Baristas from Sweet Briar, booksellers from the Wrights’ place…old folks who’d retired a long time ago and puttered around in the park. Even Delilah and Whit had appeared at the back, Whit holding something up and trying to catch my eye. I couldn’t quite make it out, though…because something was materializing in front of them, glowing brighter than the floodlights.
I didn’t think they could see it, but I did—and June did too.
Amelia.
It was the first time I’d seen her in such vivid detail since she died…dressed all in white, feet hovering above the grass, with vast, feathered wings stretching behind her. Her eyes were wide—not blind, like June had said, but burning like holy fire.
And Abel?
Abel saw her, too.
I only knew because he let out this horrified, shocked gasp. I heard a chair fall a second later, a few cries. When I looked back toward the front of the tent, I found Abel on the floor, the snake nowhere to be seen, the preacher shoving himself back on his elbows with terror in his eyes.
“No,” he whispered. “I…I buried you. You’regone.”
The snake’s rattle started up, a sinister hum under the growing cacophony of both congregants and townsfolk muttering in confusion. No one knew what was going on; no one but me, June, and Abel. I scooped June into my arms and we stood, my arm flinging out behind me toknock a chair aside so we could get well out of the way of the snake…wherever it might be.
And I moved through something warm—warm like the breath of spring, like a hearthfire in winter—only to find bright white in front of me, shielding us…Amelia’s wing.
Abel was still backing away, scooting on his elbows like he could crawl out of the grave he’d dug himself. His eyes were locked on Amelia, on June’s angel—wide with horror, sweat dripping from his brow, mouth working like he meant to pray but couldn’t find the words.
“You’re gone,” he breathed. “I watched you die.”
And as soon as he’d confirmed—as soon as he confessed—the rattlesnake struck.
It happened fast and violent—just a ripple of scales in the grass, then a scream, blood, an eruption of footsteps as people flooded out of the tent in a panic. June stayed steady, watching through the iridescent sheen of Amelia’s wing as Abel slapped at his neck, eyes bulging, gasping through blood and venom.
He tried to stand, but his legs gave out.
He was dying…and he knew it.
Still, his hand reached out—not to me, not to June, but to his sister.
“Save me,” he rasped.
But that was all he got out.
Amelia’s wings curled around the two of us, blocking Abel from our line of sight—and I was glad for it, because I knew it was ugly. I knew what happened when someone was bitten by a rattlesnake…knew it better than anyone should. The venom would move fast; it didn’t have far to travel. His heart would pump it straight into his brain, his lungs. He’d seize. Bleed.
Drown.
Neither of us needed to see that.
And Amelia didn’t want us to.
June curled into my arms, tucked her head against mychest…and I finally felt her break, felt her composure ebb away. We were still held in Amelia’s wings, so vast I could barely comprehend them. That spring wind consumed me, filled my lungs, the first taste of new love.
I was, for the first time in over a decade, held by the girl I’d once loved.
And then she was gone.
Leaving me with the woman I loved now.
I blinked my eyes, trying to make sense of where I was. June was still in my arms, people were screaming…and someone was shaking me, dragging me.
“Silas!” Whit’s voice came through the fog. “Jesus, dude, get it the fuck together and let’s get out of here!”
June was trembling in my arms, tears streaming silently down her face. The strength she’d shown was spent, burned clean through, but I had enough left in me to carry her.
