Before she could answer, he continued. “And he’ll need his own set of knives when he’s old enough. I can teach him how to sword fight, and how to wield whatever power he ends up having, and how to fly.”
He stopped walking and his face lit up. “I can teach him how to fly.”
Orelia couldn’t stop smiling. She approached him and cupped his cheek, her other hand still resting on her stomach. “We can be the kind of family you never had and the kind I always wanted. The three of us. Together.”
His eyes watered. Vade pulled her into a hug, snaking his hand into her hair. “I don’t deserve you.”
She leaned back, looking at him with the utmost sincerity. “Yes, you do. You deserve everything.”
Vade’s wings snapped out. He held her tight and shot into the sky. Orelia buried her head in his neck as the wind whipped around them until they crested the clouds.
Vade hovered, wings flapping slowly. The pink and purple clouds were tinged with yellow as the sun began its descent. He held her close, and her thighs were wrapped firmly around his waist.
“You know, I brought you up here after the incident with the Freebeasts for two reasons,” Vade said. “One being you were going into shock.”
The memory seemed like a lifetime ago, but she recalled how close they’d been when he’d held her then. How she’d noticed features she hadn’t before and how she’d felt the first true rush of attraction she’d spent weeks trying to deny.
“And two, because this is the only place that’s ever brought me peace. Up here in the quiet, I could get away from everything. My horrible childhood, what I did for work, the feelings I was fighting for you.”
She played with a strand of his hair. “You came up here to deal with me?”
He nodded. “The night of the card game I came up here and screamed as loud as I could. I wanted you so badly, but I didn’t want you to want me back. I didn’t want to curse you with a life alongside someone like me. So, I bottled the feelings that had been growing for you and released all my anger out here.” He chuckled. “I’m surprised I didn’t cause a damn storm with how much yelling I did.”
She looked deep into his eyes, seeing a flash of pain from the memory, but then they were overflowing with love.
“All this time, I thought it was you who needed to view the world as I did. But now I know it was I who needed to see as you do. You just had to stay exactly who you are, and I was the one that needed to change.”
Grateful tears began to build.
“You bring me peace, Orelia. And now you’ve given me a son. I—” He choked on his words. “You gave me a home. A place to belong. Someone to love. You gave me everything, and I will spend the rest of my life giving you whatever you need and being everything you need, for all you’ve done for me.”
Orelia smiled at him adoringly. “And I will love you, our child, and any others we may have with everything I am. There will never be a day that goes by where I let you feel unwanted, Vade. I wasn’t lying when I said I was going to smother you with my love.”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Their lips joined, and it wasn’t long before their touches became more than need, more than desire. They became passion, love, and hope for a beautiful future together.
Vade made love to her in the sky, in the place that had always brought him peace, where darkness willingly bowed to the light.
A light bright enough to revive even the blackest heart.
thirty-eight
BONUS – Vade's POV
*The following chapter takes place between chapters 30 and 31. Content includes gratuitous violence, mention of rape, and torture
When Orelia had looked up at him in the washroom, and he had seen that those beautiful jade eyes had gone cold, Vade knew one thing for certain. He was going to kill the fucker that did this to her.
Slowly.
Meticulously.
Diabolically.
So that neither the heavens nor the hells would be able to receive Ivan’s body in the afterlife. Because there would be nothing left of it when he was through.
Vade skulked through the foggy morning streets of Ravere. When he found Ivan, he wouldn’t give him the honor of letting that monster taste his blade. No. His plans were far darker. Far more sinister.So deranged that the images of what he was going to do sent a wicked smile sliding across his face.
