Wicked Abyss (Immortals After Dark #17) - Kresley Cole Page 0,122
He weakly reached for her face, brushing the backs of his claws over her cheekbone. “You were amazing tonight, love. I am so proud of you.”
Her chest twisted. All her big talk about wanting nothing to do with him faded. He’d come for her, believing he would save her. He’d fought off an army—without harming a single soldier. For me. “You look awful.” She started yanking arrows from him. He must have twenty broken shafts jutting from him, and at least a hundred more arrowheads embedded inside him. “We’ve got to get you back to hell.” Yank.
He grimaced at her less-than-gentle ministrations. “Can’t trace there. You barred me.” And she couldn’t unbar him until she returned to that realm. “How did you do that anyway?”
“I found the hellfire. Or it found me. I got some powers and figured out how to use a couple.”
A gust of breath left his lungs. “My beautiful, brilliant wife.”
Yank. “Am I still your wife?” Her temper simmered.
“Always. Even when I’m acting like an idiot.”
“I thought you had forsaken me.” Yank.
Shaking his head, he tried to help her with the arrows. “Don’t touch the poison. You can sicken.”
She slapped his hand away. “Uthyr left the portal open for me until twelve.” Could she get Abyssian out of the castle and across the grounds to reach it? “But I ought to let you bleed out for that bullshit you pulled today.”
He nodded. “I broke my pledge. Did just what you feared I would. I should not have taken out my pain and resentment on you.”
“Well, I did agree to spy on you.” Yank. “I lied repeatedly.”
“Your deception was born from desperation and longing for a better future. Mine grew from bitterness.”
“I was desperate. I would’ve done anything to be free from the M?ri?r’s threat.”
“It guts me that you were terrified of us all. I want to make up for every second you lived in fear.”
“That doesn’t change my blood.” Yank. “I belong to the line Rune wants to wipe out, the one you said deserves its annihilation. The tainted one.”
He flinched.
“Still want to have kids with me?”
“It would be my honor to.” He reached for her, but she slapped his hand down again.
“Would Rune put them in his sights?”
“Never. He’s known who you were, but he didn’t tell me because he wanted me to discover happiness with you.” That surprised her. “He was hoping you would confide your secrets to me.”
“I wanted to make sure of your feelings for me before I risked everything on you.” Yank. “After last night, I’d planned to confess. You never gave me the chance because you invaded my privacy!” Of course, she’d never revealed that she could read his thoughts in hell.
“I fucked up again and again. Tell me I’m not too late. Tell me I haven’t ruined everything. Can I play that . . . get-out-of-jail-free card?”
Her anger began to cool, but she didn’t want it to. “I can’t keep paying for crimes I don’t remember. I’m done with that.” Yank. “What happens the next time you fly off the handle? Will you lure me down to your creepy dungeon again? The days of me trustingly closing my eyes for you are over.”
He winced. “I am so sorry for that. It’s no excuse, but I relived a memory today, one that has always made me crazed. I’d tried not to think of it. . . .”
“What memory?”
“Our last day together.” His words were starting to slur, and his wounds weren’t closing. “I couldn’t handle the rage. Couldn’t think. But now I see it’s all connected.”
“What is?”
“In Tenebrous, I decided that I was going to do something I’d thought impossible: believe in you—despite the past. I finally let go of my bitterness. Once I did, I found the fire, Calliope. I found it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You changed me.” Ash wisped in the air. His horns started burning away. His wings! “My gods, Lila, I can do it at will.”
“What’s happening to you???” His skin was losing all its color, the glyphs disappearing. “The poison is burning you up!” Yank. Yank. Yank.
He grunted in pain. “Little wife, you are the hellfire for me. My beacon in the dark.”
Was he going to die? Maybe the fey archers had found something equivalent to the L?tān venom for their arrows! Tears blurred her vision. Yank. Yank. Yank.
“Lila, no. I’m fine.”
“Clearly you aren’t! We need to get to hell—”
The clock tower began to toll midnight.
Her heart stopped. “Up, demon!” She wrapped an arm around him,