I drove to Will’s to join the guard shift with Marcus and Lauren. Replacing Will’s bandages let me get another look at his wound, which continued to heal well. One more day.

One more day.

Even with studying all night, I wasn’t feeling confident about my exams, but at least I only had two today. I was exhausted physically and mentally. Sleep was inconsistent and fitful, and I hadn’t had a chance to rest after the journey to find Antares. The only thing that kept me going every day was knowing Will would wake soon and we could finish this fight with Sammael at last. I took up my post in Will’s room, napped a little beside him, studied, and waited. When I changed his bandages, the wound had closed and he seemed to be normal again. He just wouldn’t wake up.

I’d been dozing when I felt movement beside me. My heart leaped into my throat and I looked down into Will’s face, holding my breath. He moved his head left and right as he tried to speak.

“Will?” I asked softly, touching his cheek, barely able to contain my joy. “Can you hear me?”

His eyelids fluttered and he groaned. “Ell…”

“Yes,” I said, and kissed his forehead. “It’s me. It’s Ellie.”

His eyes opened and my breath caught. It felt like I hadn’t seen that incredible green in years. He looked right up into my face, squinting blearily, but there was recognition there. “Ell…?”

My smile was ear to ear as I brushed the back of my hand across his cheek and he leaned into it, closing his eyes again. “Hi,” I whispered.

He lifted his hand to mine and gazed back up at me. “Dreaming…again….”

I squeezed his hand tight. “You’re not dreaming anymore.”

His smile was weak, but the sweetest thing I’d ever seen. “Miss…you…Ell….”

“How do you feel?” I asked. I put a palm to his forehead and then tested his pulse on his wrist. His fever had gone down and his heart rate seemed to have returned to normal.

“Came…back…to me….”

I shushed him and kissed him again. “Of course I came back to you. I promised you I would. Do you remember? Do you remember the horses?”

“You…,” he whispered, taking a deep breath between pauses, “found me…in the dark….”

“I did,” I replied. “Don’t try to speak, okay? Just rest.”

He closed his eyes and his brow creased. “No more…rest….”

“Just lie here with me,” I told him. “You’ll feel better soon.”

I worried that the lamp on the nightstand shone a little too brightly, so I switched it off. When I looked up, I saw Ava and Sabina standing in the doorway, watching Will and me, and I wiped at a tear that fell down my cheek. They began to retreat into the darkness of the hallway and I gazed back down at Will as he breathed gently, holding on to me, and I curled myself up tighter against him.

8

I SPENT THE ENTIRE NIGHT SITTING NEXT TO WILL on his bed. He never went back to sleep, but occasionally I did, and I would wake curled in his arms, and for the first few seconds of wakefulness I feared that I still dreamed. But it was real and he was alive and awake and recovering.

“Do you remember the dreams?” I asked him once, my voice slipping through the dark.

His fingers touched my face, tracing the curve of my cheek down to the corner of my lips. “I do. I remember you came, that my mind hadn’t just created you. You weren’t a part of my dreams like everything else was.”

“Somehow I entered your dreams,” I explained. “I think it had something to do with the bond, the magic in your tattoos, or that I’m tapping into more of my archangel abilities. I just don’t know.”

“It’s better to see you now,” he said gently, “with my true eyes.”

I smiled against his fingers. “I didn’t think I’d ever see them again.”

He was quiet for a few moments. “How did you do it? What happened?”

“Rikken’s bite was venomous,” I told him. “We didn’t know how to heal you, but I knew where to start looking. We didn’t have any of the texts about angelic medicine, so I went to the source.”

“Source?” he asked, unsure. Then his eyes went wide. “No. Tell me you didn’t…”

“I found Antares,” I confessed. “In exchange for releasing her from the Earth, she gave me a root from the tree she was bound to and it healed your wound.”

“You went to the Lord of the West?” he asked in that disapproving-Will way of his. “Ellie…”

“Do you love me?” I stared him straight in the face.

“Yes.”

“Then trust me.”

“That was so dangerous….”

“Oh, shut up,” I grumbled and slapped his shoulder gently. “I did what I had to do to save you and I’m not hearing any of your crap about it. Now I’m going to try to sleep a little. I’m in the middle of studying for final exams. You picked a very bad time to almost die.”

He gave me a silly, lopsided smile. “Sorry. We’ll talk about Antares tomorrow.”

“Any chance you’ll forget to scold me about it again?” I asked with a hopeful lilt to my voice.

He kissed the top of my head. “Nope.”

I held on to him tighter. “I’ll remember to bring my armor then. And the swords.”