Page 137 of His Prince

I can feel myself slipping away and I’m content now that I’m near him.

“Cut him loose!” Angel screams and moments later, my hands and legs are free from their confines, but I can’t feel them. I can’t feel anything as I’m pulled into Angel’s arms, tears leaking from his beautiful eyes.

“Don’t cry,” I say as the smoke thickens. “I’m glad you’re safe. My avenging angel. You were so brave.”

“Mikhail,” he sobs, his hand pressing roughly to my wound. “Don’t talk like you’re dying. Don’t speak, just breathe. Don’t?—”

“But I vowed to love you, protect you…” I gasp, trying to get my words out.

“…murder for you,” he adds with a sob.

“You did, my little Angel. You murdered them.”

If I could feel anything more than searing pain, I would feel immense pride.

“They tried to take you from me,” he gasps, tears leaking down his cheeks. “I didn’t protect you though. I failed.”

“No, you were perfect. You are always so perfect.”

And he is. My perfect little devil, my Angel. My husband.

He sobs louder, his fingers digging further into my chest, trying to stem the blood. He’s always trying to save me, but doesn’t he know? He already has.

He’s pulled me out of my darkness and let me experience what true love is.

I’ve never had that. Never. But now I have. He’s given it to me, selfless and unknowingly, but he gave it to me as a gift.

And I relished it.

Dima appears over his shoulder. “We need to get out of here before the place burns down.”

“We can’t leave him. He’s bleeding out! We need to save him.”

Dima shakes his head and then shouts. “We can’t save him if we’re all dead. Go! Let me carry him. We have to leave!”

I’m jostled painfully into Dima’s arms and pass out as he dragsme to the SUV. I only wake when I’m back in my husband’s arms, his quiet sobs more raw than the wound in my open chest. We drive away from the carnage, pain radiating through my entire body, and the only thing that drags me back to the living is his voice. Broken, destroyed, and so full of grief.

“Please don’t go, Mikhail. I want to share my life with you, good times and bad.”

I don’t want to leave. I don’t fucking want to go, not when I’ve just found him. My heart.

“I’m yours, my love, and you’re mine. My breath, my heart,” I gasp, my words wet with blood and barely audible.

“You’re mine forever, Mikhail. Please don’t leave me.”

I open my mouth to tell him that I love him, that I’ll fight for more of this, but before I can, everything goes numb, my vision turns a dark shade of obsidian, and I feel the faintest pull of my spirit before I feel nothing.

30

ANGEL

Ican’t breathe, the ache in my chest so immense that I can’t even sit up straight. Everything is tilted, hazy. My dad is finally here, but I can’t even speak.

I’ve never felt this sense of immense loss.

I’ve never felt so much.

It’s debilitating.