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“You motherfucker!” I screamed, a blast of white energy magic bursting from me that was so intense it knocked Kazimir’s smug face from the sky. His concentration broken, the rope disappeared from around Zuriel’s neck, and he sucked down ragged breaths, pushing upright to grab his sword immediately.
“You’re hurt,” I pleaded with my cousin, but he shook his head.
Kazimir rose again, like a disease that couldn’t be eradicated. He yanked two daggers from sheaths on his thighs, his sword discarded like he didn’t need it to defend himself.
A ring of purple bruises was already forming around Zuriel’s neck, and I hastily unsheathed my swords, ready to fight alongside my cousin.
I needed to kill Kazimir and end this fucking war.
The roar of an enormous black Dragon tore our attention away from the tense moment, and that was all Zuriel needed to fling himself forward at Kazimir.
“Zuriel, no!” I screamed, realizing what Kazimir had intended to do a moment before my cousin did.
A choked sound escaped the Angel’s chest as one dagger went under his ribs, and the other came down on his shoulder. Kazimir ripped them out simultaneously, and Zuriel collapsed at his feet.
Without a care for myself, I raced forward, toward the last remaining family member I had – the only one I’d ever known. My heart was shattering, fracturing in a way I didn’t know was possible after all the abuse I had experienced. I didn’t think there was anything else that could break me, but watching my cousin bleed out did.
The sun was blotted out above me, and black fire spewed overhead, narrowly missing my hair as I flung myself over Zuriel’s body.
Kazimir shot into the sky, disappearing entirely as Ruslan snapped his maw at the place he had occupied. Wind from strong wings buffeted me, whipping the loose strands of my hair about as Ruslan raced away in pursuit of my cousin’s killer.
“Zuriel,” I whimpered, holding him so tightly I wondered if it was him or myself I was trying to hold together.
“Izidora,” he moaned, his chest jerking.
With a start, I realized I was crushing him. White magic filled my palms, and I pressed them to his bloodstained skin.
I would heal him, and then I wouldn’t lose him.
His firm grip stopped me, yanking my hand away with more strength than a dying male should have. “Don’t,” he whispered, his melodic voice as ragged as his breathing.
“But I can’t lose you,” I sobbed, my vision blurring.
He winced as he tried to pick his head up to look at me, then thought better of it. “I never told you… I lost my wife during the war between the Angels and Demons.”
In that moment, I dropped away every barrier I’d erected to protect me. I needed to experience these last moments with my cousin without a filter on them. His sadness slammed into me, nearly stealing my breath. A new cascade of tears fell from my eyes, dripping too loudly on his wheezing chest.
“She is the one who spoke the prophecy,” he managed to say in a rush.
I gasped, inching closer to my dying cousin. “Zuriel, why didn’t–”
“Because, that day, she spoke of another… that predicted this. I had to be here, to die for you, in order to save the world.” His icy blue eyes pleaded with me to understand, but I couldn’t, wouldn’t believe this.
I was drowning in grief – mine, Zuriel’s, that of everyone around me.
“You lived without her for two thousand years?” I whimpered, cupping his face.
He nodded, then winced at the pain. “I want to go to her now. So, please, let me go, Izidora.”
A sob wracked my chest, but I nodded, gripping his hands tightly. They were cold, so cold. I held them over my heart, the one that was shredding into a million pieces, as his eyes, so fullof life and love for me, grew cloudy. “Thank you for everything, Zuriel. Go to your wife. I love you.”
“Love you… cousin.” With one last slow blink, my cousin joined his love in whatever waited for us beyond this life.
A scream tore from my throat, ripping it raw and bloody as my grief swept over me like a tidal wave, crashing through every piece of me until it had shattered my soul along with my bones. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t process that I’d never hear his voice again, never learn mind magic with him again, never hear all the secrets he kept in his head. I didn’t ask enough questions about our family. I didn’t know enough about him. How would I even find distant relations if I didn’t know our real family name?
Everything heaved with pain, and each breath was like a thousand stabs to the chest. “Zuriel, Zuriel, Zuriel,” I chanted over and over and over, as if saying his name could bring him back to me.
I didn’t know how long I sprawled across his body, but it wasn’t until a roar tore through my grief that I remembered I was on a battlefield and my mate chased a maniac through the skies.
