They wouldn’t lend a hand. Not if it meant going up against Gabriel, Queen Astral’s golden child. Even if they wanted to.
I stopped walking near the edge of the body of crystal clear water with no bottom in sight. Pain quaked through my wrist and up my arm as the bracelet burrowed deeper. Fucking thing.
My flesh was mangled from my attempt to remove the damn bracelet, and my healing ability wasn’t fucking working right. I was still strong, but I didn’t think I was strong enough to go against Gabriel if he actually wanted to hurt me again. The malicious grin on his bloody lips as he stood over my broken body barraged through my mind, and nausea churned my stomach.
Wind tousled my hair, and I glanced up to see Gabriel fly down beside me. He reached over and grabbed my maimed arm to heal it. I didn’t pull away as his warmth started knitting my skin back together, because quite frankly, it fucking hurt—but my skin still crawled with his touch.
“What’s this fucking bracelet do and why can’t I get it off?”
“It cuts off your magical powers and slows your healing rate.” He leaned forward after my arm was healed and pressed a kiss right next to the bracelet.
I snatched it away from him. “Why would you put this on me?”
He cleared his throat, gaze zeroing in on my lips where blood had dried on my skin from my attempt of getting the bracelet off. “You know, I didn’t just kill you because I was jealous. I mean, I was jealous. You knew what you meant to me, but your existence offset the balance.”
Offset balance my ass. I snorted as I dropped to my knees and cupped the water in my hands. As the water washed over the blood, it cleansed my skin. I wished we had magical water down in Hell. It’d make clean-up much easier.
Splashing my face with the water, I patted it into my skin before getting back to my feet. “That’s bullshit. First off, I meant nothing to you, and you dodged my question.”
“You’re wrong.” His white eyes had something more than irritation swirling inside them as he smirked, and my heart sank to my stomach. “I could do more for you than all of your harem combined.”
I clicked my tongue and willed myself not to cringe. I didn’t want to provoke the asshole when my powers weren’t working, but I also wanted to give him a piece of my mind.
“Let me show you something.” He held out his hand like a gentleman I knew he wasn’t. “I did something for you that none of your men could possibly do.”
“Then show me.” I knocked his hand away, and his smile grew.
“You’ll need to hold my hand so I can teleport us.” He held his hand out again.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed his cold hand. Shivers of revolution shook me to my core as his fingers wrapped around my hand, and he pulled me into his chest.
“You know, you didn’t always hate me,” he said, his breath fanning my hair.
My throat tightened. His body against mine sent frigid tendrils of fear through me that I wasn’t proud of. “That was before you hurt me beyond measure and murdered me.”
He stiffened. “Hurt you? I may have murdered you, but that was for the good of the world and you. Everything else I did was my way of saying goodbye. It’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“Wanted?” I croaked. “Gabriel, I still remember every fucking cut in my skin as you carved your name into it more times than I wanted to count. You chopped off the very thing that made me a demon.”
“Enough.” His voice was threatening, and his hold on me tightened, bruising my skin. “You chose a demon over me. What are demons known for? Torture.”
Surprise rippled through me. “Aziel never tortured me. Not once has he physically inflicted pain on me. You’re so wrong. I never wanted to be tortured.”
How deranged was he to think I actually wanted that? The screams that came out of me until I broke were awful…
He didn’t say another word before teleporting us into what was a massive ballroom. Crystal chandeliers spiraled down from the wide-open ceiling, illuminating the glimmering silver flecks in the white from the brightness of Heaven pouring into the structure.
Gabriel’s hand still rested on my lower back as I gazed across white marble flooring over toward four people I didn’t think I’d see for another eighty or so years.
My breath caught in my throat as my head whipped back to Gabriel. His face was so close to mine, our noses brushed from my quick movement. “Why are they here, Gabriel? How are they here?”
An impish smile made his mouth twitch. “Aren’t you wondering how you have angel blood inside you?”
My reply died on my tongue as I flicked my gaze back over to my family.
Mom was standing with one arm wrapped around her stomach and the other hand pressed to her lips as she stared back at me with ginger hair tumbling down her shoulders.
Dean stood next to her with his red hair slicked back and calculating eyes bouncing between Gabriel and me.