“I have to hurry… He’s going to regenerate—”
“You chopped him into a thousand pieces. It’ll take him days to come back from that. He’s not going anywhere.”
“He almost— He would have—” She swallowed. “He was going to kill you.”
“He didn’t. I’m fine, thanks to you. You even healed my hands.”
“He was going to kill you and Eva, and I would have had to watch, and—”
“He didn’t. Look at me. I’m here, and he’s…not. It’s okay.” He didn’t mention Eva’s absence but could only assume she’d left to get backup after he’d busted her out of the trap.
He pulled Sunshine against him and wrapped his arms and wings around her. Finally, finally, she let the sword drop from her grip, the metal clanging as it hit the ground by their feet. Only when he held her close could he feel the subtle trembling in her body.
“He took everything from me,” she whispered. “From us.”
“I know.”
“It’s my fault. You told me he was cruel, and I didn’t believe you. I thought I could reason with him. I thought—”
“It’s not your fault. He’s fucked in the head.”
“He deserves to die. I want to make him pay. I…” She swallowed. “Iwantto kill him.”
Raum did too. As far as he was concerned, the world would be a better place without Raphael in it. The guy was deranged, and deranged people in positions of power did fucked-up things.
But…he didn’t want to kill him like this.
It was stupid, and he could imagine the ass kicking his brothers would give him if they found out, but he didn’t want Sunshine to go down that path. Raphael used to be her friend and someone she looked up to. Even if he’d shattered that illusion, it would still affect her to kill him in cold blood.
When they’d argued before, Raum had thought her naive, but he realized now that wasn’t true. Humankind would be better off if they saw the world through Sunshine’s compassionate eyes.
And if she didn’t look for the best in others, she never would’ve ended up with him in the first place. He didn’t need memories to know he’d been a piece of shit back when they first got together. But she’d stuck it out because she believed in people, and she had changed him.
Yeah, he’d always be a cynical bastard, but he would also always protect her. And protecting her meant protecting that empathetic part of her. He might never understand it, but he didn’t want her to lose it.
“He’s not worth it,” Raum found himself saying. “He’s not worth wasting any more energy and emotion over.”
“He’ll come back. He won’t stop hunting us. He’ll never stop.”
“I didn’t say we’re going to let him go. I just said you shouldn’t kill him.”
Sunshine pulled back, and he relaxed his hold, sensing she was more in control of herself. The blood spatter on her face said otherwise, but he didn’t care about that. He was nearly just as covered—his freshly healed hands were the only clean part of him.
“What are you suggesting?” she asked.
But he suddenly wasn’t paying attention to the conversation anymore. He took in the sparkle in her eyes, the fullness of her lips, the arch of her proud nose, and a surge of possessiveness struck him square in the chest.
He’d burn the world down for her, and he wouldn’t give a single fuck.
He pulled her close again and stroked his claws over her messy braid. Flaring out his wings, he wrapped them around her as much as he could, his black feathers covering her white ones.
“Raum,” she whispered, blinking those big gorgeous eyes up at him.
He looked into them and finally just said it.
“I love you.”
Her eyes flared. Her mouth opened but no words came out.
