Page 44 of Beautiful Madness

It was as though nothing else existedbut the two of us. I couldn’t see anything but him. The world around us wasdark and empty and hushed. There was nothing else.

He gave me a nod. “Go ahead,”he murmured. He spread his arms. “Look.”

So I did. And though I wasafraid to take my stare off him, I knew he wouldn’t sucker punch me while myattention was elsewhere. If he destroyed me, it wouldn’t be because he trickedme to do it.

There seemed to be nothingsubstantial around us. There were dark shapes, blurry lights far below, and aworld that spread out forever, indistinct and unreal. It was as though we werebetween worlds.

I lifted my hands and stared atthem. Was I real? Did my body rest on the ground in my world as Remy and Samcrouched beside me, trying to wake me up?

Was I stuck here? Would Idiehere?

My mind shattered at thatmoment, and I fell to the ground, my head hanging, my heart bursting, but I didnot die. Something else happened, instead.

And finally, I stood, differentthan before.

I was whole.

Everything I was had fused,finally, reknitting into something powerful, complete, and fearless. I wasfree. No chains held any part of me—not mentally, anyway. I still feltsomething restraining me physically, but I didn’t know what it was.

Not then.

“The weapon is on you somewhere,”he said, finally. He touched his chest where I’d cut him with the blade. “I canfeel it. I will find it, and I will use it to cut my power from your soul.”

I’d brought my weapon to hisattention by trying to kill him with it. And maybe that was why Nicole had beenso devastated when I’d cut him. I’d believed she hadn’t wanted him hurt, but she’dknown a war would be waged between us over the demon blade.

I didn’t wait for him to comeat me. I flew at him, clutching the deadly prize we both wanted to own. If he tookit from me, my life was over—and though fear for that life rose inside me, myeagerness to fight and my anger were larger than my terror. I had to end thisnow.

I had to kill an angel.

ChapterTwenty-Three

I slammed against him and evenas I turned my blade to plunge it into his body, he wrapped me in thosehorrifying wings and despite what Nicole had said, he hurt me. He hurt me alot.

His wings were weapons, and heknew how to use them.

They compressed my entire body.I couldn’t breathe, and for a moment, panic gained the upper hand. I was beingheld in a giant vise as it pinched and squeezed the life from me. My organswould burst, and I would explode into a bloody mess. When he was done with me,only my empty skin would remain.

He lifted us into the skydespite the fact that his wings were not flapping in the air but surroundingme. He would squeeze me to death, then let me drop to smash upon the hardground far, far below us.

Then Nicole’s voice was in myhead.You’re a shapeshifter. Shift, Kait. Shift!

But I couldn’t. I believed Iknew how—that knowledge had been buried inside me for most of my life—but Isimply couldn’t bring it. It was like being hobbled, but—

Fuck.

The bracelet.

I was a shapeshifter wearingthe very thing that would hobble a shapeshifter, and I had to get it off mywrist. At least I now knew where my shapeshifter’s weakness lay.

Lucas pressed his foreheadagainst mine, his voice as caressing as a lover’s when he whispered, “Though Iadmire you for trying, you cannot win a fight with an angel, woman. Give up theblade before I kill you and take it.”

It was hard for me to thinkthrough the pain. My head was being squeezed so violently that I feared myskull was being crushed. I struggled to get the demon blade to the bracelet,desperate to draw a breath. Desperate to get some relief from the awful wings.

As Lucas waited for me toconcede, I sliced my blade into the bracelet, and I cut it loose. I felt thehot slickness of blood and knew I’d cut myself, as well, but the pain of thatcut was nothing compared with the pain of Lucas’s wings.

And finally, though I wasn’tfree of the angel’s wings, I was free to change.

No. I’d already changed. Now Iwas free to shift.