A memory tugs at my thoughts. Of course, the flash of red I saw in the hall of the church. It was her.
How could I have been so blind? I knew I heard something at the end of the hall when the guys and I came out of Zoe's room and like an idiot I ignored it when deep down I knew I shouldn't have. I bet she overheard everything we talked about in there and the flash of red I saw was the end of her stupid braid wiping around the corner as she fled.
I force myself to stand, finding energy from somewhere deep within myself. "Well, too bad. I healed him and you're not getting in another shot."
"Do you really think I'm here alone? I'm not the only one aiming for your boyfriend and if you were smart you would be too." She removes another blade from the inside of her jacket, identical to the one in my hand. "He has to die Hanna. It's the only way to stop Blondie from succeeding. It's too late to save Jared, but it's not too late to save everyone else. Do the right thing and bury that knife in your hand straight through his heart."
"She's right Hanna," Jared whispers, accepted defeat heavy in his voice. I turn to find him gazing over his shoulder at the twisting darkness of the cave. "The gates are opening but if you...if you...if you do it now they might not get out." He doesn't say kill me out loud, but it's all I hear. I just saved his life. How can he ask me now to take it away?
"Who might not get out?" I ask, but I have a feeling I already know the answer. Truth is I'm stalling because I don’t even want to consider what he's asking me to do. There has to be another way.
"Ugh, we don't have time for this." Cassidy throws her knife, hitting me in the shoulder. The force behind it knocks me to the ground and within seconds she's climbed the rock face and is standing in front of Jared another knife pointed straight at his heart.
Without thinking I blast her with raw energy, flinging her backwards over the edge of the rocks. I pull the knife from my shoulder and make my way to Jared. "We just have to get you out of here. If we get you out of here everything will be okay. You've already decided against Blondie, you did it the moment the white light touched you. All you have to do is vow to join the Guardians and we can stop this."
"Hanna, it's not that easy."
"Yes, it is. Do you vow to join with us or not?"
He sighs. "Yes, I vow to join the Guardians. Now kill me," I flinch at the word kill. "So I can save them, so I can save you."
"I can't do that."
"Yes, you can. You have to Hanna. It's the only way to end this. If there was another way I'd take it, but there's not. We're out of time. I feel them coming. Please Hanna, I don't want to be the world's destroyer. Don't make me be. Help me be its savior. Please."
The soft green of his eyes pleads with me while it rips me apart.
I bring the tip of the blade gripped in my hand to his chest, positioning it over the center of his heart. Tears fill my eyes. The swirling mass of darkness in the cave behind him begins to take on indistinguishable shapes, all moving and pressing against the surface of the veil separating them from this world as the symbols drawn on his chest and around the cave glow a deeper darker red.
"It’s okay. I love you," he whispers.
"I love you too." I press my lips against his and push the knife in. His mouth tenses as a gasp forces its way out. I take a step back watching the bright green of his eyes fade.
What have I done? Oh God, what have I done?
The alarm goes off on my phone. Midnight. Jared's eighteen.
Thunder echoes across the sky just as a bolt of lightning strikes down, slamming into the ground between Jared and I. The force of it knocks me over the edge of the rocks and into the crowd of Fallen and Guardians who've all gone still, caught in the thrall of what's happening above.
A beam of moonlight surrounds Jared in its embrace. The knife buried in his chest—the knife I buried in his chest—pushes its way out on its own and right above the place it used to be a new symbol emerges. His head falls back, his body arching, forcing him onto the tip of his toes.
Shadows and shapes moving within the cave shoot forward straight into Jared's back emerging out through his chest in a mass of black wings and naked bodies.
Angels.
They're all angels.
And they're all Fallen.
Over and over they come forth using Jared as a gateway to rip themselves free from purgatory.
The sound of beating wings fill the sky, as they soar into the darkness of night, leaving behind the decomposing bodies of those they once inhabited.
I was too late. Too late to save Jared. Too late to save anyone. And now he's gone. And my hands are covered in his blood and it was all for nothing.
Blondie was right all along. There was never anything I could do to stop this from happening. I was always going to be too late. But I can't help thinking...
If I hadn't let my feelings become confused over Will...
If Blondie hadn't taken advantage...
If I hadn't broken Jared's heart so completely...
If I'd never stepped foot in that alley outside The Iron Knife...
If Sam hadn't died...
Maybe the world wouldn't be damned right now and I wouldn't be the cause of it because it's clear now. I was the catalyst. From the moment I showed myself to Blondie that night in the alley, I set everything in motion.
Maybe it was never Jared who needed to fight against his fate, maybe it was I who needed to fight against mine.
With the emergence of the last angel, Jared's body goes slack. Despite having hundreds of angels rip their way through him he's still somehow in one piece.
And breathing.
I claw my way to him, a glimmer of hope taking root deep inside my chest.
Behind me, the Guardians snap out of their shocked states and begin arguing amongst themselves over what to do now that hundreds of fallen angels have been unleashed upon the Earth.
"Jared." I lift his face up in my hands. His eyes are closed, his breathing even and relaxed as though he's sleeping.
I run my hand over his smooth chest feeling it rise and fall with each breath. There's no wound or any sign at all that I'd ever stabbed him and all the symbols Blondie drew in blood are gone. The only symbol that remains is the one right above his heart, the one that appeared the moment he turned eighteen. I don't know what it means and I don't care. He's alive and that's all that matters. The rest we'll figure out later.
The symbol on my wrist shimmers with a pale blue iridescence, and on Jared's chest, his symbol does the same. Overcome with the urge to bring them together, I lay mine over his. A burst of light engulfs us both. Images, too many to count or really focus on rush forward, and in them, I find hope.
What if there's a way to send The Fallen back.
And what if Jared is the key.
###
About the Author
T.L. McDonald lives in Ohio with her husband and children. When she’s not hanging out with her family and friends she can be found writing new material, reading a good book, watching a good movie, or binge watching an entire series on Netflix.
Discover Other Titles
By T.L. McDonald
Marked (Book One in the Marked series)
Coming Soon
Redemption (Book three in the Marked series)
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Acknowledgments
A big Thank You to my amazing family and friends for always supporting me on following my dreams of becoming a writer, even when I disappeared for hours at a time into the land of headphones and writing where I would occasionally become sleep deprived and grouchy. I love you guys so much. Thank You to my beta readers: my wonderful mama and Aunt Diana, and my good friends Susan and Taffie for taking the time to read my manuscript and for gi
ving me honest opinions on what worked and what didn’t. Thank You to the talented Claudia at www.phatpuppyart.com for the gorgeous cover art and to the equally talented Catriona (The Font Diva) at www.thefontdiva.com for the beautiful font work. And a big Thank You to my awesome readers. I hope you all enjoyed reading Fated as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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