This is the beginning of the end.
Small explosions sounded nearby and the rain shot down like sheets of glass. I studied the place where Sammael had disappeared as I answered. ‘I’ve always known,’ I said, realising now that it was true. ‘I just wasn’t ready to believe it.’
‘What?’
I held out my hand for Lincoln. He took it without question and I looked deep into his green eyes, hoping I might have the chance after all of this to tell him all the things that my heart wanted to scream from a very different rooftop. ‘I know who my angel maker is,’ I said. Lincoln watched me, holding his balance strong against the weather, his eyes flickering as he tried to make sense of my words … and then widening when he did.
‘Oh,’ he said.
I mirrored the thought and pulled my katana from the sheath at my back, checking my arrows and that my secondary dagger strapped to my thigh was in place. ‘Are you ready?’
‘Always,’ he said simply.
With my love at my side, with my angel maker waiting for me, and with death already at the party, I crossed the realms.
I escorted Lincoln through the cross-over, knowing I was risking it all, considering that everything I wanted was held clasped in my sweaty hand. But this was my life. His too. And we would take this chance together.
Even so, I tightened my hold.
The moment we made the transition the wind vanished, the rain stopped and we were in another place, an uncharted space.
‘The desert?’ Lincoln asked, looking around first in wonder, then in panic. ‘Vi, there’s nothing … anywhere.’
I shook my head. ‘The space can be anything. For some reason I almost always conjure a desert, but now that we’re here, I can …’ I smiled. ‘Watch.’
I closed my eyes, willing this image away and for the truth of this space to reveal itself to me. I opened my eyes when I heard Lincoln gasp.
‘Oh my God,’ he said.
The desert was gone.
Darkness enveloped us.
Lost souls glittered in the space beyond. And hundreds of rainbows lit the nothingness before us. Bridges to a cosmos of possibilities.
My angel maker stood at a distance, another at his side. My maker’s expression remained calm, his sword gripped loosely in his right hand. The angel beside him was startlingly identical to my maker, though I instinctively knew that he was his opposite in every way.
Like Uri and Nox. The ultimate balance of light and dark.
And behind them … an angelic army wearing silver armour over white linen and holding imposing swords were mounted on a field of proud white horses. The vision so otherworldly, so … heavenly, it almost brought me to my knees.
Sammael’s back was to us as he stood facing them on foot, his sword at the ready. His glasses and shoes were gone and he was now in grey linen pants with an untucked white shirt.
I wasn’t sure if he knew we had crossed over. But my angel maker’s eyes looked beyond him – even as Sammael shouted his challenge – and deep into mine, searching, knowing.
Did he always know it would come to this?
I think he must have.
Tentatively I released Lincoln’s hand, hesitating before letting him go completely and flinching with relief when he remained beside me when we finally broke the last contact.
‘A challenge is my right in this place!’ Sammael yelled. ‘Would you set your army on me or prove your worth? You who are so mighty, favoured above all others, and so worthy of all praise!’
It wasn’t difficult to play the conversation forward. Angels were prideful creatures even though they claimed to be emotionless. Not one would hide from a forthright challenge, nor would they relinquish the chance to defeat a mighty foe such as Sammael.
Sensing what I was about to do, Lincoln leaned close to my ear. ‘Our connection is altered in this place. I don’t think I can heal you here,’ he whispered desperately. ‘You’re still weak from the blood loss. Let me do this.’
I turned to him and cupped his face in my hand. ‘You will. You’ll be with me every step of the way, but we both know it has to be me.’
Tears welled in his eyes but did not fall. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly and gave a short nod. ‘Be smart. Be ruthless. And keep our connection open. If I can help, let me,’ he said.
I nodded and my heart swelled. This, more than anything, was Lincoln’s great sacrifice. His willingness to let me take the ultimate risk, knowing there was a great chance I would not survive, was an act of love beyond anything I had believed possible. Using my control and will of this space in time, I altered my katana as I approached, lengthening the blade to match that of Sammael’s.