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“Maybe if this battle were more interesting, I’d consider it even further.”
When you live in the deserts of Tlouz, it is hard to get away from the mighty star in the sky. Sunburns are a fact of life, and I have received more than I could feasibly count on both of my hands over the years.
The heat that rests upon my back is like I am getting burned by the sun itself.
My hands twitch. I want to turn around. I want to know what he’s doing, even if the sounds are painful and the smell grotesque. Am I not worthy of looking upon him? Isn’t my love enough of an excuse? My thoughts race, and I feel my resolve breaking.
“Only a few of you left. A pity,” Peliel says, and I realize with a wondrous thought that his voice sounds like it is coming fromeverywhere.His entire presence surrounds me.
I turn around.
It’s almost as if my body moves on its own, and I am opening my eyes even before I realize that I have turned my entire self around to stare at Peliel. Any scrap of self-preservation and restraint is non-existent, and I turn my eyes to the brightest creature I have ever laid eyes upon.
He is like the sun, except more.
I press my lips together, holding back the gasp.Am I worthy of seeing this?I wonder for a small moment.Are humans meant to look upon a thing such as this?
It doesn’t matter,I answer myself a moment later.You are looking at it now.
I want to laugh. Joy builds up in my chest like bubbles. This is a blessing, and I will never be able to forget this moment.
I can’t even think or look at the burnt and melting bodies around me. Why would I care? Why are they important? They’re not Peliel.
I think for a moment that I need to turn around before he sees me, but I cannot tear my eyes away from the ethereal beauty that is Peliel. Why would I want to? He is the most gorgeous creature that I have ever seen. I wonder how I will be able to look at mundane things and not feel robbed of this sight for the rest of my life.
My heart hammers in my chest. Is that fear? Is that excitement? I do not know anymore.
I remember that I wanted to be good for Peliel and stay turned around for him, I wanted him to be happy with me.
I want him and every piece of his ethereal body to love mine.
And yet.
I continue to stare even when the final creature dies. When Peliel turns around to look at me…
He is so angry.
23
PELIEL
“Itold you not to look!”
The desert is a cascading storm of fire, the sand turned to glass that snaps beneath my feet. I approach Arie slowly. As she backs away, I see the familiar fear that completes her eyes, but also something less familiar.
It’s awe. Though she’s slowly crawling away from me on her hands and knees, she is also in awe of me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“Enough!”
Without hearing any further excuses, I charge toward her, wings spread wide. She has seen my true face, something I never show to anybody.
Wrapping my palm firmly around her ass and gripping it tightly, digging into her flesh with my claws, I ascend, lifting myself in slow bursts at first before gaining rhythm and soaring forward. In my true form, she is weightless to me, and I no longer worry about her squirming free.
She is ensnared now.
But oddly, even as I enwrap her, I feel no struggle. She has succumbed to me completely, her will either broken, or her fear diminished.
