"I know,” he said. Oh hell no. About to tell him where he could shove cryptic answers, he correctly read my frustration and continued. “Ifeelyou. I feel your presence, though faint and confusing. Especially when you have no awareness of me."
"Uh, should I have an awareness?"
"It’s not something we can turn off… it’s not supposed to be.” He seemed to be watching me for signs of recognition. “Angels are beings of connection. I shouldn’thave toread your mind. Can you feel me?"
We sat across from each other. Reaching out and touching him didn’t seem right. "To be clear, you mean…?"
"Not physically."
Feeling a little insane, I closed my eyes and tried to sense his presence in the room somehow. Unable to even hear his breathing, it felt like I was alone. When I opened my eyes, he was still there. He wore a standard outfit for a professional office this time, complete with a tie so obnoxiously orange it burned my eyes. I shook my head, unable to mentally sense him.
"How long have you known for?" I asked next.
He said nothing, eyes cutting away. Finally, something I could read from him.
"That long, huh?"
"Max, the enormity of this requires a delicate touch. I’m afraid it’s still too soon to tell you."
He acted like I was a cornered wild animal and his soft, lilting voice set me on edge.
"Too soon?” I laughed, getting up and needing to move. The numbness and confusion from his news fell away as anger began taking over. “How the hell—I’ve beencluelesshere. My whole world was erased and changed because I’m something supernatural. I’ve been wondering, searching,tearing my hair outover here, totally powerless, and you had the answers and kept them from me?”
I thought about punching the wall. Good as it might feel, I’d done enough setting my recovery back.
"Maybe you should sit down,” Frost said.
I ignored his suggestion and kept pacing.
“Think of yourself when we found you. Could you really wrap your mind around being a spirit with virtually limitless potential and a lifespan to match?”
My pacing stopped abruptly. Now I understood how there was such a thing as too much honesty.
“We’re… immortal?” I whispered.
"We exist for… extremely long periods of time,” he settled on quietly. “And we don’t die naturally, not in our angelic form."
I did sit down, right on the floor. A big, aching emptiness that matched the kind inside my psyche carved out my stomach as I tried to imagine what it meant to never age, never die… Lysander would grow old and fade away while I…
Holy shit.
When first freed from the basement, getting through a whole day seemed like the most impossible challenge when thinking about all those hours ahead. I had to take it minute by minute or second by second to get through without breaking down. Even though I’d wanted answers from the beginning, this answer? It would not have been good news or news I could handle.
"I want to argue,” I admitted. “But I’m not sure I can wrap my mind around thisnow."
"Exactly. I didn’t conceal the information because it wasn’t your right to know. Only to give you time to cope and get stronger mentally and physically before we began.” Began? “You were hurt by whatever the Brokers did to you.”
“Yeah, I know. I was there.”
“No, not your body. Your essence. This shouldn’t be possible.” Even unsure about what that meant, the words sent a shiver down my spine.“We need to heal the damage done and awaken the angel in you before… before anything else goes wrong.”
Frost seemed… tense, almost scared. Whatever was happening? Not good. It even made him react, his stone face weakening.
“What’s going to happen to me?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he promised. “We’re going to fix it.”
~
