone forever.
“I can't do this without you,” I whisper.
The words are barely audible.
“I can't lose another person I love.” My chest aches and my entire body shakes. The grief is unbearable. It is crushing and all consuming.
“Please,” I cry. “Please don't leave me.” My hands tighten over his wound. “Come back.” The room spins.
“Come back!” A sob rips from my chest.
“ASHER!” Something inside me breaks. Not my heart, something deeper, something older.
A pain so intense that it feels like it is ripping through my soul itself.
The air around me suddenly changes. The room grows still and all of a sudden, it’s completely silent.
Every hair on my body stands up. Heat floods through me it doesn’t feel painful but almost powerful, like sunlight pouring through every vein.
The grief inside me transforms into something else.
Then Light. Pure, brilliant light erupts from my body.
The entire basement explodes with it, the force knocks everyone backward.
Grant.
Roman.
Harper.
The light is everywhere. It is blinding and beautiful and maybe a little terrifying if I’m being honest.
It wraps around me and Asher like wings.
I can't see anyone else anymore. There is only him.
Only us. The warmth flowing through me becomes overwhelming.
I feel lighter than air. Yet stronger than I've ever felt in my life.
Every cell in my body hums with energy and with purpose.
The light then begins to pour from my hands into him, into his wound. And suddenly... I feel it.
A heartbeat.
My breath catches. No. No way. The light begins to fade and the room slowly comes back into focus.
My vision clears but the warmth remains just lingering beneath my skin.
Asher's chest rises. Then a hand settles against my back.
I freeze. Slowly, I look down into Asher's open eyes The exact same eyes that have haunted my dreams since the night he opened his front door and found me standing there.
Tears are still spilling down my face, but for a whole different reason now.
His arms slide around me and pull me against him.
He's alive. He buries his face in my hair.
And then, softly enough that only I can hear him, he whispers—
“I love you, Red.” A broken laugh escapes me and more tears follow. His hand cups the back of my neck.
“I'm never leaving you.” The words shatter what little control I have left. A sob escapes me as I throw my arms around his neck and hold on like if I let go, he'll disappear again. For several long seconds, I can't speak. I just cling to him, feeling his heartbeat and his arms around me.
“Asher,” My voice is trembling so badly I barely recognize it. “You were dead.”
His grip tightens.
“I thought I lost you.” Something flashes across his face. Pain, not physical pain, but the kind that comes from seeing someone you love hurting.
“Hey.” His thumb brushes away a tear. “Look at me.”
I do and those beautiful blue eyes lock onto mine.
“I told you,” he says quietly. “I'm not going anywhere.”
The room around us finally starts to come back to focus and that's when I finally notice everyone staring.
Even Celeste.
Every single one of them is frozen looking at me and Asher. Looking at the blood-covered floor where he had been dead only moments ago. Grant is the first to speak.
“What the fuck?” The words echo through the basement.
“For once,” Roman says, “I genuinely have no smart-ass comment.”
“Same,” Harper whispers.
I look down, the blood is still there, so is the hole in Asher's shirt. But the wound itself... it is gone. Like it had never existed. Asher follows my gaze.
“How did this happen?” I shake my head.
“I don't know.” I have no idea what happened other than I felt like my soul was being ripped apart and then suddenly I felt stronger and lighter, like something that has been asleep inside me my entire life just woke up.
The feeling is still there, beneath my skin.
I can feel it flowing through my veins. A small movement across the room catches my attention.
Thomas. He looks mesmerized. Like he just witnessed the exact thing he'd been waiting for eighteen years.
His eyes meet mine. Whatever he sees there causes him to take an involuntary step forward.
“No,” Asher says firmly his gun now raised and on Thomas.
The room goes still, and Thomas face goes completely white.
“Thomas, I think it is time you start telling us everything you know.” Asher says as he takes my hand and walk over to Thomas and pushes the gun into his chest until he is sitting in the exact same chair I was tied up in not that long ago. Thomas still wont look at him, his gazed is locked on me.
“Your mother hoped that your power would never manifest,” he says, almost to himself. “Laura said it would take a miracle to bring it out of you..”
“What power?” I ask.
He doesn't answer, but his eyes remain fixed on me, then slowly he turns to look at Asher and the blood-covered floor. Thomas swallows hard. For the first time since we've known him, he looks afraid. His eyes flick between me and Asher's body before settling back on me.
"You brought him back." The words barely make it out of his mouth. I feel Asher's fingers tighten around mine.
"What the fuck is he talking about, dude did you hit your head when you went down?" Roman growls and Thomas lets out a broken laugh.
"Laura was right."
"Thomas," Grant snaps. "Start talking."
Thomas continues staring at me as the lights overhead flicker violently.
One bursts and glass rains onto the floor. Nobody moves or breathes, except Thomas slowly lowers his head and lets out a defeated laugh. His gaze drifts to me again.
"Your mother wasn't supposed to have a child, from what I found out everything points to it was almost near impossible for her to get pregnant. Laura was in love with someone else before she ever met me."
"Who?"
"Aiden Seraphine."
Thomas reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out an old leather journal, my mother’s journal. He places it on the table.
"I found this and others like it after she died." My eyes lock onto the worn cover.
"I thought she was having an affair." His laugh is bitter. "Turns out I was right, it was just before we ever met." Thomas rubs a hand over his face.
"They met when she was twenty-one."
Asher's arm tightens around my waist.
"One night Laura was walking back to her apartment after class. A man tried to rob her. Before she could even scream, someone stepped out of nowhere. He stopped the mugger without ever touching him."
Roman frowns.
"How?" Thomas looks at him.
"She didn’t know, just that one minute he was there and the next he was laying on the ground across the street.” Nobody speaks, but then Harper's mouth falls open.
"Okay, now we're definitely in crazy territory, I think he definitely hit his head, or maybe he lost it long before now. You think he needs to be 302’d"
Thomas ignores her.
"Laura thought she was hallucinating."
I can't tear my eyes away from him.
"She wasn't." His gaze returns to me.
"The man introduced himself as Aiden Seraphine."
"He was the last living descendant of the Seraphines."
"And what exactly is a Seraphine?" Asher demands
Thomas lets out a slow breath.
"A bloodline created from the descendants of the Archangel Michael."
The room erupts.
"Okay you really are insane." Roman laughs and Thomas slams his hand onto the table.
"I KNOW HOW IT SOUNDS! Trust me. I fought it too, but Laura spent years documenting everything." He opens the journal and pages covered in elegant handwriting stare back at us.
"Healing abilities. Enhanced strength. Heightened senses. Longevity."
My pulse pounds.
"You are saying she is an angel?"
Thomas shakes his head.
"No." His voice softens.
"They were human enough to live among us." He glances down at the journal. "But when their purpose on Earth was fulfilled..." He swallows hard. "They were called home."
The room goes silent again.
"Home?" Harper asks.
"Heaven."
The word hangs heavily in the air and Thomas nods.
"The Seraphines lived normal lives for years. They loved. They married. They had children. I guess somewhere along the lines, from what your father told your mother, the lines started slowing down and he was the last descendant" His eyes settle on me.
"Every generation inherited gifts, as they grew older, those gifts became stronger. Eventually they were summoned to serve alongside Michael."
I can barely breathe.
"My father was one of them?"
"Yes."
"What happened to him?" Thomas looks down.
"Laura never knew. One day he was simply gone."