Court of Sunder (Age of Angels #2) - Milana Jacks Page 0,54

second, kneeling, yanking the machete out of her. Her eyes found mine, and she whispered something I was sure I’d have heard if I could hear. But I couldn’t hear the entire world, because when she went down, my world collapsed, and all I could see was Ariel’s Honey dripping from the blade.

The wound gushed yellow and red. Honey saturated it. I couldn’t heal her. But I could try. I’d never needed to touch anyone to heal them, but I pressed my palm over her chest anyway. “You must live.”

Angels shouted the battle cries of my Court. I looked up to see Samael’s regiment descend, swords drawn, gunning for the few angels pouring out of my House. With one hand healing Nevaeh, I extended the other toward Samael to shatter his bones.

I sent a power jolt at the same time Michael tumbled from the sky. Lucifer’s laughter rang in my Court. My power hit my brother. Michael screeched, a wounded bird’s cry. Golden feathers burst around him as he hit the ground.

Dressed in a red robe, the tops of his pale blue wings covered in black armor, Samael advanced toward me. I held up my hand, stopped his movement, looked back down on Nevaeh, then removed my hand. The wound still gushed blood and honey. Her eyes went vacant and stared at my soul, as if they could see inside me where hers detached, leaving an empty hollow space in my chest.

My bloody palms captured her face, and I kissed her parted lips, licking the blood from the corners of them. “You must live.”

Michael crawled toward me, dragging a broken wing and one side of his broken body.

He lay next to Nevaeh. “Ariel’s regiment waited for me. Lucifer escaped.”

I said nothing, but stared at Nevaeh.

“Your soul’s mate is dead,” he said.

I stared at him as if he spoke a language I couldn’t understand.

Golden eyes locked with mine. “Your Court will fall. My soul’s mate will die too. Stand up, brother, and unleash your fury. Kill them all. Show them no mercy.” He winced as he moved, reaching for me.

If I killed them all, our forces would weaken. I could recapture them, and Michael would retrain them. Yet I couldn’t forgive as if I didn’t have a soul anymore.

“Approach,” he said.

I stood by him, and he captured my ankle. Michael’s power cruised through my body like a fire, and I absorbed every bit of it until he showed gray skin and dim amber eyes barely able to see. Grounded firmly on earth’s soil, I took from the ground too. A rift above us opened, and Ariel’s regiment, now with the dark fog of Lucifer swirling around them, poured out of it. A thousand wings, swords, flesh-tearing claws and teeth attacked. They’d slaughter what was left of my angels and eat the fleet still incapacitated on the ground.

Another hand gripped my ankle. Uriel, broken, bloodied, one eye hanging out of its socket, came to me. He’d follow Michael’s lead even if he led him to hell.

I took from Uriel too.

My angels fell while I broke the dams surrounding the city, lifted the waters, and drew from them until my body glowed, until I was consumed with power.

“Retreat,” I whispered in the wind.

They heard me, and my gaze found Cayen, who sounded a retreat call. Ariel’s and Samael’s angels gunned after them. I broke the bridge and threw it at their forces, knocking some of them down. Cayen and most of my angels made it inside the house, leaving the garden packed with angels that were once my angels. I’d bleed with them, I’d bleed for them, but Nevaeh had passed to the heavens because of them.

No mercy.

Ariel’s and Samael’s regiments circled my house, spears poised to strike any of us, bodies unable to execute the movements the minds ordered. I captured them, hundreds, maybe thousands of them, while collecting more power. I was sentenced to live my immortal life never knowing what it was like to share it with someone who completed my soul. I loved her.

I realized I loved her, lived through her.

My heart broke, and with it, I released a fury of grief and destruction. My power exploded.

In the sky, the angels halted, then screamed, bursting like flesh balloons.

My garden, once filled with children’s laughter and angels full of love, once again fell silent except for the morbid pattering rain. The blood of my enemies watered my gardens. Death lay everywhere, and for a brief, horrified second, I felt all-powerful.

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