AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My eyes snapped open in time to see Neo’s concerned expression, and then I blacked out.
5
A NOT-QUITE BETRAYAL
Aria
It was time to talk about what was not-so-fun about knowing exactly when you were going to die.
Coming out at the top of this list was, for obvious reasons, knowing when you were going to die. Now, one might think “Hey, at least you know,”—and sure, in theory, the knowledge should ease some anxiety—but that was really only for people that were over eighty years old, had lived their full lives, and had had time to plan or make amends and whatnot. Not for people that were twenty-two years old, had recently met their soulmate, and had not really lived life.
I mean, really? I’d made the onesillymistake of applying for a job at my dream company, and now I was locked in a cell with a pretty angel while my mate—another pretty angel—got beaten nightly, slowly dying on the other end of our bond.
The morning of our execution brought freezing cold into the cell, and, to my absolute dismay, I woke up curled into Neo’s feathers.
There were blood spots speckling the pristine feathers from where I still bled. He was sitting up, one wing extended, while the one he’d covered me with lay crumpled beneath me.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” were the first words out of my mouth.
After spending an unknown number of days in a cell with this angel, pleasantries had been discarded in favor of a level of honesty I hoped I never had to develop with anyone else.
“Not really,” he said distractedly. “It just feels like my wing fell asleep.”
“Like how limbs fall asleep?”
He turned to me. “Wings are limbs, Aria.”
“...Right.”
I was wildly uncomfortable. I was in the same clothes I’d been wearing since Johnny had found me, I knew I stunk, my hair had to be a rat's nest, and at some point, I was going to lose control of my bowels, which would make this situation very, very, very awkward for the both of us. But for now, I stood as slowly as possible so as not to jostle my bladder.
“Are you okay?” he asked when I grimaced.
“Fine,” I snapped, then shook my head. “Sorry, the floor has lost its appeal. I’m ready to be dead or something.”
Neo didn’t laugh at my joke, so I turned to him. He was already staring at me with an indecipherable look in his eyes. “What?”
“You haven’t discovered anything else about yourself, have you? Like super strength or mind control, or, I don’t know, something that might get us out of this mess?” His wings drooped behind him as he stood. “Waiting around to be rescued is not my style. I’m getting restless.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
We’d discovered over the past few days that my reach could go far beyond just the property, quite possibly even to the city if I focused hard enough or had enough energy. Neo had been encouraging me to push my limits, urging me to check in with myself to see if I’d developed anything new lately.
I hadn’t.
“Sorry, buddy. I’m still the same as I was before I fell asleep,” I said with an apologetic smile. “Maybe if I could siphon some energy from Sariel, but I wouldn’t do that while he’s as weak as he is now. Plus, if they keep drugging him like this, I’m not sure the possible damage will be repairable when we get out of here. I’m worried about him.”
I really was. Our conversations had gotten shorter with each passing day. His angel would end the connection whenever the drugs began to take over and he lost his lucidity; on top of that, no amount of energy I sent was ever able to fully help him recover. While he was most alert first thing in the morning, I could tell that opening the connection made him anxious, mainly because he didn’t want me to feel how much pain he was in.
I’d cried my eyes out that day they’d come in to drug him unannounced, of course. He’d been too distracted to close the connection. I'd felt them beat him, heard him remind himself why he was going through this and why he wouldn’t give up. I’d cried even harder when he ended up thinking about me, how I was beautiful and worth getting shot up with drugs and beaten bloody for.
It made me sick with worry.
“Are you sure?” Neo asked, straightening his spine. He shuddered, his eyes flashing briefly.
I squinted in his direction as I paced the length of the cell. “I am.”
“Thank you,” he said, and I laughed.
