Page 226 of Breathe Like Hell

But then I remembered what Sigeians could do…

“Hello,” he greeted, his voice deep and steady. “My name is Zephyr.”

“I want to go back to Earth,” I blurted out.

He sighed. “You can choose to fall tomorrow if you’d like, but today you have to stay. Your wings have not healed fully.”

“I feel fine.”

“Please, follow me upstairs. All Angelakia have to remain until their wings have healed. It promotes less hasty decisions.”

“It’s not a hasty decision. I know I want to go back to Earth.”

The man—Zephyr—simply stared at me, waiting.

Eventually concluding that I wouldn’t win this battle, I trudged in his direction, then followed him up a long flight of stairs, after which he led me to a private room with a bed. I froze in the entrance.

“What is this?” I asked, apprehension clear in my tone.

“For you to rest. You must be deemed physically fit to leave Heaven, and that will happen tomorrow.”

“Really? I feel totally fine. I think I healed everything.”

“New angel wings take twelve hours to finish developing. This is only an issue for Angelakia, who are not born with wings,” he explained, then pushed aside heavy drapes to reveal a stained glass window, allowing some more light into the room. There were several asteria lamps lit, washing everything red. Now that I was inside, I was able to recognize the light from the sky had been much more muted than the light from asteria, much less purely red. I’d also noticed I could see much better in the dark now.

Zephyr was still watching me, probably waiting for me to say something.

“Okay,” I responded, then stepped through the large door into the room.

“There are things in the drawers, and a bathroom.” He pointed to a second door. “A meal will be brought to you later. The water from the sink is filtered.”

I just stared at him. The glow of our ultraneon helped cut the pureness of the red lamps. I would’ve never expected Heaven to look like this. Never. The lighting alone seemed to function completely differently than it did on Earth.

“Will you need help finding your creator’s birthplace?” he asked.

“What?”

“The angel who turned you into one of the Angelakia as an infant,” he clarified, as if that was supposed to mean something to me. I had no idea why I would care about a stranger’s birthplace, or why I would need to find it.

“I don’t think I’m going to be looking for it,” I settled, half-pretending I understood the conversation.

After a moment of silence, Zephyr left, closing the door behind him.

Strangely, he seemed disappointed in my response.

Without the other Sigeian observing me, I gave myself a few minutes to take in my surroundings.

The bedroom itself was similar to a human bedroom, with all the same furniture I’d expect, but the bathroom was slightly different. It was clear that everything had been constructed to accommodate winged creatures. More space, more showerheads at different angles, drains in the floor to siphon away water dripping from wet wings.

I approached the large stained glass window, then grabbed the small handle and pushed it—nothing. I tried pulling, and the whole thing swung open. My stomach flipped over on itself as I realized this large hole in the wall had no screen, no bars to stop me from falling. It was likely intended for me to fly out of if I wanted. I shut the window.

My clothes were still wet, so I rummaged through drawers to find a set of simple cotton clothing. Pajamas, hopefully.

I knew of course that my wings could disappear if I wanted them to, but I couldn’t seem to figure out how to make that happen. Every time I imagined it, they remained. I wondered if it was because they were so new—still healing.

After I put on the cotton shirt and shorts, hanging my old clothes up to dry in the large bathroom, food was delivered.

It wasn’t very much food at all, which made sense. I guess…