Chapter 17
Phoebe looked back at Agrat. His eyes had opened and she breathed in a deep sigh of relief. She didn't want to leave his side, not when she should be giving him the healing water to drink. "My darling. You're awake. Can you hear me?"
His gaze fixed onto her. Gone was the look of fury in his face. He seemed calm and somewhat subdued. "Not even a wall of flames could block you when you want something," Agrat said, his voice rasping. "I heard every word you said."
"Good." She bent and put the bottle to his lips. "Drink this."
Agrat's hands closed over hers as he drank.
"I thought I'd lost you to the demon side. I was frightened and scared and lost without you. Thank you."
Agrat drained the bottle dry in a few gulps. He pushed himself into a sitting position, wincing as if in pain, yet his gaze bloomed with love for her. "You said you want marriage and children."
A wave of love rushed through her. "I do."
Agrat's face softened as he stared at her.
"Phoebe, please," Rachael said, rushing over to her. "I need your help. There's no time. I'm desperate."
"Help the Healer," Agrat said.
Phoebe turned from the prince, relieved that he seemed stable. Rachael needed her and Rachael, who gave so much, rarely asked anything of her. "What do you need?"
"Galaden is turning to stone. I want you to order him to stop." Rachael turned, waved her hand at Cassiel who stood at the doorway to the studio. The young angel picked up his father and carried him into the middle of the room. The older angel's torso, arms and legs had turned to stone. He no longer seemed to breathe, but terror stayed in his eyes as if he could feel every inch of the hideous creeping death.
Confusion hit Phoebe. "But how will it stop the curse?"
"You are Galaden's maker," Rachael said.
"The maker is his father, the king," Agrat said.
"Not in this lifetime," Daniel said.
"No matter, the maker must be male," Agrat said.
"The maker can be female too," Phoebe said. At least she hoped it could.
"That appears to have changed in this time. I find my princess hot-headed and demanding," Agrat said.
Phoebe smiled. "You'd better believe it."
"In this lifetime you created Galaden from stone. You are his maker," Cassiel said.
"Please. There's no time," Rachael said.
Phoebe strode over to Galaden. "I forbid you to turn to stone. I carved you. I made you. You are to follow my orders. You are to return to flesh and you are to love your brother."
Agrat stood and put his arm around Phoebe. "Tell him I will find the love I once had for him if he is good to you."
"You are never to harm me," Phoebe ordered.
A final gasp of breath left Galaden's lips and the ice in his eyes died leaving only stone.
"It hasn't worked," Rachael cried, flinging her arms around Galaden. "My love, my husband. I can't bear to lose you." Huge sobs overtook her and her shoulders heaved as she cried.
"It should have worked," Daniel said, distressed.
"Rachael tried it with me," Cassiel said. "Rachael, as my mother, was my maker too, in her past life. Galaden ordered me to take Rachael home from the hospital, but she wanted to come here. Her order overrode his. I could obey her."
"You’re Rachael's flesh and blood," Daniel said to Cassiel, staring sadly at Galaden. "Perhaps that’s why it worked."
Phoebe turned to Agrat. "I want to thank you. You didn't kill Galaden. You found forgiveness. You don't have his blood on your hands."
The prince bent and kissed her. "Only for you could I do it. Always for you. You, who I love, have taught me so much about love. You bring me great joy."
She kissed him back, so glad to have him close, but Rachel's cries ripped through her joy. "I must look after Rachael."
Phoebe moved closer to Rachael and Galaden. The angel's expression resonated with misery as he stared down at her. She rubbed her friend's back. Rachael would never recover from loving Galaden, not if she felt for Galaden what Phoebe felt for Agrat.
She put her other hand to Galaden's cheek. "His face is still warm." She touched over the rest of his body. Cool. Like the stone she worked with. She looked up again at the angel's face. A pinprick of light entered Galaden's eyes. Phoebe stood on tiptoes to check she wasn't imagining it. The pinprick grew to a spot. There was blue under the color. "Rachael. Look. He's coming back to you."
Rachael pulled her face back from the chest of the sculpture. "Galaden?"
Cassiel and Daniel stood behind the women. "It's true. Color is returning to Galaden's eyes. Father, can you hear me?" Cassiel cried.
Rachel threw herself at the statue, crying, touching, stroking his face. "His skin is softening."
The angel drew in a deep shuddering breath as his life-force returned. With stiff limbs, he hugged Rachael to him.
Tears rolled down Rachael's face and her mouth wobbled as if she couldn't speak.
"Thank you," Galaden rasped to Phoebe. "I do not deserve your gift of life."
"You're welcome. Look after my best friend," she said. "I did it for her."
Phoebe felt Agrat's arms encircle her from behind.
Galaden looked at the prince. "I have done you a great wrong. You are a good man. Forgive me, brother?"
Agrat's face was stern and serious, his frown clamped on his brow. "You have given me great heartache for centuries, but Phoebe is right. I do not want your blood on my hands. You protected Phoebe when I was turned to stone and now you know what it is to lose the ones you love and become stone. You have suffered too. I forgive you, brother," Agrat said.
Phoebe turned around in his arms. "Daniel said elementals are in a bad mood after they come back from a wall of fire."
"I am," he said.
"You don't seem to be," Phoebe said.
"A bad mood can be alleviated by the love of a good woman," Agrat said with a quirk of a smile.
Phoebe cocked her head. "Don't tell me, the cop says that?"
Agrat laughed, a sound Phoebe rarely heard from him. "No. That was all mine."
THE END
