“Watch it,” she warned.“The other Council members wereskeptical of this plan.I stood up for you.I can stand down.”She flapped herwings in irritation, and he wondered how close he was to losing this.He shouldprobably be a little more respectful.
Nah.
“When does this become effective?”
“Right now.”
Powerful waves of tingly energy rolled over him, rushingthrough his veins like a drug, filling him with new knowledge, new abilities,and, he was thrilled to find out, new wings.Cranking his head, he took themin, shocked to see that they resembled his old ones.Like his shadow wings,these were transparent,smoke-colored.But they werebigger, and they glittered, catching the white light like a disco ball.
“There are no feathers,” he said thickly, his voice heavywith emotion.“But they’re beautiful.”
“They are as unique as you are, my son.”
She smiled, and in that moment, he felt her affectionsurround him.Suddenly, hundreds of years of feeling as if he hadn’t matteredat all to the people who conceived him vanished, and he got it.He truly gotit.He’d been raised by humans, so he’d applied human values to his situationand had been unable to fully understand angelic ways.That didn’t mean he likedthe way angels did things, but he was at peace with it now.
And it was all because of Aurora.
He flapped his wings, closing his eyes as the breeze theymade ruffled his hair and caressed his skin.He couldn’t wait to show her.
“What does this all of this mean for me now?”
When he opened his eyes, Ulnara was still smiling.“As anUn-Ascended Memitim, you don’t have access to all of Heaven, but you will beable to move around the Memitim compound and embassy freely.You can reside inSheoul-gra or the earthly realm for now.When the time for the Final Battlecomes, you’ll be granted full Ascension.”
“What about Aurora?I won’t give her up, even if she’sPrimori.”
She shrugged.“She won’t be Primori for long.Her statuswill shift to the child she carries once it’s born.Be with her, Hawkyn.Shouldyou choose tomateher, your eternal lifespan will behers.Either way, I should like to meet my grandchild one day.”
Stunned, he barely managed a raspy, “Of course.”
“I hope you aren’t too disappointed in our decision.”
Disappointed?This...this was more than he’d ever hoped for.This was far better than Ascending, but he couldn’t let them know that.TheMemitim Council thought this was a compromise between punishment and Ascension,and if they knew this was the ultimate reward, he’d lose some bargaining power.
Bargainingpowerhe was going touse right now.
“Well, you’re saying I have to spend the next nine-pluscenturies working as an Ascended angel but without all the benefits, right?”Heaffected a troubled expression.“Can we at least start this off with an olivebranch between Azagoth and the Council?He’s pretty pissed off at me, and if Ican negotiate a deal, it’ll go a long way toward making my position legitimatein the eyes of my siblings and my father.”
She appeared to consider his BS, and he was shocked when shenodded.“What is this olive branch you want us to extend to the bastard?”
He grinned.“You’re not going to like it.”
She didn’t.But he got it anyway.
ChapterTwenty-One
Hawkyn held Aurora’s hand tight as they materializedin Sheoul-gra.AsPrimori, she wasn’t supposed to behere, but he’dgottenpermission from the Council tobreak that rule, just this once.
They’d been remarkably cool about it.Maybe they wereloosening up already.
“Are you sure your father is going to be okay with us beinghere?”she asked as they stepped off the landing pad.
He honestly wasn’t sure, but he didn’t want her to worry.“He’ll be fine.He’s going to have to get used to my presence no matter what,now that I’m the liaison between him and the Council.”
They strode through the courtyard and up the giant staircaseleading to Azagoth’s mansion, and as they entered, Emerico came out.
Hawkyn had a heartbeat to decide if he wanted to be nice…orif he wanted to rip Rico’s lungs out of his rib cage the way Hawkyn’s shadowwings had been torn out of his.
In the next heartbeat, he had his half-brother up againstthe side of the building, his forearm across his throat.Nice it was.But onlybecause Aurora didn’t need to see any more of Hawk’s violent side.
