“Let’s go to the roof and I’ll fly around.” Dante stood, and Harper followed him down the hall.
Dex wished he were back in bed. Why couldn’t they play video games and eat too much coffee cake like he’d expected?
Ollie pulled Dex to his feet. “I’m sorry. This seemed like a good idea, but you look like I ruined your morning.”
“No. Don’t apologize. I want to know what’s happening.” Dex was grateful Ollie had shared whatever this was. That way, he could protect Ollie if Dante and Harper were taking advantage of him somehow.
He let Ollie lead him to the roof, where Dante was standing with his shirt off. Harper sipped his coffee as if this were any other Sunday.
“I’ve cast an illusion over myself so no one but you three can see me,” Dante explained.
Dex would have rolled his eyes, but what they’d said about flying hit him in a new light. His blood ran cold. “Wait! You aren’t jumping off the roof, are you?”
“No.” Dante smiled reassuringly, but Dex didn’t feel any lessterrified.
Ice pooled in his gut. Fuck, he had to make sure no one got hurt. Why had he agreed to come out here?
Dante turned away, showing Dex a full back tattoo of folded wings. Surely, he didn’t believe he could fly because of a tattoo? Dex opened his mouth to double-check that Dante wasn’t going near the edge of the roof when the tattoos changed, rippling through Dante’s brown skin and disappearing.
Wings burst from Dante’s back and spread wide, gray feathers sparkling in the sun, his wingspan stretching at least ten feet across.
Dante turned to face them and horns sprouted from his hair. Dex gripped Ollie tight. Dante’s wings flapped, and he lifted off the ground, hovering a few feet above the roof.
It couldn’t be a trick. There was no way to make tattoos disappear like that, or for wings that big to sprout out of nowhere.
Suddenly, it was like Dex was on a tilt-a-whirl ride at the fair. “Are—are you an angel?” His voice shook. He tore his eyes from Dante, focusing on Ollie.
He knew what this meant, right? Holy shit.An angel. That meant…
Ollie smiled softly, a hint of sadness unmistakable.
Dante landed and folded his wings against his back. “I’m not an angel.”
“But you’re not human.” Dex pointed at his wings.
“No, I’m not.”
Dex rounded on Harper. “Do you have wings?”
“No.” Harper laughed. “I’m a witch. A person who can do magic. I can’t do everything Dante can.”
Dex would think about that later. “What are you, Dante?”
“A fallen Eternal being. What you’d consider an angel doesn’t exist.”
What did that mean?
Something seemed to be slipping from Dex’s grasp, and he scrambled to capture it. “What does exist? Does Heaven?”
“Not in the way you think. There is an afterlife. An Eternal Realm. This”—Dante spread his arms wide—“is the Human Realm.”
Dex’s hands shook. His chest tightened, and something bubbled inside him. He needed to lie down. “So—so people go to an afterlife when they die?” That was the important thing. Who cared about semantics and if Heaven didn’t existin the way he thought?
“Yes.” Dante stepped closer and clasped Dex’s shoulder, the word echoing around them. “All humans enter the Eternal Realm when they die, and eventually reincarnate.”
Dex couldn’t breathe.
“That’s why I wanted to tell you,” Ollie whispered. “Yeah, I want you to know Dante and Harper, and I don’t like keeping secrets from you, but with you selling the condo, it seemed like a good time to share all this with you. Maybe it’ll help.”
