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My head is spinning, and everything is whirling out of focus. I want to curl up and die already, but when the acrid reek of smoke hits me, I am strangely, suddenly alert. I haven’t smelled a fire like that in years, but it has to mean there are humans nearby, right?
I nearly topple over myself, barely regaining my unsteady footing.
Through my bleary sight, I manage to spot the source of the smell. It towers high into the sky over a rocky outcropping, a beacon from the gods. “Oh, thank Warren,” I say, hardly able to form the words as I stumble towards the refuge.
It has no evidence that dark elves had any part in its creation. I’m not sure how I know, I justknow.Like how I know dawn is coming, or there is going to be rain.I hone in on it with a strange clarity, each craggy rock sharp enough to pierce my sight, even from this distance. The rocks yield under my touch, but I scramble to catch another before the sand and gravel send me sliding back to where I started at the base of the hill.
“Trust no one.”
I issue a strained laugh. “I have to trustsomeone, don’t I?”
Mother is about to speak again when a shadow descends from the heavens. I hear the heavy flap of wings that cools Maya’s hold on me. I think it could be an overzealous karasu, but when I cast my gaze upon it, I almost let go of the rocks in utter surprise.
It is an angel.
A celestial beauty beyond my wildest fantasies. He is only human in the basest sense, with two arms and two legs, and a single, noble head that studies me with four pale blue eyes and shimmering white horns that threaten to pierce the sky. Three sets of magnificent wings suspend him, and his arms are spread open benevolently to receive me as he glows softly.
Relief floods through me. “Who sent you? Maya? Warren?”
He says nothing, coming closer so that I’m blinded by his luminous form before his powerful arms close around me. Malnourished as I’ve been, he makes me feel like I weigh nothing at all as he gathers me into his welcoming embrace.
I reach for his magnificent face, stopping short for fear of staining his perfect skin with my human fingers. “Are you real?”
He seems confused by the question, a stitch forming between his pale brows. “You are mine now, human.” His gaze roves over my pathetic form and softens slightly, though I don’t know what he sees.
“I am yours,” I say in turn, forgetting my hunger and thirst in his presence. There is nothing but the shape of him, bright against the endless blue sky. If he is a god, I will devote every waking moment to repaying this kindness. If he is another figment of my imagination, I could not have wished for a more resplendent distraction. “Am I dead yet?”
Elysian mirth finds his pale eyes, ever serene. “No.”
“Oh, good…” I settle into the crook of his arm, letting him take my weight as his wings spread wide. A distant thought sends a spike of panic through me, but it is allayed immediately by his beautiful visage. I don’t think he’s capable of exasperation. That is a human construct, or an elven one, I’m not sure. Still, I feel obligated to ask. “Is it wrong to ask questions of a god?”
He flashes a perfect, pointed set of teeth, but he does not answer.
Instead, he takes to the sky, making my heart leap into my throat with the excitement of it.You’re dead.You have to be. Humans don’t fly.
“But he said I wasn’t,” I murmur under my breath, appreciating his cool flesh against my cheek. I could stay here forever, sheltered from the scorned Maya, my last breath denied to her. If he said I am not dead, then I am not. There is nothing to doubt in his countenance, his very word makes it true.
There is something magnificent about being in his arms.
Maybe it’s that I’m truly not alone anymore, the gods of my cave becoming less real the higher he flies, like I’ve woken from a dream that’s dragged on for far too long while my new life has been waiting for me all the while.
He doesn’t exert any effort in our journey, and truly, the world seems small up here. I dare to peek over his elbow, my hair flying wildly in every direction. Is this his world, dancing among the clouds?
It brings hope to my tired heart, a particular joy that I cannot physically reciprocate.“All will be well,”I hear Mother say, distant and soft, so different from the accusations she was spitting in my ear as I was dying.
I beam at the world, biting back at its attempt to take everything from me. The wind in my face feels real enough. But to go from the oppressive desert to the sky, itfeelsunreal.
No human has ever seen the world from this privileged height, I’m certain of it, drifting along a high breeze. I dare to cradle his arm, feeling unworthy of his consideration. My lips brush against his softly glowing flesh, wondering if it is as velvety as it appears.
It is!
His flight pattern changes, slows, and something tells me to look up. I do, the heat of his focus almost too much to bear. But his gaze settles on me gently, confusion mingling with pleasure. So many subtle emotions I can’t quite place, despite his hard countenance. I want to discover them all and know him as thoroughly as he seems to know me.
My mouth moves as if to speak, but it’s difficult to form words. He is magnificent in every way, a saving grace in a brutal world. Though he says nothing, I realize I am beholden to him for more than my life, my companionship.
It has been so lonely since Mother abandoned me.
I am his!My spirit rejoices in the fact that we may have forever to discover one another. And he responds to what I say! It is more than even Warren ever did, but uncertainty grips me suddenly. Did I really hear his voice, or was it the whispers? Can I trust memory when it led me astray in the desert?
