Page 31 of Prince of Ruin
And maybe there was some part of her that wanted his brutal touch. Maybe a little part of her felt like she deserved it.
But she didn’t want to shatter the memories she had of him.
If he got his hands on her, she would beg, and she would break, and maybe she’d even enjoy it, but it wouldn’t put the shattered remnants of her heart back together.
“I loved you,” she said as she reached for the hilt of her shattered angel blade. “I want you to know that. Know my truth. See it, if you won’t fucking believe it from my lips.”
Please, please let this work….
An angel blade was forged for one hand and one hand only.
You could break them, but given enough juice, they could be reforged.
Her hand curled around the hilt.
Truth. Hope. Love. They’d been the sigils she’d insisted were etched into the blade. Every angel marked their own blade, to remind them of the mission they’d sworn. Sera forced the tiny little 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.
