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When she really needed me, I wasn’t there. Obviously, I tried to help as many humans as I could, but the things that drew me to her in the first place were still heavy in my chest, and I couldn’t get away. Part of the problem was I didn’t think Iwantedto get away. If I couldn’t keep her close, I wanted her in my mind.
What drew me to her in the first place?
I imagine the oldest story in the book—a prostitute with a heart of gold.
But she didn’t only have a heart of gold. She had a spirit of fire, a fire that burned so bright it threatened to consume us both when I got too close.
And I very nearly did get too close.
Maybe it was because, before her, there were so many things I had never considered. She made me see humanity, or more specifically, her, in a way I hadn’t seen women before. She represented freedom and desire. However, she’d tell you freedom was a prison of its own and came with consequences, but that’s because the type of freedom she lived wasn’t real. I could give her real freedom.
I shouldn’t want to. I shouldn’t see her the way I did, but she filled up the recesses of my mind. Evie was a permanent fixture now, as part of me as I was a part of this city.
Maybe when it came to her, I was no better than human.
She’s too good for a life like this. More than once, I know she had taken on clients she knew to be violent to save the younger girls, girls who were too young to be on the streets in the first place. And like Evie, I had devoted much of my time to saving them, getting them off the streets, finding them places to live and jobs, so they could make a new start.
Sometimes I wish I were more like Frank, so I could seek my revenge on the abusive partners or neglectful parents who had pushed these young men and women into a position where they felt taking to the streets was their only option. The irony, an angel wishing he was more like a demon.
But that wasn’t the right way to help them, and I still had enough faith within me to do it the right way. Because if angels were like demons, well, then we’d all be in trouble.
She wasn’t the only one, was she? Evie wasn’t the only escort who also had a kind heart. A lot of them did. Many were pushed into this life through no fault of their own. They were out of options, had no one to turn to, and would fall into the path of someone who had no qualms about taking advantage of them.
No, she was different because she almost broke me.
I couldn’t wait any longer.
Despite my previous broken promises to myself that I’d stop watching her like this, I stood and walked along the ledge until I was level with her apartment near the back of the building and sat again.
An hour dragged by slowly, and I made sure to keep my wings folded up so they couldn’t be seen by prying human eyes despite how good the night air felt on them. Keeping them folded all the time didn’t feel nice. It was like wearing a sack over your head, unable to breathe or see right, counting the seconds until it would be lifted, and you could take that first breath of fresh air and feel the sun on you.
It was a sad truth of this area that if they saw a random man wandering the rooftop, they wouldn’t think anything of it.
But wings—they would draw attention and raise many unwanted questions.
Watching her, she crossed the room to have a shower after crying for some time.
I wished she’d keep her curtains closed.
She returned to the bed, sitting on the edge of the thin mattress with only a flimsy towel wrapped around her, stretching her arms to the ceiling as though in a silent hallelujah that she had made it through another night.
I wanted to touch her again, to run my fingertips under that towel…
I scolded myself.
I’dnotbecome one of the fallen.
Another lie I told myself as Evie stood and walked out of my line of sight.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
Unfolding my wings, I swooped.
EVIE
Three Weeks Earlier
Dipping the cotton wool back in the antiseptic solution, Heidi hissed as I dabbed it against the cut above her brow. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the mattress where she sat. It was a deep cut, and she should probably get stitches. But I supposed I should be thankful she was letting me clean her up and treat the wound as there was no way in hell she was going to go to a hospital.
