“She had to override every fibre of magic she had, the magic of the bridge, and her own body’s resistance.It would have caused unimaginable pain, her muscles would have clenched and tightened into spasms and cramps.Her mind would have swollen with thoughts of safety and celestial paradise.She would have hallucinated retreating.Her wings would have worked on autopilot, flapping to pull her back from the ledge.”
Gellara’s shoulders tense, her neck straining with unspoken words.
“You want to know why I am hell-bent on keeping you away?This is why.Interitus’s desire for destruction, even at the expense of her own ruin, will override everything else.She is patient, powerful and the most poisonous thing to walk this realm.And I don’t want her anywhere near you.So if you love me, you will listen.You will believe me and you will stay hidden while I hunt her down.”
Gellara’s eyes are wet.She won’t look at me.
“And if you loved me, you wouldn’t make me watch you walk to your death.”
Her words slice through me; bile froths in my lungs and throat.
She’s mad because she loves me.I lock my fingers through hers, grip her chin and force her to look at me.
“When this is all over, I promise to take you to each one of those cities, and any others in this realm.We will live like gods in the highest of all heavens.And I will make you my queen, my goddess, and I will worship you more passionately than any deity could fathom.”
She sniffles and nods.“If you die, I will kill you.”
I smile.It’s soft, silent, and full of secret fears.When I kiss her, I want to taste the sweetness of her love.The deep body of her dedication, and the heat of her protective rage.But that’s not what curls between our tongues.It’s cooler, filled with quiet dread, and the tartness of fear in the wind.
I pull away and give her a curt peck on the lips, all the while my throat closes and my fingers grow cold.And I pray to any of the gods who listen to be on my side.To keep my love safe.
All I hear is silence.
19
Lucy
Icome to being carried across campus.My head is full of Architecti’s life.It’s given me a throbbing headache, like my mind knows it’s carrying two sets of lived experiences and is rather swollen.The memories flit through my mind in fits and starts.A shred here, a picture there.I need time and space to process it all.But there’s so much going on.Midnight.Interitus.The runes.
I want to halt Midnight, slow her down so I can appreciate where I am.Inhale the scents of ivy leaves and damp cobbles, misty mornings and old leather books.
I’m home.
I’m home.
I can’t believe I’m home.
Midnight drags me across campus as if Interitus is still chasing us.She hauls me all the way inside House Inferos and up to my apartment.Flinging the door open, she tugs me inside and slams it shut.
By the time she makes it through the kitchen, where she deposits me on the ground, she’s panting hard.
She rounds on me then, her eyes dark enough to rival her name.Her shoulders heave up and down, and I know in my heart there’s something she’s not telling me.
She points a finger in my face.“Fuck you, Lucy.”
“Come again?”I say, taken aback.
“You heard me.”She flings an arm across the counter, knocking a load of papers off the side.
I narrow my eyes at her.“You need to control that temper.”
“And you need to think about someone other than yourself for once.”
“Fuck you, Midnight.What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
She laughs.It’s ugly and sharp and reminds me of Ignatius.She’s spent far too long under his control.
“Where do I start.First, you didn’t consider for one second what forcing me to reap you would do to me, the impact it would have.Then, you up and take a piece of a fucking angel’s soul with no idea as to the consequences or repercussions.You didn’t even stop to think about it.”
