Angelina's POV
Angels aren't supposed to steal souls from Hell, but I've never been good at obedience.
Richard's essence was dimming. Every moment I delayed was another moment closer to losing him entirely.
I closed my eyes and reached for the power thrumming beneath my skin. The air around me grew thick as I traced patterns in the space before me, symbols that had been forbidden since before my creation.
When I opened my eyes, my bedroom mirror had vanished. In its place, a vortex swirled with nauseating slowness, its edges glowing purple. The center was pure void.
Richard was in there. Somewhere beyond that darkness.
I stepped forward.
The door behind me burst open. "Angelina! Get back here. What you're doing is forbidden."
Gabriel. Of course it would be Gabriel.
But I didn't turn around. The vortex had already begun its pull, and I let it take me.
The sensation was brief and violent. My body felt simultaneously stretched and compressed, hot and frozen.
When the world reformed around me, everything was wrong.
I stood in an enormous chamber. The walls stretched up into darkness, but scattered throughout were hundreds of glowing spheres. Each one pulsed with its own rhythm. Each one contained a soul.
My wings lifted me with a flap. I launched myself upward, soaring between the trapped essences.
There. In the far corner, barely visible. A light so dim it was almost extinguished.
Richard.
I flew faster, my heart hammering. The sphere containing his soul was withered, its edges growing transparent. My fingers stretched toward it. The distance closed.
Something wrapped around my throat.
The grip was instant and absolute. Not a hand, but something smoother. Colder. It yanked me backward, and suddenly I was falling, wings flailing as whatever held me dragged me down.
My back slammed into something solid. Something that radiated heat.
"What do we have here?"
The voice rolled through the chamber. His hot breath sprayed on my neck. I felt him inhale, long and deep.
"You reek of kindness, little angel." The words dripped with distaste.
My pulse hammered where his tail pressed against my jugular. The grip loosened, and I was spun around with dizzying speed.
He laughed, stepping past me as the tail unwound from my throat. His boots made no sound on the floor—predators rarely announce themselves. "You walk like you've never feared a damn thing in your life. But your hands…"
His tail curls tighter around my neck. "Your hands tremble."
He dragged a fingertip across a star-sphere as he passed, making it flare with terrified light. "Bold enough to break into my domain. Foolish enough to think you could steal from me."
"Angels don't come here alone. They don't come here at all."
My jaw clenched.
"And yet you flew straight into the Second Chamber. No hesitation. No plea. Just… desperation."
I remained silent.
"Tell me, angel. What makes you brave enough to die for a soul that isn't yours?"
He turned around.
I found myself staring into a face that should have been monstrous but somehow wasn't. Sharp features. Eyes so dark they seemed to swallow light. And an expression that made my blood run cold.
Those eyes widened. Just slightly.
"It's you."