Reign A Romance Anthology - Nina Levine Page 0,231

bit of Grace she had left to surge within her.

Truth.

Hope.

Love.

Please….

The blade ignited. White-hot flames licked off the steel, forming into an enormous fiery sword. A small detonation of force exploded outward, blowing out all the glass in the room and sending Azazel sprawling. The walls rumbled. Scorch marks blackened the floor.

And Sera gasped as she whipped her angel blade forward, holding him at bay.

Maybe there was some bit of hope left, after all.

Azazel stared up at her from the floor as part of the door fell on him. “Sariel?”

It was a whisper.

It was a prayer.

It was horror, and anger, and grief, and love, all bound together in one wretched word.

She reached for the shard, feeling the hum of its power envelope her as her fingers curled around it. “You saved my life once. Now it’s my turn to repay the favor. Raphael is coming for this, but I won’t let him take it from you. Let the arch’s duke it out.” Her lips twisted in a wry smile as she repeated his long-ago words, “They’ll only crush us beneath them.”

And then she leaped over his prone body, and vanished into his bedroom.

8

Sera made the window.

Throwing herself through the glass—she had a demon hot on her heels—she somersaulted in the air and landed in a squat in the alley. Her left heel broke, spilling her onto her knees, but she was still riding high on the power of Grace.

Her muscles flexed, and she lunged into a sprint, pushing off the pads of her toes.

Nothing could stop her now.

She was power and glory and speed, a whip of light moving through a darkened night.

“Tay!”

A car screamed out of nowhere, and Sera lowered the blade as Tay’s wide eyes flashed behind the window. “Get in!” the technowitch screamed, as the back door of the car flung wide open.

Sera wasted no time. She threw herself in the car and yanked the door shut behind her. “Drive!”

Her heart was still hammering. A mixture of adrenaline and shock. Power thrummed through her, but it was no match for the kick of her heart every time she pictured his face when she’d picked up the sword.

I wanted you to see me.

I wanted you to know it was me.

She’d hoped to bury all those long-ago feelings. It had been time to look him in the eye, confront the past and let it die.

She’d wanted this crushing sensation in her chest to wither.

Instead, it felt like she’d struck a match and tossed it into gasoline.

“What happened?” Tay threw over her shoulder as Rodrigo kicked the car into reverse. “Have you got a fucking lightsaber in your hand?”

You need to haul yourself together. They hadn’t escaped, not yet. She had the shard. And Azazel would never let it go so easily. “Long story.”

She absorbed the power in the blade, and it died down, leaving just a hilt in her hand.

“Is he dead?” Tay’s eyes were boggling out of her head.

“No!”

“Wounded?”

“No!”

“And he just let you walk out of there?”

“It’s complicated!” she yelled, then screamed as the car hit the gutter. “Jesus, Rodrigo! This is not the time to blow a tire!”

The tall warrior spun the wheel. “I wasn’t—”

One second she was staring at the back of his neck. The next thing she knew, she was slamming into the back of Tayla’s seat, and the car was catapulting forward.

Fire bloomed around them.

She hit hard. Bounced. Rolled. Vision flashed past; of the street outside. And then the car was screaming to a halt on its roof, droplets of flame dripping from the undercarriage.

Sera lowered her arms as the car rocked.

It felt like wading through treacle.

Her Grace flickered… and died.

What—? Where—?

She was on her back, lying on what had once been the roof of the car, and half of Tay’s technical equipment was smashed into her ribs. Everything hurt. Everything. But her mind was starting to kick back into gear, screaming back into function as it filled in the gaps.

An explosion.

The car was on fire.

“Tay?” she croaked.

Nothing.

Sera pushed upright, shoving equipment off her. She might have had her connection to Heaven torn from her by the maelstrom Lucifer kicked into place when he broke the city apart, but she was still enough of an angel to survive unscathed. Given enough motivation she could die, but even now she could feel the bruises and contusions starting to reknit.

Tayla and Rodrigo, however, were both human.

Finding the hilt of her sword, she kicked out the side door. It blew off the car, even as heat bloomed within.