“Oliver …” I had to be imagining things. “Am I … really back?”
He gave me a kind smile when he stopped in front of me. “Yeah, sweets, you really are.” He grabbed my wrist. “And now we’ve got to go.”
I stared down at his arm. “Where are we going?”
“Away.”
The crowd stirred, watching us uneasily. We made a pair—him in his white clothing, me a dress of dark cobwebbed lace. Darkness and light.
“Look at me, Gabrielle.”
I glanced over at him.
“Time to let your siren out.”
My siren? Even as I thought about her, she rushed to the surface, making my skin glow.
Gasps came from the crowd.
Next to me, Oliver’s skin began to glitter. It didn’t have the same effect as mine, but between the light emanating from my skin and the moonlight, he looked just as unearthly as I did.
Oliver stared at me strangely, then took a deep breath. He ran a hand behind my neck. My eyes widened as he leaned forward. And then Oliver was kissing me.
We appeared in the middle of the Braaid, the Isle of Man’s stone circle.
Oliver tore himself away from me and began wiping his mouth with his forearms.
“Ugh, ew, you taste like death. I’m never kissing a girl ever again—siren or not.”
I shivered, holding my arms tightly to my chest. A chill sank into my bones, a chill that had little to do with the cool evening air or my skimpy outfit. The last twelve hours …
I shouldn’t be here.
“Of course you should,” Oliver said.
I hadn’t realized I’d spoken out loud. I dropped my arms and began walking away from my friend.
“Hey, ho-bag, where are you going?”
“Away.” I didn’t bother glancing behind me when I spoke.
Something was wrong with me. In the Underworld I had felt normal. Here I felt unnatural. Wrong.
“No, no, no, no—that’s not how this works. I save your ass, so now you’re in my debt. Fae bargain, get it?”
I ignored him as memories surged. Memories not of this world. My skin prickled, and I shivered. Would I ever be warm?
Maybe near hellfire, but not here.
The grass flattened away from me. Wherever my feet touched, the ground blackened, and the foliage died. My gown slithered behind me.
Oliver jogged to my side. “You are not leaving me, ho. Wherever you go, I’m going too.”
I knew the first place I was going. “Fine. Take me to Castle Rushen.”
“And what’s at Castle Rushen?”
My revenge.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said to him. “Will you take me there?”
Oliver sighed. “What about Andre?”
I stopped, my knees threatening to buckle. “Don’t say his name.” If the devil’s name had power to conjure phantom winds, then Andre’s had the power to crush the last of my soul.
“You should visit him, show him that you’re okay.”
My gaze snapped to Oliver. “I am not okay.”
I was the Queen of the Underworld.
I was a monster.
Andre
Wakefulness came in a short, shuddering burst. Andre let out a low moan. He was empty, absolutely empty.
She’s gone. Oh, God, she’s gone.
He bellowed out his anguish. The vampires that had pinned him to the ground woke at his cry, their hands reflexively tightening on him.
“Damn you all, let me go!” He could feel cool wetness on his cheeks where fresh, bloody tears replaced old ones.
“We can’t,” Vicca said. Her voice sounded like an apology. He didn’t want an apology, he wanted away.
His blackened heart was shredded to pieces.
He couldn’t say how fast the time passed. It could’ve been minutes since he awoke. It could’ve been hours.
A shape blurred into the room, stopping near his feet. “Sire,” the vampire said, breathless.
Andre ignored the man. “Kill me, I beg of you,” he pleaded to those that held him down. He never used to plead, but now—God, what he wouldn’t do to end this torment. Hell had to be kinder than this.
“Sire,” the vampire repeated.
Andre thrashed. “Let. Me. Go!” He felt his hair ruffle, but that was it. He could no longer conjure his power.
Because I’ve given up.
“Is this what you want?” Andre roared at his vampires. “An existence bound to me? Holding me down?”
His coven had already started to drain him of blood. They would have to weaken him until he was a desiccated husk. Then they’d chain him inside a coffin and bury it so deep in the ground that the earth would convince him he was really a dead thing. Then perhaps he could sleep and they could live.
It wasn’t a good enough option. He needed death. That was the only way he could be near enough to her.
“Sire!” the vampire shouted, finally drawing Andre’s attention. “Gabrielle is alive.”
Gabrielle
“Why did you kiss me?” I asked. We sat in the back of a taxi that headed towards Castletown.
Oliver’s lips curled. “Ugh, don’t remind me. I was giving the people of Jerusalem a show. Leanne mentioned that this would be all over the news in a few hours. They’re going to call us the ‘Angels of Jerusalem.’”
“FYI—angels don’t kiss.”
“If they’re as hot as we are, they do.”