I placed my hand on his knee. “Are you alright? It’s a lot to wrap your brain around, I know.”
He nodded woodenly, not really hearing me.
“You already know one angel,” I reminded. “Now you just know another one.” And had sex with him.
“I know one guy whosayshe’s an angel,” Lysander objected. “He could just as easily say he’s actually Bigfoot and just shaves a lot.”
"What? I always keep my face smooth," Frost said, mildly offended.
"To throw us off the trail," Lysander argued.
"He’s not bigfoot!" I shouted. Were they really arguing about this now?
"Max, maybe this should be a private discussion." Frost stared at me importantly.
"Great,” I said. “Get lost."
The angel looked pissed because that wasn’t what he meant. That expression might scare others. Not me. He rolled his eyes and left.
Did the whole immortal by human standards thing scare Lysander? Or maybe the Max might explode part? Was he angry I didn’t share that sooner? Oh no, I couldn’t think about that. Not when I realizedwhyI hadn’t told him sooner. He really needed to know that, especially in light of the Max might explode thing.
"Hey, focus here." I squeezed his knee, not going on until he looked at me. “All I hoped for after rescue was learning more about me and my place here. I never expected to be a freaking angel and possibly an intergalactic outlaw or something. From what Frost’s been telling me, a lot about being an angel doesn’t really mesh well with humanity.” We were alien to each other, from different planets.
“Oh, really?” This news seemed to disappoint yet not surprise him.
“I really hate that and hope he’s wrong.” I seized his hands in my own. “Ever since waking up in that basement, you’re about the only thing thathasfit with me. So there’s no way finding me can mean losing you, because that means part of me is still missing.”
Despite being stunned by angelic reveals, he seemed to absorb my message pretty quickly.
"Oh," he said. “Oh.”
“I didn’t know how to deal with that or tell you that before.” I tried to smile. “Guess I figured it out.”
Lysander meant so much to me. He had for a while. Our connection was intense and important, but it just started blooming. Becoming an angel, or becoming aware of my angelic status, also clued me into how deeply my feelings for the man in front of me ran. But I could only deal with one earth-shattering revelation at a time. I’d needed some time before understanding and accepting how much he really meant to me.
Plus, I’d never declared my feelings for anyone before. But I had now.
A soft smile appeared on his face as he squeezed my hands and leaned forward to kiss me so sweetly. We fell into each other, into a messy, relieved kiss as I held onto his shoulders and never wanted to let him go. Even as things changed and we needed to find a way to save me, we’d fight to keep each other.
Frost cleared his throat eventually. That meant he had reappeared and wanted our attention. Our hands were joined when we faced him to discuss strategy.
“So,” I said. “My spirit was injured by harmful magic. We need to solve this before I, uh… explode. I think I saw myself exploding.” I confirmed this with Frost. “I can explode, right?”
"An explosion may mean a buildup of psychic or metaphysical energy. Or it may happen when the instability inside you interacts with your outside environment.”
Why did I have a feeling the solution wasn’t as simple as staying away from combustibles? Something tugged at me, oh, like before when we communed, Frost asked to look inside my mind. I allowed him access. The link didn’t absorb me like before, instead he only skimmed the surface and viewed the explosion from my dreams.
Then it was over.
“The source of the explosion isn’t foreign magic, it’s… from you?” What the hell did that mean? “It looked like…” Frost seemed far away even as he considered something. Like he was putting everything together, the little we knew about me, what he sensed when we merged, and the explosion.
Frost’s brows drew together. “Oh no,” he murmured. A second later his eyes cut quickly to us. “Did I say that out loud?”
“Frost, what’s going on?” I hated when he became nervous. Nothing good was coming.
“I’ve always been confused by the damage done to you. Even the most powerful magic here would have trouble harmingyour spirit. We’re just too naturally different. I understand now. That’s the problem. The magic didn’tinjureyou as I guessed but instead essentiallyinfectedyou. It found a way inside while you were weaker and can’t harm you directly but does cause a problem.”
“Because it’s not supposed to be there?”
