And to have confirmation of who they were — innocents, who’d done nothing wrong except be in the wrong place at the wrong time — was sending me into a spiral.
I’d felt free for a split second, and now I didn’t. Cell bars were closing in around me again, my heartbeat erratic in my chest. Shan moved in front of me, blocking my view of Luther. He made a soft shushing noise, stroking his fingers across my cheek. Emmett stepped in behind me and Iris ducked from underneath my arm, leaving me with only my two mates surrounding me.
This didn’t feel claustrophobic.
Before, the walls had been closing in. With my mates around me, they pushed the walls back out and I could breathe easier.
Luther and the other guard were almost to where our little group was standing, hidden from sight, but I was able to ignore it. He would walk past, and everything would be fine again. We’d get out of here. I’d never have to see his smirking, ugly face again.
Beside our group, Luther was brought down to his knees. His associate had a gaping hole in his chest where his heart should be, but Luther was alive.
He vomited blood all over the ground.
His mouth opened on a scream but nothing came out, the sound stopped from coming into existence. My eyes wide, I glanced back at Sky. This was a witch’s work. Sure enough, he was staring at Luther with his eyes narrowed in concentration.
Altair had moved beside him at some point, his sword coated in blood.
“Would you like to do the honours, miss?” Altair asked, holding out the handle of the bloody sword to Iris.
She stared down at it, then up at him. “Me?”
“He terrifies you. I don’t like Alphas who mistreat Omegas, so he’s going to die. He’s a disgrace to all fallen angels. It’s only a matter of who deals the killing blow.”
Iris peered over at Sky, then at Luther. The man was still puking, curled up in the puddle of it and rocking back and forth in pain. “What’s he doing to him?” she asked.
“Imagine a rat eating through his internal organs,” Altair said with a smile. “If we had the time to spare, I’d get Sky to keep him in pain for hours. Unfortunately, we’ve got to get you out of here quickly.”
“And you would let me take that weapon… and kill him?”
“You don’t have to. I’d just as easily deal the blow.”
She snatched the sword up before Altair could rescind it, and he grinned.
“I’ll do it,” Iris said. Her weak arms could barely hold the sword. “Can you help?”
“Of course. I imagine it will be cathartic, even if I’m the one who forces the blade down.”
Altair stepped up to Luther as I watched with wide eyes. Emmett and Shan tried to distract me as the assassin kicked the man onto his back, stepping on his cock with one foot and an arm with the other. Every noise Luther made was swallowed by the spell Sky was casting. Maybe I should have looked away, but this was the man who should have died all along.
Not those townspeople he’d made me kill.
Iris pointed the sword at his chest from above and Altair helped her aim. Then, with one of his hands and both of hers on the hilt, they pushed downward.
Luther stopped moving, his body going limp.
Altair withdrew the sword from his heart and placed it against his throat. “To kill an angel, you’ve got to make sure you’ve severed the soul’s connection with the body,” he said.
She placed a hand on the hilt again, even though she was too weak to be any help with disconnecting Luther’s head from his body. He violently shoved the blade and when the head was detached, Altair kicked it across the hallway. It burst into flames. Sky’s doing.
Iris stumbled back, but her expression wasn’t filled with horror at having killed one of her main tormentors. She was gleeful, a short laugh leaving her. Her balance wavered but this time Sky was the one to catch her. She grinned despite the unfamiliar man holding her up, continuing to smile as Sky swept her into his arms to carry her.
The happiness she had over his death added to mine.
A death had fed my feral side, bringing it closer to the surface, but it was worth it. We would be out of here soon, and neither of my mates would ever let me lose myself again. Ever.
As we made it to an unguarded exit door at ground level, I grinned and inhaled deeply, relishing the slightly dingy scent of fresh Zemterran air.
My torment was over.
