“But the tingles.” I touched his cheek, emphasizing my words. He rested his head against my hand like I anchored him from drowning in the sea of his unending sorrows.
“I can feel you here. But it’s just a dream, sweetheart. This is all just one big dream.” His voice cracked at the end, wrenching at myheart. He slumped against the oak trunk, as if surrendering to the finality of his words.
“But you’re alive?”
Aspen stared out into the field, silent, mourning.
I jerked his face to mine, forcing him to look at me. “Are you alive, Aspen? Out there?”
He nodded.
A slight breeze floated through my hair, rustling the oak’s branches. Its leaves fluttered in the ring of my purple haze. This had to be another version of dream-walking. I would know if I’d died.
I brought my forehead to his, breathing in his crisp apple and fire scent. “So am I.”
Sorrow bled into our bond, and he shook. His tears slid down my fingers, resting against his cheeks.
He didn’t believe me.
“Aspen, open your eyes.”
He did, showing me his vibrant blues surrounded by his angel rings.
“I’m alive, out there. Not just in your dream but in life. I’m alive.” Although I couldn’t promise I was safe or okay.
The weight of his grief still rested like a mountain on my chest.
“Have you ever heard of a dream-walker?”
Aspen’s watery expression narrowed. “I read the word once in an old angelic text.”
“That’s what I am. I can revisit a person’s memories—and my own—through dreams. And…” I glanced around the enchanting clearing. “It seems like a person’s imaginative dreams too.”
The sharpness of his gaze faltered.
“It’s part of my…” I paused, realizing I hardly had time to process who I was or where my purple flames came from.
Aspen stared at me, waiting.
I wanted him to know, no matter what he thought of me.
“Do you know who the King of Hell is?”
“Yes.” He nodded slowly. “Lucifer is Lilith’s unwilling husband.”
Well, Heavenly Shit. I never put that together.
I took a deep breath, then said, “I’m his daughter.”
Aspen looked like he expected me to take it back. He took my chin and twisted it back and forth, analyzing my eyes. Then a foreign pain seeped into my cautious emotions.
He dropped his hand and stood, gazing down at me with a curling lip. “I only saw Lucifer once, when I was younger. But I never forgot the two white rings distorting his eyes. When I met you, I knew the double rings meant you were powerful. I knew you were something other than an angel. I just never imagined it’d be Hell’s offspring.”
Offspring?
“Aspen?”
Then I saw them—two Hell Runes cut deep in his skin, as if carved by an invisible hand. Or, more likely, as if someone carved them on him as he slept. They peeked from the sleeve of his tunic, causing the invading pain.
