A self-satisfied Unforgiveness loomed over her, the flames licking all around them. “All this time I played with you, hoping he’d come. If he will not, if he continues to refuse, I’ll take you here and now and end you anyway. Let him find you violated, with your tormentor dead beside you.”
I haven’t lost yet, she tried to project with her eyes. I will pull through.
“Zacharel!” he shouted again, head thrown back, spine arched. “Have you no desire to save your female? This is your last chance.”
Koldo stepped inside the fiery circle. “I do. I have a desire.”
“How did you open the shield?” Thane demanded, rushing in behind him.
“Easy. The shield is my cloud,” Koldo said, holding out his arm to stop the warrior’s progress.
“Annabelle—”
“Not yet.”
Unforgiveness’s tail lashed out and slashed Koldo across the cheek. “Where’s Zacharel? Bring him here. Now.”
“He is in the heavens. He is not coming.”
A dark play of emotions passed over the demon’s face. “Very well. This ends now. But I won’t let you capture me and save her.” His tail jerked backward and poised at Annabelle’s throat, cutting into one of the puncture wounds. “If you want her to live, you’ll let me leave with her.”
Finish him, Koldo. Please.
Blood dripped down Koldo’s cheek. “No, you will not be leaving. I will be killing you. And I know that by killing you I am killing her, but that is the sacrifice she was willing to make. I will have to be content with the knowledge that I saved the world from your evil.”
“Do this, and the angels will die.”
“Impossible. They have already been saved.”
“How— It doesn’t matter.” The barb dug ever deeper as Unforgiveness ground out, “Zacharel will not want me dead.”
“What we want is not always what we need.”
Koldo held out his hand, created a sword of fire and struck, removing the demon’s head—just as his tail sliced through her neck.
Instantly black cascaded through her mind. She floated…floated away…floated into nothingness. For a fleeting moment, she thought she could hear Zacharel’s screaming.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“NOOOOO!” ZACHAREL’S SCREAM echoed through the Deity’s throne room.
He had tried to escape, and he had failed. He had beat at the double doors to no avail. He’d been forced to watch his woman combat his brother. The revelation of the monster his brother had become had nearly destroyed him, but his fear for Annabelle’s safety had proved stronger and had kept him fighting for his freedom. Still he’d failed, and ultimately he’d been forced to watch as one fought for the good of those she loved while the other fought for revenge, as they bled and Hadrenial cursed. Forced to watch as they both died.
Once again, he’d watched his brother’s head roll away from his body. Only this time it was worse, because Zacharel’s woman died alongside him.
“No!” He clawed at the walls, and suddenly he was clawing at air, the throne room gone and the hotel room in its place. He stood in the center of the charred circle, the smoke cleared and two dead bodies at his feet.
Annabelle’s robe was ripped to shreds, her neck gaping open.
Koldo stumbled out of the circle as if he’d been pushed, and maybe he had. He tried to get back in, but couldn’t. He and Thane, Bjorn and Xerxes tried to beat at an invisible wall to no avail.
Zacharel fell to his knees, tears gliding down his cheeks. “Can one still be saved?”
“Yes.” Though the Deity was not there, his voice echoed through the enclosure. “All you must do is choose.”
“How can you do this to me? How can you ask me to choose between the only two people I have ever loved? And for someone else’s sin! Are you really so cruel?”
“Cruel? What you have not yet learned is that the deaths you cause hurt me in ways you will never understand, and I’m glad that you will not. Such a burden you would not be able to bear. So, am I cruel for giving you a choice rather than leaving you with nothing?”