Page 36 of Where the Light No Longer Follows

Two deaths had been left for her to collect after the one she’d just sent off to Asphodel.

She’d done it with such mellow steps, almost tempting time, almost provoking the unforgiving Goddess. From time to time, she’d glanced over her shoulder, hoping Gabriel would interfere. That kind of hope had left her with the bitterest taste in her tongue, and she’d quickly sent the soul back to Asphodel, not even waiting for a second boat, afraid he’d find her if she stood too long in one stop. So, she’d circled the small city of Asador round and round until she was sure she’d confused Fates themselves to the point she’d rewritten destiny.

Just as she was about to cross the street towards the invisible bay where a boat was now finally waiting for her, a silver car stopped right at her feet for some reason, the windows rolling down the passenger side. “Why are you hiding from me, Silene?” Gabriel asked, leaning in the passenger seat to look up at her.

“I’m not hiding.”

“If I can’t find you, it means you are hiding,” he threw her own words back at her.

“I need some space.”

His brows pinched with confusion. “Fine, pick a few stars or whatever else, and I will get them for you, what is the big fuss?”

She rolled her eyes. “As in distance.” Pointing between them, she added, “Between us.”

That look of confusion deepened in his face. “There’s always space between us, so get in the car.”

“No.”

“Get in the car, Silene.”

She got in the car, making sure to stomp and slam her way in, refusing to let down her feigned wall of indignation that was now paper thin and no longer keeping him away. “Where are you taking me?”

He lifted her folded paper between his two fingers. “Three more demands to go.”

“What’s the rush?” she asked, biting the inside of her cheek raw, only stopping when she felt the taste of blood on her tongue. A thousand thoughts crossed her as she held her breath, wondering if it had happened because she was so close to paying her debt to Azriel or because she’d gotten so close to Gabriel and therefore closer to getting a taste of her old humanity back.

Like the devil he was, he flashed her another of his sinful smirks. “I can take it slow, Silene. As slow as you want, my ruin. Come here,” he beckoned her, and for whatever reason that would not come to her at that moment, she leaned in. Her lashes fluttered fast when he leaned in, too, his lips so close to her neck. So very close she shivered as if he’d pressed them against her skin.

And when he breathed her in and exhaled, a tendril of tender, warm fire licked a path down her chest, teasing every curve and dip on the way until it pooled into a burning hearth between her legs. It was such a strange sensation to Silene. So new. So forbidding.

“So sweet, my ruin, you smell so sweet.” He lifted a hand to her face, the tips of his fingers just ghosting down her jaw. “I’ve been trying all day to recall your perfume. I was growing afraid I’d gotten it wrong. I don’t want to forget it.”

No one—nothing at all had ever made Silene feel as she did by mere words alone, by their mere breath on her skin, by their mere presence so near her.

Silene had never…never wanted to be touched as much as she had wanted that very moment. And as she stood there with that realisation, another settled in. Nothing had ever wanted her back.

When he lifted his head just a little to look at her, their lips gently brushed the other’s. It was a touch as brief and gentle as the breeze, but Silene slammed her eyes shut, pulse beating hard against her neck, her temples, her chest. Her heart had never pulsed so furiously even when she’d been alive.

“Forgive me,” he whispered, full of defeat, bracing his brow on her seat’s shoulder.

Her fingers ghosted her bottom lip, wincing when they brushed against the new bruise there. “It’s alright.”

“It is not. It is not alright at all.”

He only raised his head when she carefully and very gently brushed her fingers against his hair. It was a brief, tentative touch, but he looked at her as if he’d found salvation.

“I’ve always wanted to do that,” she admitted. “It feels just like I imagined.”

“What else have you imagined, Silene?” he asked, his voice almost drunken.

“Can’t really say,” she vaguely said to him, turning her body towards the window and chewing on her thumb as she stared at his reflection on her window.

“You will tell me eventually,” he confidently said, starting the car.

Her face was plastered against the window as they drove through the city, over a tall bridge and into the other side of the city where the buildings grew sparser, less tall, somewhat more colourful. The further in they went, the more greenery she could see. First it was just a couple trees, then whole gardens and flower filled pots scattered all over the front of the houses. Children loitered the streets, some on their bikes, others jumping on one foot on squares they’d drawn on the ground. The elderly had joined the young, too, some sat on their porches just watching life pass by, while others sat around a game board.

She turned to him. “You’ve never told me why you stay in this realm.”