They would lie there forever and not be disturbed.
Outside of Heaven, outside of the Void, outside of everything.
“If I didn’t know better, I would think you like this.” Luc smirked, his eyes still closed. Of course, he had to say something and ruin the moment.
“Shut up.” Lila glared at him, though he couldn’t see.
“Will you massage my scalp?” He grinned.
“No.” She flicked his forehead.
“Ow!” Luc’s eyes shot open, and he frowned at her.
“I likedthat.” Lila smiled sweetly.
“What is your problem?” Luc sat up and resumed his former position next to her, his back against the obelisk. “You could’ve just said ‘no,’” he informed her.
“Ah, but this way, I got you off my lap.” Lila leveled a cool stare at him, as if that had been her intention all along, when, really, she missed his weight and warmth.
“You’re impossible.” Luc sulked.
“And you should have stayed silent and still. But no. You always push things farther than they’re meant to go,” she scolded, then twisted away from him.
“Say what you want, Lila. Youwereenjoying that.” His accusation bore into her, but she didn’t turn her head.
A moment later, she heard him collect his scrolls from the ground and rise to his feet.
“So what if I was?” she mumbled, picking at her skirt. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
It can’t.
“Things mean what you want them to mean.” Luc moved to stand in front of her, a streak of white framed by the Void. “Like my drawings. They would be senseless doodles to most angels. But not to you and me.”
“Do you really think your world will be created?”
Luc nodded.
“Why? How can you just…believethat?” Even knowing who Luc was, she couldn’t make sense of it. Why would the Creator fashion a whole world at the request of one angel? Didn’t He have better things to do, whoever and wherever He was?
Luc shrugged unhelpfully.
“Haven’t you ever justknownsomething?”
“I know we shouldn’t be doingthis.” She gestured between them.
“That’s not what I mean.” Bending over, he placed his scrolls back on the ground, then offered her his hand. “Here. I’ll show you.”
“Show me what?”
“Take the hand, Lila.” Luc’s mouth quirked up. He was teasing her, and she didn’t trust him, but she took his hand anyway because that was what she did now, apparently.
Luc tugged her forward, then circled behind her.
“Okay, now”—she felt his heat at her back; he placed his hands over her eyes—“I want you to step forward until I tell you to stop.”
“What?” Lila gave a nervous chuckle, unused to the darkness. And also, perhaps, too used to his nearness. She resisted the urge to fall back into his chest. If she wanted him to wrap his arms around her and hold her close, it was an absurdity brought on by her altered state and nothing more.
Nothing more.
