“Ezra, it’s okay! There’s nothing to apologize for. I always knew Eve was special, and now I know why.”
“Thank you for understanding, little flame. Eve’s lineage changes nothing about who she is to you. I hope you know that. Just like you being a Daughter doesn’t change who you are to her. Eve, as far as I know, is blissfully unaware that she’s underborne.”
This next part is going to suck. “And Thane? Do you know about him?”
Ezra’s body tenses behind me, and his breathing stops for a moment.
“I must confess, I know he’s not who he claims to be. But he doesn’t remember, and I could never quite get a read on him,” Ezra responds stiffly. “I found him in the woods, soaked in blood and barely holding it together. He smelled like the flower the Disciples use in their rituals, so I kept him close. Do you know who he is, Aurora?”
“Louie told me he’s a fallen angel?”
It sounds more like a question than a statement. Ezra throws his head back and laughs, the sound ricocheting off the walls. Not the reaction I was expecting, which makes my stomach knot.
“Fuck, it does make a certain amount of sense. Whether he fell willingly or not, the process would have been hard on his new human body. The fall would force the violent removal of his wings, the erasure of his memory, and the suspension of his magic. So, tell me, how did Louie figure it out?” Ezra’s eyes are on fire with curiosity while his thumb makes soft circles on my naked hip.
“When Thane and Eve came over for dinner a few nights ago, I could tell he knew what Louie was immediately. He picked on her, and when she realized what Thane was, she got really pale and went to bed. She thinks his memories and his magic are slowly coming back. That’s why she couldn’t tell what he was until now. He also called me ‘queen’ and ‘Daughter.’ But I don’t get the sense he means me or Eve any harm. I also think he knows you aren’t human.” Ezra’s eyes slowly go out of focus while he thinks through what I’ve just told him.
“Fascinating! This just keeps getting better and better!” Ezra exclaims.
“And we’re excited because …”
“Because it’sdifferent, Aurora. You don’t know what it’s like to live in a loop. To wake every day knowing exactly what it will hold. To stop looking for surprises because you forgot they existed. And then you happened.”
He smiles, just a little too pleased.
“I highly doubt Thane means anyone harm, but I wonder if his appearance here has something to do with you. I may have to have a very awkward chat with him this week. Being a fallen angel, he most definitely knows I’m not human.”
I’m really struggling to understand his excitement over something that seems so dangerous, but I trust his instincts.
Even if Emme is screaming at me to find Thane and slit his throat.
Girl, calm yourself.
“But that’s for tomorrow. Tonight, you rest. I’ll watch over you,” Ezra says softly, leaning down to give me a long, lingering kiss.
As my body relaxes into his, his shadows relax too, uncoiling and settling against my skin, their cool presence reassuring. With a very unladylike yawn, I cuddle back into his arms, allowing a deep sleep to pull me under.
Aurora
I sleep soundly throughout the night. Peacefully and dreamlessly for the first time since Jameson’s attack. My eyes flutter open as I stretch, every inch of me deliciously sore.
Bright light streams through Ezra’s floor-to-ceiling windows as birds chirp a cheerful morning song.
I reach beside me for Ezra and find nothing but pillows and duvet.
The house is too quiet, too still, a behemoth holding its breath. My lungs constrict when I consider the possibility that last night was nothing more than a fever dream.
Something cool winds around my ankle, trailing lazy patterns across my skin, light enough to be a daydream. I jolt, but it doesn’t vanish. It lingers in the corner, the darkness just a little too heavy.
Was my night with Ezra all a dream?
The dark corner of the room contracts pugnaciously, a mass of dark little devils pulsing with annoyance.
Did it just … disagree with me?
Perfect. Mind-reading shadows. Add that to my ever-growing list of supernatural shit I don’t understand.
When my feet hit the cold, hard wood of the floor, I shiver, looking around for any sign of him. Glancing toward the bathroom, I relax a little when I glimpse the remains of his suit lying in front of the shower.
