Redemption
The hospital is too cold and too bright and it smells and I hate it. But I can't leave, even though they already told us Luc isn't going to make it. I can't leave him here.
The only thing getting me through this is Gabe. His arms are around me like a cocoon, and he hasn't let me go, even when they stitched my shoulder.
"I don't get it," I say through my tears. "He was human, so why would it matter that Beherit took all things Hell with him? That wasn't Luc anymore."
There's pain in Gabe's eyes and sympathy on his face. "You changed him physically, but his life force was tethered to Hell. It's what he was for over seven millennia. There can't really be a separation. And, in the end, he embraced that side of himself. He called on that infernal power to save you."
I think about Luc-his heat and how he glowed as he used the last of his power to wrap me in a field-and my heart shrivels into a hard ball. He should have saved himself, not me.
People walk through the hospital waiting room like it's any other day. Like the world didn't just end. How can that be? The world should be crashing down all around us.
My shoulder stings where the anesthesia is wearing off, and I can feel the tug of the bandages and stitches, but I wish it was worse. I wish Beherit had killed me. Then maybe Luc and I would be together. I bury my face in my hands and I feel Gabe's arms around me, pulling me to his shoulder. "This can't be happening. It's all my fault."
"I'm so sorry, Frannie."
"This is so not fair. He was good-I know it. He doesn't belong in Hell."
"He wasn't tagged for Hell. There's no guarantee that's where he went."
"But you said Beherit took him back to Hell."
"No, Frannie. I don't know that."
My breath catches. "You mean he could be in Heaven?"
He strokes my hair. "It's possible. His mortal soul was clean."