He lifted his foot and was about to kick her when a strong gust of wind followed by a blur of white rushed past her and knocked him down.
“Now, Rachel! Uri!” Gabrielle yelled, flying toward Jeremy and Lash.
In one swoop, Uri grabbed Sal, pummeling his fists into him. Each blow sounded with a thunderous roar.
Rachel helped Naomi up, and both ran to Raphael’s aid. Lucifer shoved Raphael in their direction and sent him soaring in the air, striking them down.
Naomi jumped to her feet and was about to attack again when Lucifer held his hand up and a string of lava whipped out of the lake and singed her face, momentarily blinding her. She fell to the ground.
Everything seemed to slow down as her sight came back to her. She could see every feather of Gabrielle’s snowy white wings as they flapped powerfully above Jeremy. He lifted Lash to her, and she took him gently into her arms. She gave a simple nod to Jeremy, and she went to Naomi.
The others held Lucifer and Sal off as Gabrielle laid Lash’s charred body at her feet.
“Lash, my love.” Naomi gently lifted him and cradled him in her arms, tears streaming down her face.
“Jeremy?” Lash’s pained hazel eyes gazed back at her.
“Raphael will get him,” she said.
Lash nodded and closed his eyes, passing out.
Naomi looked for Gabrielle and Raphael. They’d save Jeremy. Raphael could heal him. She knew he could.
Then her heart caught in her throat, horrified, when she looked to Jeremy. His body was slowly sinking into the lava.
She watched as Jeremy and Raphael locked eyes and silently communicated with each other. Jeremy’s blue eyes glowed with resolve, and he gave Raphael a curt nod.
Grief swept over Raphael’s face. He studied Jeremy, unable to tear his eyes away from him. Then finally, he returned the nod as if accepting his son’s fate.
He turned to Gabrielle, his face a mask of determination. “Now!”
Together, they charged at Lucifer, their feet slamming against his chest and sending him toward Jeremy. Jeremy reached and grabbed hold of his ankle before Lucifer could regain control.
With a savage roar, he plunged them both into the fiery lake.
21
Screams echoed in Lash’s ears. Jeremy! Jeremy!
His heart pounded frantically against his chest as he searched for his brother in the darkness.
Where are you? He had to find him—to tell him that he was wrong. To tell him that he understood.
He moved faster and faster, getting nowhere. His legs felt like they were moving through an ocean of wet sand as he struggled forward.
I need to tell him. I need to...before it’s too late.
Searing heat slammed against his chest, and he felt himself falling.
Falling.
Falling.
“Jeremy!” He shouted as he jerked up.
“Lash, it’s okay.” Soft hands touched his arm. “You’re home.”
He looked into Naomi’s pale blue eyes and then gathered her against his chest. “Naomi. You’re safe.”
He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, and the salty tears that streamed down her face. “You shouldn’t have gone after me. You could have...could have...” He couldn’t even say the words.
She drew back and cupped his face tenderly. “There is nothing, I mean, nothing, that will ever keep me away from you again. I love you. Always.”
He kissed her deeply, his tears blending with hers. Fingers weaved into her hair, relishing the soft waves. He was never going to let her go again. Never.
Her soft hands delicately brushed his back, and he winced.
“Does it hurt? Raphael, come quick.”
Raphael hurried into the room and sighed as he inspected Lash. “You’re recovering nicely.”
“His back hurts,” Naomi said.
“Just a little, my love.” He squeezed her shoulder.
Raphael sat on the chair next to the bed. “That’s to be expected. I was able to heal everything, including your wings. There will be some minor discomfort for a while.” His face turned solemn. “Lash, about Jeremiel...”
Lash’s throat grew thick. “Did you heal him, too?”
He felt his soul grow numb as he heard Naomi’s heart-wrenching sob. She buried her head in his chest.
He swallowed. “Raphael?”
Raphael’s blue eyes, so much like Jeremy’s, looked up at him filled with torment. “Jeremiel...Jeremiel is...dead.”
He moaned, dropping his head onto Naomi’s shoulder. “Not Jeremy. Please not Jeremy. Why? Why?”
He rocked with Naomi as they clung to each other, crying an endless river of tears.
“It should have been me,” he sobbed. “It should have been me! He’s the good one.”
“No, Lahash.” He felt Raphael place a firm hand on his shoulder. “Both of you are good. It was my fault that you grew up believing otherwise. Jeremiel loved you deeply as a friend and a brother. He didn’t think twice about going after you, and neither did I. My son, can you forgive me for all my wrongdoing?”
Lash placed a hand over Raphael’s. He remembered Lucifer’s words. Raphael wasn’t his father. He didn’t care. Raphael was always there for him, just as Jeremy was. Raphael was his true father.
“I forgive you, Raphael. I forgive Jeremy. You are my family.”
It was at that moment when a surge of images flashed through his mind, memories of him and Jeremy as small boys, running up a grassy hill together, playing; memories of sitting on Rebecca’s lap in front of a stone fire place, singing to him; memories of meeting Naomi by a stream, of them falling in love.
Naomi gasped, and she looked up at him, her eyes shining. “I remember. I remember you and Jeremy. You were different but the same. How is that possible? What happened?”
“What do you remember?” Raphael asked.
“I remember I had another family.” She gazed off in the distance, her eyes shifting back and forth as if watching a movie in her mind. “My father owned an inn in the City of Ai. And there were little girls...I had sisters!”
“I remember, too,” Lash said. “Your sisters would follow us when we snuck off into the hills. I remember my life. I remember my mother and you...Father.” He smiled at Raphael.
“Why?” Naomi asked. “Why now? What happened?”
Tears welled in Raphael’s eyes. “I believe it is because Lahash has truly forgiven me and accepted me for who I am.” He wrapped his arms around both of them. “He has brought you back to me.”
Lash felt a peace within him grow under Raphael’s fatherly love, but there was an empty place in his heart. His brother was gone.
Time passed. Lash drifted in and out of sleep with Naomi lying next to him and Raphael sitting by his bedside watching over him. He couldn’t get himself out of bed, and he didn’t want to.
It was all one big blur for him as he held onto Naomi. At one point, he heard Raphael whisper in hushed tones that he was leaving to visit a little redheaded girl in the hospital and that Jeremy would have wanted him to do so.
Grief washed over him in dark waves, and he could feel Naomi’s sorrow, too. Sometimes it was small and lulling, almost bearable. At other times it was large and overwhelming, and the only thing that kept him from drowning in it was Naomi’s soft crooning that she loved him. All he could do was hold on tight to her until the tide of grief pulled back, making his waking hours just a little bit bearable again.
He had no idea how long they stayed hidden in the refuge of their bedroom, holding each other. Daylight shone through the open windows, and in the blink of an eye darkness fell. Day turned to night and night into day. He lost count of how many, and he didn’t care. As long as Naomi was by his side, he didn’t care if the entire world came to an end, because his already had.