If she is my mate…what do I do? Should I even tell her?
The kiss yesterday haunted my dreams. It had been the best kiss of my life, which frightened me. This was supposed to be a flirtation. It would be like ripping my heart out of my chest to fly away from a mate bond, but she didn’t seem to be interested in anything beyond that kiss. This was her home, and the cult made my skin crawl.
“You have an odd look on your face,” she teased, breaking my melancholic thoughts.
I grinned, banishing my angst. Worrying never solved a problem. I didn’t want to spend energy dwelling on the issue when it wasn’t something I needed to address yet. “I’m admiring you.”
She flushed, and then she had an odd look on her face. “Passably pretty,” she muttered under her breath, not realizing I could hear her.
Most of the women I’d been intimate with—and plenty of the men and the alton, too—preened when called beautiful. But Lilith was all prickles, like a cirra cloud with jagged edges. I didn’t know what to make of that.
“I brought you a cloak.” Lilith gestured upward, holding a bulky cloth in her hands. “It was Absalom’s. He is—was—a large man, so perhaps it will cover your wings.”
“Thank you.” I drifted lower, holding in place so I was a few feet above the cobblestone lane. She held it up to me, and I folded it under one arm. My wings beat in quick, shallow bursts to keep me steady but also keep my wingtips out of the muck of the street. “Are you ready?”
Her eyes sparkled and she nodded. “This is exciting, isn’t it?”
I couldn’t hold back my smile. “Let’s get moving before someone misses you.” My wings pushed down against the air, my primary feathers nearly brushing the ground, and lifted me above the roofline. High enough people wouldn’t see me easily, low enough to be near Lilith.
Her sweet scent drifted up to me, and my mouth watered.
Focus, I told myself. Book, not woman.
It took nearly an hour to get through the streets and to a wealthy neighborhood with white townhouses five stories tall. Even though night was falling, the streets were still crowded. Lownden was a busy city. Several times I nearly swooped down and scooped Lilith into my arms to get away from the bustle of the crowd and speed our process.
But I didn’t. I wouldn’t take her in my arms again until she trusted me to do so. It galled me that I had frightened her the first time, and shame burned hot in my chest, tucked below my heart, that I would treat my mate so roughly.
At the time I’d thought she might be an enemy, but that didn’t excuse it. If I could go back…
Finally we reached a large white townhouse on a square. Lilith glanced up at me, and I nodded reassuringly as I drifted to the ground. The sun dipped below the roofs of buildings around us.
She glanced at my feet. “You have no shoes.”
I shrugged. “Left them behind at Mirkwold village. I didn’t realize I’d be here long enough to need them.”
“I’ll see if I can find some,” she promised.
Touched, I had the urge to stroke the back of my fingers down her cheek and embrace her with my wings. Instead I put my hands on my hips, cleared my throat, and nodded at the house. “Fallon’s home?”
Lilith nodded. “Put your cloak on.”
I gave her a look just to show I didn’t like being told what to do, then wrapped the cloak around my shoulders and crest of my wings. Lilith fussed around me, straightening the cloak and smoothing out the wrinkles so it covered me as best it could. It was mundane and domestic and absolutely heavenly.
Eventually she stepped backward with a sigh. “I suppose that will have to do.”
I struck a dashing pose. “How do I look?”
Lilith snorted, then giggled. “So vain, Seraph, so vain.” But the look in her eyes was admiring. My blood heated as she raked me with her gaze.
She took the lead, walking around the edge of the house to what she called the servants’ entrance, and knocked. I stayed back in the shadows, close enough to protect her but not so near it would alarm any servants. The cloak stretched tight against my wings, rubbing against my feathers and making me itchy and uncomfortable.
The first servant was a tall young man. He eyed Lilith, clearly wondering what she was doing here at nightfall. “May I help you?”
“Yes.” She smiled and fluttered her eyelashes. “I am here on behalf of the elders of the Church of the Love of His Divine Saints. May we speak with Lord Fallon?”
The man’s jaw dropped and his eyes turned glassy in the face of Lilith’s beauty. “I, um, I’m not supposed to let anyone in. I…” He rubbed the back of his neck, oblivious to the way my hands had fisted at my sides.
Lilith doesn’t like gawking. Stop looking at her! But I held my tongue, even though a possessive jealousy swept over me, making my heart pound.
