Page 192 of Breathe Like Hell

There was no air in the room.

I wanted to curl up smaller and smaller, until I could disappear into the couch. I didn’t want this baby, but seeing Mason not want it either hurt me more than I’d ever expected it to.

I had no choice but to stand here and bleed; he got to make the decision to be disgusted by it.

There were very few times that either of them had ever made me feel like a slut in the bad way, and this was one of them. Was it even reasonable for me to be mad when I was sleeping with more than one man? It wasn’t three, but it wasn’t one, either.

Yeah, I was fucking two people, but so were both of them.

I was the only one who’d ever have to deal with any consequences.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

MICAH

I didn’t want to leave Dakota alone, but I needed to go speak with someone who knew how this was possible. I wanted to believe she hadn’t had sex with anyone else recently, and I did believe that, but I’d also gone my entire life believing humans couldn’t get pregnant by angels. Which might very well be a false belief.

Because despite only having sex with angels, both pregnancy tests had given the same impossible result.

Pregnant.

There was a Syndesmos about two hours away if I flew, and I could go there to speak to someone, but the idea still made me incredibly uneasy. Being Sigeian, I wouldn’t be punished for allowing Dakota to know I was an angel, because they trusted I’d take all her memories of me if it came to that.

I wouldn’t. But they didn’t need to know everything.

A Thrausian would get in more trouble, however. Probably losing whatever housing contract they’d been granted in exchange for keeping the demon activity lower.

But I didn’t really want Heaven to know about Dakota at all.

I wanted to keep her safe, tucked in my palm or the pocket of my shirt. Not on some fucking registry of humans who’d somehow gotten pregnant by angels. Or, even worse, if she was the first one to ever have this happen and they’d need to steal her to figure out why.

Heaven wasn’t a place absent from sin, as humans on Earth believed it was. Maybe for the humans that died it felt that way, but the angel part of it functioned as most societies did. And while I was good at hiding, would be good at hiding Dakota, Heaven had resources.

I’d just have to hope she wasn’t the first person to ever have this happen to her.

After a very stern conversation with Mason and ensuring Dakota was comfortable on the couch with a movie and whatever else she needed, I left, heading for the Syndesmos.

━━━━━

“Angelakia,” the Syndesmos angel said as he set a large record book on the table between us, flipping through the old pages. “It refers to a human soul that has been touched by an angel during infancy. The first year is the important period. After that, the soul has settled too deeply into mortality.”

Angelakia.

The word twisted in my mind, shimmering in the way obsidian shimmered. Pitch dark and razor-sharp.

Apparently, Dakota had been touched by an angel long before I ever knew her.

It took me a minute to come up with a response.

“And what does the touch do?”

“Nothing dramatic. Usually.” He turned another page. “The child remains human, but their soul retains a resonance with ours. They perceive things ordinary humans don’t. Angels are drawn to them. Their bodies are more receptive to angelic essence.”

I looked at him.

“Receptive enough to conceive a child,” I surmised. And be affected by kapnos, and dampen a Thrausian…

He didn’t answer immediately, which was answer enough.