Page 9 of Wings of Sacrifice
He placed a fist across his white sweater, thumping his chest. “Don’t worry. If anything were to happen to Lucille, I’d go to the circles or Heaven myself and bring her back to you.”
I pounded my fist over my chest and watched him leave, not about to admit my other worries. But they were always there, permanently stuck in my marrow like a slow-killing poison.
Inhaling, I stood and approached Oliver. The white sheets tucked around his torso matched his pale face. If not for the small rise in his chest, I’d be tempted to check his pulse.
He looked so much like his father. Their personalities were a bit different, but Gabriel would’ve loved him nonetheless. The fact that he never knew he had a son before he died had me mentally cursing this unforgiving world.
“I’ll do right by him, Gabriel,” I whispered. But first, he had to wake up. “She needs you, Oliver. It’s time.”
His quiet breaths were my only answer.
“Weneed you,” I amended.
Nothing.
I didn’t believe in miracles. Hell wasn’t the domain to experience such an extraordinary event. But that starry gaze that had burned holes through my dark barriers made me hope for one anyway. Now I’d have to go to her mother’s funeral empty-handed, standing as far away as physically possible, and act like the distance didn’t kill me.
Chapter
Three
Lucille
Stifling heat pressed around me, determined to suck all the water from my body. Sweet, sulfuric fumes shoved up my nose. I clapped a hand to my mouth, holding back a gag as I made sense of the midnight forest with my purple-tinged vision. But nothing appeared familiar to me in this dream-walk.
The forest contained a multitude of skinny trees jutting from the ground like decrepit fingers. Their grooved bark glistened, catching the light from an ominous purple glow in the distance. Curious, I reached out and touched the shiny trunk, then hissed.
The groove sliced my finger. It hardly took any pressure at all.
Heavenly Hell. Where was I?
Voices sounded near the purple light, but I couldn’t make them out. I wove through the dangerous, dark trees. My soft steps sounded like stomps in the quiet forest. I cringed with every crunch. Every stumble. But I didn’t dare pull on my powers to light the way.
The sticky, hot air grew thicker the closer I moved toward the voices. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and my lungs begged for cooler air. Skirting a tree revealed the purpleand blackglow in the distance.
Was this the Immolation Circle?
A couple more steps and their words finally drifted to my ears.
“They’ll pay, my darling witch. We’ll make them all pay. It’s already begun.”
I didn’t recognize the masculine voice, nor could I see who it came from. They remained blocked by layers of razor-sharp trees.
“They won’t see us coming.”
I froze. The sweet conviction in her smug tone sounded familiar. But we killed Lilith. Unless this was a dream of the past.
Panning left and right, I searched the shadows before continuing. I needed to see their faces. Creeping forward at a snail’s pace, I thought about every twitching muscle in my foot as I placed it down. I made it two feet, barely making out a mane of black hair before a hand wrapped around my mouth and jerked me behind a tree.
“Dream-walking here was a very stupid decision on your part.”
Somehow I was pushed out of the dream and into the cavern of my mind, next to my glowing ball of power—andher.
She stood covered in her red-and-black cloak.
“So, you’re not Lilith,” I said, circling her as she mirrored my movements.
“Good guess. But no.”
