Fallen Angel Reclaimed: The Complete Series by Lacey Carter Andersen
16
For a long minute,neither of them moved. Finally, he released her hands and they redressed. Before she could stand, he pulled her into his lap.
“Sorry. There was nothing in my mind—of you, of Tristan, or of Mark. Suddenly, someone pulled back the shades, and I could see all of it. I was scared, scared that if I let go of you for one minute, I’d forget it all.”
She rested her head against his chest. “It’s okay. I’m just glad to have you back.”
More than glad. More than anything I can describe.
He kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair. Neither of them spoke for a long time. The sounds of the woods returned. The insects and birds. The whistling of the wind. It was like the world had begun to turn once more.
“I’m an angel,” he whispered.
She tried to keep her words even. “How does it feel?”
His hand stilled in her hair. “Too natural. And yet, like I’ve been collared.”
She nodded. “As long as Caine’s in charge, he has far too much power over us.”
He continued to stroke her hair. “So what do we do?”
What can we do? “Are Mark and Tristan angels too?”
Daniel stiffened. “I don’t think so. I never saw them or sensed them.”
Something she hadn’t known was there began to ache, and she realized something terrible. When she’d seen Daniel, she’d naturally assumed they’d all been turned into angels. It was twisted and awful, but at least it meant they weren’t beyond her grasp.
But what if it was only Daniel who had been spared?
“We have to accept they might be gone,” he said. A shiver rocked violently through Daniel’s body. “He shattered Tristan. And he burnt me alive.”
“Who?” she whispered.
“The archangel. He’s more powerful than any being I’ve faced except Caine.”
“So, we’ll have to be prepared for him tomorrow too.”
Daniel stiffened. “Don’t tell me anything. Caine can get inside my mind. He can order me back at any time.”
“So what do we do?”
He was quiet for too long. “I go back. And I pretend that I don’t remember anything. You do whatever you have planned. And when the time comes, I help.”
Tears choked her throat. “I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want to send you back there, or do this alone.”
He kissed her hair. “Me neither, but we have to.”
The dark night slid into the slightest shade of grey. She stared at it, knowing it meant their time together was slipping away. With all their powers, neither one of them had the one they really needed. To stop time.
“I have to go, or he’ll know something went wrong.”
She clenched the fabric of his shirt in her hand. “What will you say?”
He laughed, the sound so familiar it spoke to her very soul. “I’ll think of something. Lying isn’t exactly a weakness of mine.”
They rose, and he held her in a tight hug for one more painful moment. When she pulled back, he had the saddest smile. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she whispered, and then he teleported away.
Heart in her throat, she stared at where he’d been for one long moment, before she too teleported away. Just inside the hospital, she watched an old man stiffen as his gaze fell upon her.
At the front desk, when Surcy asked about the Immortal’s wife, no one knew. Surcy moved from one room to the next until she met an ICU doctor. He immediately knew the nameless stabbing victim, and just as quickly informed her that the woman had died.
She left feeling as if she’d swallowed a rock. The news would not be easy to tell the Immortal, or his children.
When she teleported back outside the sanctuary, she froze in shock. Where the woods had once been, the ground was leveled… leaving nothing behind but ash. For acres upon acres, stretching on for miles, nothing remained of the sacred grounds.
In shock, she took a step forward, stepping onto the ash that still smoldered. This was impossible. She’d only been gone for what? An hour? Two?
And then, she looked at the ash.
Kneeling down, she picked up the hot substance. Flakes of blue shone back at her.
The archangel.
