“Never.” His jaw locked, entirely certain.
Gabriel’s eyes found their way to the slice running down my body, and his eyes became wide as he pleaded silently, begging me to let him help.
I didn’t have to ask him again—I knew he was telling the truth, and I opened myself to him. As soon as I did I was filled with such love that it sped through every part of me.
“Hate to break this up, but we need to move.” Jonah didn’t stand too close. I realized my blood, still flowing from my skin, must have been causing him a lot of distress, so I nodded to Gabriel, accepting his assistance.
Gabriel kneeled over me and I arched my body backward, letting my long curls tickle the snow below. Steadying my back with his open palm, I felt the tenderness of his breath spread over my skin.
I didn’t close my eyes as the snow cascaded on top of a backdrop of glowing gold and silver, flowing through my skin and spreading through my veins.
It was incredible.
He breathed his energy across the wound, and my skin magically glued back together. The pain was gone in an instant, the burning replaced by a cool tingling sensation that rippled down my skin. Every inch of me absorbed his light and I felt my cheeks glow as the last of his efforts wrapped itself around me.
I pulled my body up to meet his face and I nestled my cheek next to his, threading my fingers through his golden locks, sewing myself back into him.
I was pulled out of the moment when, from over Gabriel’s shoulder, I saw a black mark creeping in the distance of the sleeping lake, expanding and growing larger, incongruous in the snowy setting.
Jonah saw it at the same second and shouted, “Gabriel! He’s coming!”
TWENTY-EIGHT
GABRIEL PARTED FROM ME and ushered Jonah behind him, racing forward before I had a chance to stop him. Now Jonah was at my side, helping me back to my feet. As Gabriel sped across the snow, drawing an invisible battle line, a harrowing figure, cloaked totally in darkness, flew through the expanding gateway.
It had to be Zherneboh.
The cracking of Jonah’s fangs as they broke through his gums caused my body to shudder. With eyes blazing the brightest I had ever seen them, Jonah snatched my wrist, yanking me through the deep snow.
“What are you doing? I won’t leave him!” I chucked my body away from Jonah, escaping his grasp. His eyes shot to me, his body rigid and firm. I had never seen him so terrified.
“He will end us. There’s no fight here, only a massacre!”
This time he wrapped his firm arms around my waist and hoisted me into the air.
I turned to see that Gabriel had produced a sheet of light, keeping the Pureblood from crossing over to where we were. Jonah started to run. I couldn’t see Zherneboh; the silvers and golds twirling and sparkling behind were too bright, his darkness remained pinned to the other side. Gabriel couldn’t hold him there forever, and my mind raced as to what would happen to him when he finally let the sheet fall.
I struggled, kicking and flapping my arms. Jonah was picking up speed when a fierce hissing split its way through the quiet, piercing my eardrums.
It was like a siren calling to me.
The sensation of Gabriel’s gift receded, giving way to a rising heat in my chest. I felt my eyes begin to burn and I pawed them, feeling the thin skin around my sockets cracking. My nails started to ooze blood. Jonah stopped suddenly. As he did, I broke free, landing with a thud in the snow.
The shrill noise had dissolved the sheet of light and I turned in time to see Gabriel stumble to the ground.
Jonah shouted at me, “You can’t help him. Go! Now!” He paused for a split second, regarding me the same way he had when the Hedgerley house was under siege—as though it was the last time he might ever get to do so—and with one last look he sprinted in Gabriel’s direction.
I hauled myself up from the snow. The clouds’ spilled shapes seemed to part briefly, which allowed me to see Zherneboh clearly in the distance. He was immense and towering, and my eye was drawn away from the swollen scar on his forehead, down to his clenched fist, where long bladed talons sliced their way through his knuckles, prominently pointing in Gabriel’s direction as he strode toward him. He was the Pureblood that invaded my visions, and he was going to kill Gabriel, before he claimed what was his: me.
Grappling to my feet, I let out a violent scream and ran—no, flew—over the snow toward him. As I neared, I felt my blood boil as he held Gabriel suspended in the air several feet away from him.
Zherneboh flashed his black orbs toward me, returning my glare. I couldn’t move. Gabriel fell to the snow. It was me who was now suspended in midair. I took in his horrific features; his tattooed markings grew up his neck as if displaying themselves for my benefit. His mouth was vile; every one of his teeth pointed and jagged. His lizardlike tongue, split at the end, ran in and out of the cracks.
Lailah, run!
Gabriel’s words found my thoughts, but they flickered, dipping in and out, like he was a radio station that was out of my range.
Zherneboh let a roar bellow from his throat; it bounced off the sides of the mountains and I was sure that the forest stood still for him, shuddering.
Suddenly Jonah flung himself onto the creature’s back, but Zherneboh no longer seemed to care for distractions, keeping his stare glued to me.
I was helpless to stop Zherneboh’s razor claws penetrating and ripping through Jonah’s cheek and down his neck. He flung him aside as if he weighed no more than a matchstick, sending him hurtling into a distant cluster of rocks, all the while keeping his eyes locked with mine.
My attention flashed to Gabriel, who lay prone in the snow, manufacturing a ball of light in his palm, concentrating intently. Flashes of lightning struck within the mini typhoon, but as Gabriel sat up to expel the light, Zherneboh opened his mouth and released a thick wave of black smoke. It raged toward Gabriel, dispersing his ball of light and knocking him over. Then it wrapped around his throat, the smoke seeping in between his perfect lips, slowly choking him as it invaded his insides.
The anger inside me bubbled and spilled into the center of my consciousness, and I smashed through the snow.
As I caught my breath, I stared up at the sky; a few inches ahead, she hovered. I covered my ears, but the sound of her fangs breaking into place made my skin crawl.
It was the girl in shadow. She had come.
I tried to reach for her hand, but withdrew as I watched blades shooting from her knuckles and blackened blood smearing her white skin as they burst through. I witnessed something crawling under her skin, running from her wrists up to her elbow. I stayed still, mesmerized by the lines that inked her skin, staining her. The shapes formed, creating the outline of hundreds of quills overlapping one another. I tried to stand and fought to grasp her long, flowing black curls that drifted down just above her hip.