The Angel's Fall (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 6) by Katherine Sparrow

Morgan le Fay dare do something? From the moment I laid eyes on this witch she has always dared, Hell Queen. She has always fought, tooth and nail and blood, for whatever misguided or righteous cause she believes in. Does Morgan dare? Always and ever more, and for that reason among many, she will ever have my heart.”
    He locked eyes with me. His words were merry, but those eyes held tragedy.
    And I loved him back. Gods, I'd tried not to, so many times in so many ways, but this mad wizard spouting a heartfelt soliloquy at the moment of our likely demise? It was pure Merlin, using our last moments to tell me his truth.
    “I … I love you too, of course,” I said. “Ever and always.”
    He brightened further at my words. “To say nothing of the loveliness of her smile,” he added. “The vastness of her heart. The rage of her justice.” We stood surrounded by demons who had every intention of cutting us to pieces. Merlin kissed me.
    “How earnest and quixotic,” Maria said flatly.
    Merlin pulled away from me and continued. “In all my days, Morgan has ever had my best intentions at heart. Not that she's chosen well. This one won't get any medals for her choices, but her heart, her heart!”
    “Will be ripped from her chest, put on a silver platter, and served for dinner,” Diego said.
    Merlin nodded and shrugged, as though that didn't sound good to him, but to each their own. “I've been wondering, Diego old friend, if you can say the same for your love’s heart?” Merlin's face went suddenly sharp as he watched the Spaniard, who stood a step behind Maria. “When you first came to Hell, you were understandably enthralled by all that she offered, by all that she tried to burn away in your soul. Your goodness, I believe she said she had taken.”
    Maria stood tall, and the bond between her and Lila strengthened and burned with the blue fire of the Marid. She was readying to order Lila to do something.
    Merlin glanced toward the magical link and then away. “But Diego, a soul cannot be so easily tampered with. It may be darkened for a time, but the light shines through. I am giving you one chance to leave this realm behind. To live a life on Earth, unshackled by curses or the haunting of a lost love.”
    Diego looked … so many emotions rolled across his face in quick succession that I did not know how to name them, or what it meant.
    “He is mine,” Maria said. “Still your fool words, wizard. No one is leaving Hell, least of all him. How dare you—”
    “Again with the daring,” Merlin said mildly. “A fact you may not know, bitter Maria, is I too have had a long and storied history with daring to do things that a cautious man would flee from. I — ”
    “Enough of this,” Maria snapped. “Marid, make Morgan and Merlin well and truly dead.”

 
     
     
     
     
    12
    A Good Day
    I sucked in breath and stared at Lila. “It's okay, child. I have lived a long life. Do this and do not regret it. This death of ours is not your fault.”
    Lila raised her hands. They bristled with a condensed blue magic, and she wiggled her fingers. Her magic flew off her hands and hit Merlin and me at the same moment.
    In all my days, there was a part of me that had always been waiting for this. Knowing it would come.
    My breath stopped. The steady metronome of my heart stilled. My blood, though I never knew I had any sense of it, grew turgid and stopped within my veins and arteries. Death was here, invading my body. Killing me.
    And yet, we didn’t fall. The ravenous darkness did not swallow me whole. I stood upright and wondered when I would truly die.
    “Kill them,” Maria thundered again.
    “Oh, I killed them all right,” Lila said.
    “Tell me,” Maria said.
    “Uh, yeah. So, they are totally litches. Undead magicians. Completely dead. As you commanded.” Lila kept her face impassive and meek under the Queen’s murderous glare.
    “Really, my dear Queen,” the Spaniard interrupted. “Let’s think this