Chapter 31

THIRTY-ONE

Willow

My world is crashing down all around me. Two of Hannah's goons are dead—shot, I think—but Isaac is still firing a very large gun through a gap in the ruined wall of the building.

Ewan screams. Kàra struggles, but she's as weak as a child against the angelic strength Hannah has running through her body.

"You hold the true power."

If I knew where that voice was coming from, I'd kick its ass.

"I don't! Not anymore!"

My whisper gets right in my face, but Hannah cackles. The chain brands my skin. A swirling vortex of pain and nothingness reaches for me, so close I can almost touch it.

A silent scream bursts from my whisper's lips. Her body writhes in pain, limbs flailing, and she starts to fade away.

"No! Stop! You're killing her!" I try to release the Blade, but my fingers aren't mine to control.

One step.

Two.

My arm swings over my head. The void tugs at my soul, threatening to rip it from my body the moment I send Kàra's power into Hannah.

"Willow!" Gabriel's shout shakes the entire building. Chunks of stone sheer off the walls, each one larger than the last.

How? He…died. I saw him—felt him—die.

But he sits up, his shirt soaked with his blood, and a look of murderous rage in his molten amber eyes.

Hannah throws Kàra with all of her strength. The vampire screams. Her body slams into Maddox in mid-air, and the two of them go down together.

My angel roars as he staggers to his feet. His wings unfurl, perfect and strong and the most brilliant white, and his entire body glows with power.

He's so beautiful. Alive. Confident. And mine.

"This isn't possible." Hannah beats her own wings, rising into the air. Gabriel matches her position. Power crackles between them, sparking like lightning.

My whisper screams again, only this time, I can hear it.

Hannah and Gabriel grapple. My angel lands a punch to the woman's stomach. But she darts around him and tries to sink her teeth into his neck.

She's distracted. This is my chance to end it all.

I spin the Blade and drive it toward my heart. A hair's breadth from my chest, it stops. I stop. Hannah's voice booms in my head.

"Your life belongs to me, Whisper Keeper. Only I can take it."

"No!" I try again and again, but an invisible barrier stops me—impact singing up my arms—every time.

I can barely see through my tears. Hannah and Gabriel are still battling, disappearing and reappearing in mid-air. Hannah has all his power and more, but I can feel my angel's love strengthening him.

"We made the wrong choice."

"Use it."

"Use her!"

The voices from the void roar in my ears.

Use…her? I meet my whisper's gaze. She's the one who's been using me. She's in so much pain, but she still staggers to her feet.

Hannah knocks Gabriel halfway across the building then turns her gaze on me. "Your whisper really does look just like you. And how sweet that she wants to protect you. Use the Blade, Willow. Take her power. Now."

I lift the Blade over my head. My whisper pleads with me, the fear in her eyes shooting straight to my soul.

"Do it, Willow. Or Calista will shatter your ribs one by one," Hannah says sweetly. Gabriel roars as he dives for her. He catches her around the waist and spins her away.

But it's too late. Calista stalks toward me, drawing symbols in the air. My whisper's arms snap to her sides. Her legs glue themselves together. She can't move.

Centuries of knowledge, of pain, of regret slam into me. I understand now. Those voices in the void…they're all the Whisper Keepers who came before. They've been with me the whole time, but I was too afraid to listen.

They didn't need to die.

I don't need to die.

I refuse to move, and Calista snaps the first of my ribs. I don't even have the energy to scream.

Another, and my vision turns cloudy. This is my last chance.

"Trust me," I say softly. "I know what to do."

She sobs silently, terrified, so weak. But she nods.

"Please," I beg all the Whisper Keepers who have gone before me. "Give me your strength."

With my free hand, I grasp the chain wrapped around my neck. My magic flares to life inside me, vibrating through the links until the agony is too much for me to bear. At the same time, I reach for my whisper's consciousness. All those times I thought she stole my consciousness from my body? I was wrong. She didn't do a thing. I did.

The sudden sensation of nothingness as we're ripped from our physical existence leaves me disoriented. Dizzy. My thoughts fracture. Only a single shred of awareness remains.

A long, narrow tunnel pierces the darkness. I see through my whisper's eyes. She's straddling both worlds—the physical, where my body is, and the void.

But with my consciousness here, I collapse, and Calista has no reason to keep my whisper spelled. Not with vampires, angels, and a warlock to battle.

I let my consciousness float in the pitch black, searching. Suddenly, all the ones who came before surround me. They're afraid. Begging me not to fail. It's too much. So many voices, I can't make out the words.

"Everyone shut the fuck up!" At my outburst, they fall silent. "One at a time. Tell me what I need to do."

"Love and hate, light and darkness, life and death. Pairings as old as time itself. Love, light, and life created the Blade. Hate, darkness, and death came after. The circle begins where the circle ends."

The words are familiar. The grimoire. I read them at the beginning. It feels like a lifetime ago.

"The Blade was created by love," a single, scratchy voice says. "Love can set the magic free."

"I can't set the magic free. I'm blood bound. Hannah won't let me destroy the Blade any more than she'll let me destroy myself."

"You listen but you do not hear.. Love cannot be destroyed. Love exists, always. Accept it, cherish it, share it, and love will make you whole."

Share it?

Gabriel and Hannah continue to battle in the air. A blast of Killian's magic pins Calista to the wall. Kàra and Ewan reach Sin as Maddox snaps the demon's dislocated shoulder back into place.

Shots ring out. Isaac collapses, blood pouring from his gut. Mist finishes him off by snapping his neck.

I focus on my whisper—on our fragile connection. It was always mine to control.

Ideas start to filter through my weary mind.

"Wait. Can I use…all of you?"

The voices fade away for the infinite time that is each second in the void. Until they rise up, louder than ever.

"Refuse the call and your life ends here. Give in and your soul will sheer. Threads from the past can bind or break. The future is only what you make. When all is lost will come a choice. Love is yours to give a voice."

The words from the final page in the grimoire. The last line I didn't know until just now.

Hannah's strength comes from hate, darkness, and death. They're her weapons. Along with fear and pain.

I've been so scared of her—of what she'd make me do—I couldn't see what was right in front of me.

The Blade was created by love. Love is yours to give a voice.

I know what to do. But I can't do it from here. I reach for my whisper in the dark, pulling her close and praying she'll hear me.

"We have to break the chain, and we can end this. Together."

Gabriel

The punch sends me spinning thirty feet off the ground. My teeth rattle. I bite halfway through my own damn tongue, and blood fills my mouth.

My adversary scents the air. "You're tiring, angel. I'll taste you soon. Then bind you to me for all eternity. Or at least until I get bored and have my Whisper Keeper end you for good."

"Tiring? Hardly," I scoff. "I can do this all night."

I lunge for Hannah, but veer away at the last second. The move stuns her enough for me to grab the tip of her left wing and hurl her into the closest wall.

The impact should have left her body broken. Vampires can heal in seconds, but seconds are all I need to end her. If not for her stolen angelic strength, this fight would have been over long ago.

I slam into her from behind, banding my arms around her and pinning her wings to her back.

"Release me," she purrs.

I can feel her compulsion slithering through my mind. It would be so easy to let go. I am tired. Dying is exhausting. Coming back to life even more so.

No!

"Nice try, vampire. You are strong. But I have something you do not." I take us higher, scanning the ruins of the building until I find what I am looking for.

"And what is that?" Her voice is even smoother now. Sweeter. Her Fae talents are learning me. Searching for weaknesses she can exploit. She's wasting her energy.

"Love."

She laughs. "Love? The woman you love is mine. I'll steal every fond memory she has of you and lock them away until I'm done with her. But I'll give them all back the moment I make her take your life."

Thrashing with all her might, she manages to get a hold of my right arm. Her fingers crush skin, muscle, and bone. Still, I refuse to release her.

Sweat dots my forehead. Fire licks up my forearm, and the fingers of my right hand go numb.

Below us, Willow struggles to her feet. Power glows within her, the most beautiful golden light I have ever seen. And with her…my God.

Her whisper stands at her side. They're surrounded by eight other whispers, echoes of all the ones who came before. They hold hands, smiling, and focus all of their gazes on Hannah.

"I fought death for Willow—for love—and survived," I say in Hannah's ear. "It seems she has done the same."

Willow

Accepting my whisper was the easiest thing I've ever done. But pulling all the whispers who've come before out of the void with me? That was almost impossible.

More than once I thought I'd fail. But when my consciousness returned to my body, my whisper was smiling down at me. The Blade's fear—such a constant weight on my soul from that first afternoon in the cathedral—is gone.

I point the Blade at Hannah. She can't hurt me anymore. Not with so many whispers surrounding me. "You took something that wasn't yours," I call. "Time to give it back."

Magic heats the air. The Blade sings with it. The whispers do too.

Sinclair and Maddox flank Gabriel as he lowers Hannah to the ground. She shrieks obscenities at them, then turns her intense stare on me.

For a split second, I cringe, my mind cowering behind the weight of the blood bond. But I focus on the liquid gold of my angel's eyes, and all that power falls away. "I thought I'd lost you."

"You could never lose me, deliciae. I love you. There is no force in this world—or any other—strong enough to keep us apart." Gabriel lets Sin and Maddox take hold of Hannah, and the brothers force her to her knees. "You can end this?" he asks, cradling his left arm against his body.

"Yes. But…" I cup the back of his neck, pull him down, and whisper in his ear. "I can still feel her blood inside me, Gabriel. She's not in control," I add when a low growl rumbles in his chest. "I promise. But I don't know what's going to happen when I take your power from her. What if…what if it drives me mad?"

"Then I will use all my love for you to bring you back. " He skims a knuckle along my jaw.

"All of it?" I shouldn't take the time to joke with him. Not when Hannah could break free at any moment. But…I'm not frightened of her now.

Gabriel brushes his lips to mine. The kiss is so tender—so full of all the things we didn't say to one another on the train—that tears spring to my eyes.

"Our love is an endless spring, Willow. It will never run dry. You are my whole heart. My soul. My everything."

He's right. Nothing Hannah—or anyone—could do to me will ever diminish my love for this man in front of me. I'm so light, I think I could fly. "I love you too, stud. Now go stand with all the whispers behind me."

I hold the Blade in one hand, the broken power chain in the other, and take a step closer to Hannah. "You thought you could control me."

She opens her mouth to speak, but Killian sends a blast of magic in her direction, and her jaw snaps shut once more.

"But nothing can control magic. Or love. The grimoire lied. To you. To me. To everyone. The Blade was created by love. For love. To preserve magic in this world until the end of time. Humans turned into something vile. And fear…fear killed the Whisper Keepers one after another. Not anymore."

My whisper threads her fingers through mine. We can do this. Together.

One by one, the other whispers lend us their strength. Their love . My whisper's hand is almost completely solid now. Spots of color darken on her cheeks.

One more step, and we hold the tip of the Blade over Hannah's heart. I don't need to make her bleed. Or suffer. That's not who I am.

"I thought I'd have to destroy the Blade—or myself—to escape you. But that's not the answer. I don't need to escape anything. I have everything I need right here."

I sweep my gaze from my whisper to the ones gathered behind us, to Gabriel. "I have my magic. I have this ancient artifact created by the first coven. I have friends. And I have Gabriel. An angel who loves me so much, not even death could keep us apart."

No one says a word. Even the prisoners still trapped in cages fall silent.

"The Blade isn't the weapon you think it is." I send all the love I have flowing through the Blade. My whisper does the same. "It's not evil. It's not even dangerous. It's Love. From now until the end of time. The Blade is love."

It takes nothing—only a single thought—to coax Hannah's stolen power back where it belongs. For a moment, nothing happens. Until she starts to scream.

Terror has a sound. I heard it the first time as the WCU sent me into the void, the second time when Gabriel died, and again now.

The bright, pure light swirls around her, picking up speed until the vortex lifts her high in the air. Her crimson wings turn to dust. In the next second…she's simply…gone.

Calista whimpers softly. Killian had bound her in ropes from her shoulders to the tips of her fingers before I emerged from the void. She turns, mouthing, "Thank you," before her eyes roll back in her head and she crumples to the floor.

"Fuck me." Killian runs a hand through his messy locks and stares down at her. "Without the blood bond, she aged hundreds of years in…seconds." He checks her pulse. "She's gone."

"She wasn't evil." I press close to Gabriel—as close as I dare with the blood still soaking his t-shirt. "The way she looked at me just now…I think she's been praying for death for a very, very long time."

"I need to check on Zoe," Sin says. "Mad, help the vampires free the rest of Hannah's prisoners. Grayson and Kunchin will take their statements in a few minutes. Gabriel? I know you want to get Willow somewhere… private, but at least see that Lucifer's axe is secure. The last thing we need is Hell's greatest weapon falling into the wrong hands. There's been enough of that these past few days to last us a thousand lifetimes."

I don't want to let my angel go, but the axe is buried under an eight-foot pile of rubble. Kàra and Ewan take care of the cages, while Mist helps Gabriel toss huge chunks of concrete away like they weight nothing at all.

Killian limps over to me, his hands tucked in his pockets. "They do know I could have magicked that for them, right?"

"Gabriel died less than an hour ago," I say quietly. "Let him feel useful."

The warlock's rich laugh is comforting. Normal. And completely out of place. Every single one of us could have died ten times over tonight.

"You're sure the Blade will never be a threat again?" he asks.

I glance down at the ancient weapon in my hand. "The threat never came from the Blade, Killian. It came from the grimoire."

He frowns. "Want to run that by me again, luv?"

"The grimoire had me convinced the Blade was evil. That I was evil." A tremor of magic runs through me. My whisper appears at my side, concern in her expression. "I'm okay. We're okay."

She seems to accept my answer, because she fades into nothingness—along with all the other whispers. Unlike all the other times she's disappeared, I know I'll see her again soon. I'm even looking forward to it.

"When we get back to San Francisco, she and I are going to destroy the grimoire for good. This," I give the Blade a little spin, "from today until the end of time, is nothing more than a fancy, antique dagger. No more grimoire, no new Whisper Keepers, and no way for anyone to force this magic on the world again."