by Jenny McKane
“He still had the sword?”
Metatron meant the flame sword.
“He stabbed Azrael in the back with it,” she said.
She’d originally thought it was a good thing that Camael had killed his brother, but it turned out that demons (something both technically became once they were fallen) absorbed one another’s powers through killing. So whatever abilities and stores of power Azrael had been building had immediately transferred to Camael.
“What about the demon creating the monsters?” Eli asked.
“Plaxo ripped his throat out when he tried to alter him in the lab,” Sunny said, a serious note of pride in her words. Eli even looked impressed.
“Dream demons are scary dudes, huh?” Eli asked and Gideon only nodded.
“You have no idea,” he said in all seriousness.
Metatron let out a long sigh, considering all that had been said.
“The war has already begun in a few cities,” he said quietly. “Camael and his new demons ripped open portals a few days before he arrived in Hell, it sounds like. Seattle is under attack and much of the angelic reinforcements have been slaughtered.”
“Is it true about Michael and Jeremiel?” She had hoped that there was some sliver of hope that it wasn’t Michael, despite knowing in her heart her former mentor was dead.
Metatron gave a sad sigh, his hands going deep into his white hair. “Yes,” he said sadly. “And Haniel, too. She was murdered last week in Prague by a swarm of imps and a serendibite blade.”
It was bad—that was what Metatron and Eli had been saying.
“And Gabriel? Where did he go missing?” Sunny asked, trying to keep ahold of her overreaction. She could almost feel it brewing.
“Seattle,” Eli said. “He was rescuing an old friend of ours from her yarn store when one of Camael’s lieutenants injured him. We haven’t heard from him since and we don’t know if he was taken or not. We’re holding out hope that he’s surviving somewhere, but it’s not looking good, Sunny.”
Eli looked broken by the reality of it and her heart ached for her friends.
“What happens next?” Gideon asked, picking up on Sunny’s sorrow. “What do we do?”
Metatron let out a breath and considered both Sunny and Gideon, probably noting what a pair they made. Both banged up and bruised, nearly killed off, and still trying to insert themselves in the war between angels and demons.
“We’ve got a cavalry on the way,” Metatron said with a slight smile. “That’s what’s next.”
*****
The cavalry, it turned out, was the mysterious archangel Uriel. He was coming from Ireland and would land in Montana in three days. In the meantime, Metatron’s medical team wanted to study Gideon’s transformation and how he could both call his wings forth and hide them (very similar to how angels hid their wings with their magic). She knew Gideon must have been feeling like a specimen again, but he was mostly good natured about it.
Sunny tried a few times to push her way into meetings and conversations, but both Eli and Metatron politely pushed her away.
“You have reconnecting and healing to do,” Eli said to her one afternoon when she was feeling more than a little ignored.
“I can help,” she argued, but Eli wouldn’t budge.
He’d noticed the fact that while she and Gideon were around each other, they still weren’t really with each other. They’d still left so much unsaid that it was practically an elephant in the room that even Eli could understand.
It was true, as much as she didn’t want to admit it. Sure, Gideon had kissed the breath out of her that first night in Austin, but Sunny hadn’t really known what to do after that. How close was too close to him? Wasn’t he trying to heal? Wouldn’t she crowd him? She was so uncertain of herself that it was starting to rub off on Gideon.
“I’ll say this to you once, Sunny,” Eli said, all seriousness. “I’d give anything in this world, anything, to have with Lacey what you have with Gideon. Your relationship, while complicated and full of learning curves and bumps, is wide open and new. Don’t waste any precious time overthinking how he might feel for you or what he might need. The man is broken in places, but he’s 100 percent yours if you’d just treat him like a man, your man, and not some precious vase that might break at any moment.”
His words hit her squarely in the chest, as it was exactly what she’d been doing.
“He’s holding back, though,” she countered. “I’m not sure he wants too much of me right now. What if he wants to heal? What if he can’t open up to me—”
Eli cut her off with a wave of his hand. “Just stop. You went into Hell to get that man,” Eli said, looking Sunny square in the eye. “Don’t ever forget that. You two survived Hell and walked out together, hand in hand. Get that through your thick skull.”
Having said what he had to say, Eli stormed off to take his aggressions out on some poor sparring partner in the gym. Sunny sat on Eli’s tailgate as the sun was setting and she thought about his words.
Where would she be if she’d lost Gideon? She’d be willing to give anything for the chance to be where she was right now. Anything. So why was she hesitating? She had everything in the world she’d asked for, with a little side of demon apocalypse thrown in.
What was a little Armageddon now and then? If anything, it should be putting a little more urgency into what was blooming between them, not keeping them apart.
With a bit of purpose in her step, Sunny marched into the guest house she was sharing with Gideon. They both had bedrooms on the top floor that were separated by a large bathroom. Gideon was sitting on the edge of his bed looking through a book on angelic symbols when Sunny hesitated in his doorway.
It took him a moment to realize she was standing there. He looked up and gave her a small smile.
“Do you love me?”
She asked it quietly and he frowned a bit.
“More than I’ve ever loved anything before,” he answered automatically.
She nodded to herself.
“And do you know I love you?”
His answer wasn’t so instant on that one. He hesitated a moment and Sunny strode across the room, situating herself on Gideon’s lap while she took the lead, pushing her hands into his hair and tilting his head back for what she had hoped was an earth-shattering kiss.
He froze just a little before letting everything that was bubbling between them take over. He kissed her hard and possessive, and Sunny gave just as good as she got.
It was a small step toward becoming who they were meant to be together, but Sunny had a feeling this was a journey she’d enjoy immensely, as long as Gideon was by her side.
As long as Gideon had her back, Sunny was fairly certain she could face Hell itself again. Which was a good thing, because to hear Metatron tell it, that was exactly what was on its way through portals around the world.
But they’d worry about that soon enough. For now, Sunny kissed her man with all her might and slowly gave him an understanding of just how much he meant to her.
~~~
