Page 37 of When Monsters Fight
Kabiel’s grip on me tightened as we also sped up.Gabriel and Asbeel flanked us with Matarel and Yomiel close behind.
The air was thicker beneath the angry sky, charged with energy that pricked at my skin. The trail below died and was replaced by an area of black, glassy-looking land. It was a wide strip with jagged edges where the earth sparkled like diamonds, and beyond it was nothing but sand.
“It’s a beach,” Kabiel said. “A beach that has been turned to glass.”
I knew enough about the elements, enough science to know that this phenomenon only happened if?—
A roar battered my eardrums, shattering my thoughts, and then dazzling fingers of lightning cut across our path.
Asbeel swerved to avoid being hit.
“Down! Get down!” Gabriel cried.
Another crack. Another blaze of light.
“Watch out!” Gabriel slammed into us, shoving us out of the path of a strike and taking it himself.
His body lit up as the lightning energy held him suspended in the air for what felt like an eternity but couldn’t have been more than a few moments, then he was falling, and all I could do was scream.
Chapter 20
“Gabriel!” My scream was eclipsed by another crack of thunder. Gabriel hit the ground and didn’t get back up. “Gabriel!”
My throat hurt, my ears rang, and adrenaline burned a path through my veins as Kabiel continued to fly past Gabriel. Away from Gabriel. “Stop! We have to get him. We have to go back.”
“No. I need to get you to safety.”
Gabriel was hurt. He was fucking hurt and Kabiel wasn’t fucking stopping. I thrashed in his arms, trying to twist my body, trying to look back, trying to break free, but Kabiel held me tighter, swerving and diving to avoid the streaks of lightning that cut zigzag paths in front of us. The hiss and crack in the air, so loud it smothered my screams, should have terrified me, but there was no room for terror with rage flooding my veins.
“Take me back! Take me back, you bastard!”
I was so focused on my ire that I didn’t notice that we were out from beneath the angry sky until Kabiel began to descend.
We hit the ground, and he set me on my feet but didn’t let go. “Calm down.”
My breath came hard and fast. Calm was far out of reach. “You left him. You fucking left him! We have to go back! Now!”
“No need.” Kabiel turned me to face the glass road and the angry sky that ended several feet away from us.
Asbeel landed with Jilyana a moment later, but my gaze zeroed in on Yomiel running toward us with Gabriel slung over his shoulder. Kokabel and Matarel were close behind.
A sob of relief tore from my throat.
“You really thought we’d leave him?” Kabiel asked.
I glanced up at him in time to catch the disappointment in his eyes, but I didn’t have time to soothe his ego.
Gabriel was hurt. I broke away from him and ran toward Yomiel.
He carefully set Gabriel on the ground.
“Gabriel?” I crouched beside him. “Hey.” My fingers trembled as I reached out to touch his cheek. Cold…so cold…
His eyes were closed, chest rising and falling rapidly in a way that told me he was in shock, unsurprising considering the state of his torso—a charred, blackened mess where the lightning had struck him.
“The damage is extensive,” Yomiel said. “He’s not healing.”
It was okay. It would be okay. “I can help. I can heal him.”
