He might’ve let me go, but I wasn’t ready to lethimgo.
My heart shook as a terrible thought coiled through my mind. If Asher amended Jarod’s score, I would have no choice but to let him go. As the selfish thought took root and twined around my lungs like a vine, heat smacked mylids.
“I don’t want this to be our last kiss,” I croaked, my voice sounding like it wascrumbling.
Jarod swiped my bottom lashes with his thumbs, whisking away the moisture pooling there. “I’m not done withyou.”
When I lowered my lashes to hide my stinging eyes, he wound my hair around his fist and levered my faceup.
His gaze roved over mine, searching for the source of my insecurities. “Will your people try to keep us apart? Is that what’s frightening you, Feather? Because I won’t let them come between us. I won’t let anyone or anything come betweenus.”
A sob splintered out of me. “If Asher changes your score”—my voice broke—“I ascend. In the next twenty-four hours, I could begone.”
His eyes flicked faster over mine. “But then, you can come back down tome.”
I swallowed, but it did nothing to quell the lump bloating my throat. “Not in your lifetime, Jarod,” Imurmured.
“What do youmean?”
“New angels must spend a century in Elysium before they can return, so that all the humans they’ve come in contact with aregone.”
He didn’t say anything for so long that the vine around my lungs grewthorns.
Suddenly, he released my hair and began to pace the length of his office. “Call him! Tell him Ilied.”
I gasped. “No, Jarod! For all my selfishness, I want your soul tosurvive.”
He wrenched his hand through his hair, shoving the dark waves out of his eyes. “I should have a say inthat!”
“Jarod—”
He halted and whipped his attention off the rug and onto me. “Can you feel your feathersgrowing?”
“No. They’re too light, but you can see . . .” I let my voice trail off before I could utter a suggestion that would surely incense Jarod evenfurther.
“Your wings. Bring themout.”
“Jarod. . .”
He arrowed straight for me. “Do it, Feather.Now.”
I hesitated, remembering the pain they’d causedhim.
He gripped my chin. “Please.”
He thought I hadn’t made them materialize because he hadn’t said please?Oh, Great Elysium, thisman.
Heart smarting, I pulled my wings out of hiding and prayed, for the first time in my life, that new feathers hadn’t formed on my wingbones.
Chapter 36
Ididn’tglance over my shoulder, didn’t extend my wings to test their weight. Since I usually earned so few feathers at a time, I’d never noticed a change, but a hundred feathers . . . I’d surely feel adifference.
Jarod’s Adam’s apple bobbed as his gaze skirted over the edges of my silver feathers. His hand fell away from my face in slow motion, leaving traces of heat behind. “Where would they—” He swallowed. “Where would the new onesappear?”
“On the edges,” Iwhispered.
Nerves quivered under his skin, and his overly bright eyes spoke of dread. “How can you tell if they’renew?”
