Wings of the Wicked - By Courtney Allison Moulton Page 0,152

sank his teeth into Will’s forearm. Will shouted out in pain and protest before ripping his arm back. Rikken grinned, baring teeth as Will’s blood dribbled past his lips, mixing with the viscous drool that always seemed to be pouring from his mouth. Will stared in astonishment at the bite in his arm, at the torn tissue and blood seeping from the wound. It didn’t look like something he would bleed to death from, but he looked more pissed off and surprised than in pain. He growled a curse and shot forward. His punch slammed into Rikken’s face—through it—and the demonic reaper’s head exploded as if Will’s fist were dynamite. Rikken’s skull erupted into chunks of rock and his back hit the ground, his stone body shattering on impact. Rikken was gone in a heartbeat.

Will came to a stop and staggered, staring at the ground. I watched him, confused, as he wobbled like he’d just spun in circles and was dizzy. I moved toward him, staring at him. Before I could ask if he was okay, he lifted his head heavily, his lips parted, brow furrowed, and his eyes met mine. The green was dulling quickly, and my heart slammed in my chest. Then Will collapsed.

My mouth opened to scream and my lungs burned as if fire flashed through them, but I heard nothing. My arms flailed in front of him, grabbing hold of him as he hit the ground, and I fell with him. He lay there, his body shuddering and his eyes rolling into the back of his head. My hands touched his cheeks and neck and forehead as I stared frantically into his face. Merodach stood behind me, but I’d forgotten him.

Sound surged through my ears, and I was drowning in my own keening wail as tears rolled down my face and into the corners of my mouth. The brutal taste of salt on my lips shook me awake and back to reality. The blood from Rikken’s bite seeping out of Will’s arm ran down the front of my dress, staining the plum chiffon black-red.

“Will,” I sobbed, my hands shaking. “Will!”

His head moved side to side, his mouth opening and shutting, and sweat beaded around his brow. He was in pain. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides and I picked up the hand of his uninjured arm, locking my fingers through his as he squeezed. He opened his eyes briefly to look up into my face, and my lips went numb when I saw his irises had dulled to a pathetic gray.

“What did that thing do?” I screamed at Merodach. “What did you do to him?”

Behind me, Merodach laughed, his heavy, gravelly voice so loud and deep that it weighed me down and disoriented me. “You should have heeded Kelaeno’s warning. She may be dead, but soon your Guardian will join her.”

“No!” I screamed it over and over.

“I’ll come back for you, Gabriel,” Merodach added. “Once your heart is dead from the loss of your Guardian, I’ll be back for your soul.”

Will groaned, and his grip on my hand slackened and went limp. I touched his cheeks and neck and chest, my gaze lingering fearfully on the vicious wound in his arm. On the thick clear liquid from Rikken’s bite mixing with Will’s blood.

“I don’t know what to do!” I cried. “Please tell me, Will. I don’t know how to help you!” I leaned over him and kissed his cheeks and forehead, holding his body close to mine as the ache in my heart crippled me.

He was slipping away, weakening by the moment. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t lose him after everything, after all of this. Merodach stepped away and spread his dark wings wide before vanishing into the Grim, leaving me alone on the cold ground with Will dying in my arms.

I smoothed his hair away from his clammy forehead with my palm, and then he began convulsing. I screamed, but my wails were drowned by the thumping music pouring out of Kate’s house. Liquid oozed from the bite in Will’s arm, and it grew darker by the moment until it was black mixing with the red of Will’s blood. The wound wasn’t healing.

“Ellie?” came a frightened voice behind me.

I snapped my head around to see Marcus jogging toward me, his gleaming sapphire eyes locked on Will’s shuddering form. My own body was shaking uncontrollably as Marcus knelt on the other side of Will, one hand on his chest and the other on