Page 64 of Crimson Soul
TWENTY-SIX
Blaise
Thank everything fucking good in this world that she was alive. The boulder sealing the cave had cracked, so Aziel and I charged at it, pushing it back and opening up the cave to see our beautiful hybrid alive and well.
I’d been bloody devastated when Theo told us she was going to die, and all I could think about was making the blood witch and Gabriel pay, preferably with their deaths. I didn't want to accept it, but he said it with such finality that it crushed my last grain of hope.
Nothing prepared me for actually seeing her in one piece, stronger than ever before. And what a miracle that was.
We left the cave behind and stepped into the sand where everyone was waiting. Mia and Emma were the first to rush forward and hug her, followed by Titan then her brothers. Hunter had a smile on his face while Dean nodded and dragged his feet.
Aziel pulled her closer to us, and we swarmed around her like a living battlement, ready to protect the most precious being in our world.
I didn’t give a toss about anything but her, and I wanted to show her that. I needed to show her that, everyday if I had to.
She gathered up her tangled hair and moved it to one side with a heavy sigh. “Thank you for coming for me.”
“We will always come for you,” Aziel said before anyone else could speak up.
“I know.” She smiled, passing her thankful gaze over all of us. “As much as I want to just fuck off, I have a lot to catch you up on.”
“Bloody hell,” I grumbled, raking a hand through my hair. “We have some shit to tell you too.”
“What is it?”
“Your father, love,” Thaddeus reached out to touch her shoulder and she turned her head toward him. “He’s up to something.”
“And he’s fucking cold,” I spat.
She snorted like she knew more than we thought.
“He didn’t help us find you at all,” Kai muttered, fire in his eyes. “He hindered any attempt we had to find you.”
“He manipulated them into a blood oath under the condition of seeing you and showed them a scene of you in Heaven overlooking the water with Gabriel.” Aziel sneered before clenching his jaw.
“Yeah…I figured.” She plunged her toes into the primrose grains below her and wiggled them around. “He wants to use me as a weapon to maintain balance and to destroy any threats to the realms.”
Aziel growled. “That seems too noble of him. I bet he has something far worse planned.”
“He insisted that Gabriel was teaching you to be an angel,” Kai said, glaring at Gabriel. “And that you would be fine.”
“That’s what my mother thought as well.” Gabriel sighed, running a hand down his face. “I betrayed everyone when I worked with the blood witch. She’s more in tune with evil than I realized.” There was a pain etched into his features I'd never seen before and it aged him. It was fucking weird.
“Like all blood witches,” Aziel said.
“Mystia is the last living blood witch. Her plan was to steal my powers, killing me in the process, and resurrect her coven,” she explained, rubbing my arms as I hugged myself. “If the seers hadn’t come when they did…I wouldn’t be here right now.”
Mia and Emma covered her mouth in a gasp as her brothers frowned.
I bent over to kiss her head. “Please don’t talk like that.” I didn’t need a reminder of how close we came to losing her forever.
“But it’s true.”
“What did the seers say?” Thaddeus asked.
“And how did you get that bracelet off?” Gabriel stared at her wrist. Aziel wrapped his hand around it before pulling her closer to him.
She laughed. “Right. About that…”
