The Text Keeper’s footsteps approached, making his eyes dart back and forth from me to her before he rushed over to me and grabbed my arm to yank me against him. His whispered words were harsh and frantic, “Fine! I’ll tell you the truths I’m able to. Just fucking stop, now.”
I had just enough time to give him a brief nod before I smoothly disentangled from him. I grabbed a book from my pile at random just as the Text Keeper rounded the corner. “Yes, dear?”
Holding the book up, I asked, “Am I able to take this home with me tonight? I have an important test with the Beast Tamers tomorrow, and I want to be prepared, but I know I have the max amount of books checked out from the last few days of studying…” I let a flush of heat fill my cheeks in an attempt to look sheepish with the older angel. She was a total softie that I’d developed a relationship with, considering my voracious love of books that brought me here often.
She had a harsh look about her naturally, with turned down lips and a stone cold expression, but it instantly broke at my request, morphing into a gentle smile of understanding. “Of course, Kieran. Let’s check it out at the front before I lock up.”
Without further delay, she left, and I smirked in victory as he glowered at me. I dropped the textbook back onto the table. I held my hand out and gestured for him to get on with it, but I didn’t expect his own to snatch mine out of the air as he closed the distance between us once more. Even more concerning was the way he didn’t let go as he whispered, “Gabe. My real name is Gabe.”
It hit me then, that I’d really slept with this man, giving him such an important piece of me, without even knowing his name. Shame filtered through the deepest parts of my soul and I let out a heavy sigh, earning a confused look from him.
“I swear that’s my name, Kieran,” he urged defensively with a furrowed brow as his eyes scanned my face, looking for something unknown to me.
I couldn’t help but huff out a laugh as I shook my head. “I believe you. The sigh was for something else.”
I was more fucked up than I thought for seeing him as a way to rebel to the highest degree in one of my lowest mental moments. This place was driving me to my absolute limit. All I wanted was to be in control of a piece of my life, but right now it felt like Alfemir’s influence had still clouded my judgment when I made that choice. I couldn’t escape it.
As he held my gaze, unwavering and seemingly sincere, I nodded. “Okay,Gabe, what are you doing in Alfemir, despite—”Wait a fucking minute.My head jerked back as my eyes grew wide. “How do you know my name? We never exchanged that information.”
I ripped my hand from his, glaring at him as I waited for an explanation he seemed tongue tied over providing. That or he adamantly didn’t want to share something with me if the crossing of his well-toned arms was an indicator.
“Don’t you dare try to keep that from me,” I seethed, feeling my nostrils flare as I tried to tamp down the anger simmering within me. “How do you know my name, and what the hell are you doing in Alfemir?"
He attempted to reach for my hand again. “Kieran…I?—”
“No!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands up between us. “You do not get to keep things that pertain to me a secret and expect to have permission to touch me.” My lip curled back in a mixture of disgust for what I’d done and the way he thought he had a rightto my body because of it. “I might have made a mistake once before with you, but I won’t do that again.”
It was as if the passing storms from our clouds fell from the sky and landed in his eyes as he gave me a look full of wrath and fury. His voice dropped an octave as his hands curled into tight fists at his side. “Do notevercall what we did a mistake. It was the one night of light and joy in my life that I think of in the darkest moments that have since followed.” It was as if he reached into my body and squeezed my lungs, stealing the breath from me. “That's why I call you my star.”
Bewilderment flashed through me. “No! You can’t just toss pretty words to distract me from what I’m asking of you, Gabe.” A chill swept through my body, and my tone matched the icy feeling as I demanded, “How. Do. You. Know. Me?”
A muscle in his forehead twitched as I saw the moment he caved. Taking a deep breath, he countered, “If you hate me after what I’m about to say, I get it. But if you never want to see me again, I need your help in achieving what I came here to do tonight. I promise our paths will never cross again after this.”
That preamble did nothing to ease the anxiety clawing up my throat. I wouldn’t dignify that with a response, considering I didn’t owe him a damn thing. I wasn’t going to barter for information I had a right to know.
Tilting my chin up, I arched a single brow. He had the audacity to let out a little huff of dry laughter.
“Hard headed as ever.”
My response was instantaneous. “You make it sound like you know me, yet you don’t.”
His head tilted to the side, raking his eyes over me like he was currently remembering what I looked like beneath him. “I do know you, Kieran, and you know me. The real me.”
My headache from earlier was starting to come back with a vengeance, and the mental obstacle course he was running me through wasn’t helping at all.
“My name is Gabriel Astor. My mom is Archangel Astor.”
All I could do was stare at him as confusion washed over me. He couldn’t be Gabriel. I practically eye-fucked Gabriel Astor for years, both at school and during events we were at together. He was well above six feet tall and had beautiful olive skin. He also possessed the most stunning green eyes that I swore I would recognize anywhere, despite being hidden sometimes by the varying lengths of his dark, wavy hair.
The man before me now was most definitely not Gabriel Astor. While hewasincredibly attractive, he didn’t hold a flame to Gabe. Past the obvious difference in looks, it wasn’t possible for one glaringly obvious reason. Gabriel Astor was dead.
KIERAN
Ileveled him with a glare. “Stop fucking with me. Gabriel Astor died a few years ago. I attended his funeral and watched his mother weep over his casket.” I could still recall the piercing sound of her wailing. “You’re telling me that was a lie?”
My words conveyed a level of skepticism I didn’t entirely feel. But that was preposterous, right? A single thought kept nagging me. Is that why I felt so comfortable around him the first time I saw him? That train of thought led to even further complicated matters, though. If that was the case, did that mean that I was pulled toward his soul rather than his outside appearance? That was too heavy of a notion to even contemplate before knowing the full truth of the situation, so I shoved it down as I focused back on him.
He lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck, shaking his head as he sighed. I hated the way the motion felt so familiar now that Gabe was in my mind. The amount of times I’d seen him do that when he looked uncomfortable at Alfemir’s annual balls, where all of the Archangel children were expected to prove they were the next generation of leaders, were numerous.
