The anguish he’d seen in Aethan’s gaze when his sister lay dying on the ground had vanished. He looked content. Being mated would do that to a male. Reynner ought to know. Eve had brought light back into his life.
“Let’s walk a while.”
Reynner nodded and followed Aethan around the castle and through the trellised walkway covered with brightly colored flowers. A light breeze blew across the island, bringing with it the salty tang of sea. Squirrels darted across the grounds, scattering the fallen leaves.
“This place is peaceful.” Now wasn’t that a real ice breaker? Truth was, Reynner had no idea what to say. Where to start.
Aethan nodded. “Yeah. It’s served us well for centuries.” Then he asked, “You’ve seen Vallex?”
At the name of their friend, who’d been in the arena on that tragic day, Reynner frowned. He hadn’t paid much attention then, too filled with guilt. “Once. Briefly. Then I left. I haven’t seen him since.”
Truth was, Reynner found it strange that Vallex hadn’t shown up in the search for the missing artifact.
Aethan nodded, stopping near a stream with silver flashes of tiny fishes darting about.
Reynner glanced at his friend. “You seem happy.”
“I am. It took me a while to get here.” A smile touched Aethan’s mouth as if he remembered something pleasurable. Then he nailed Reynner with a determined look. “I have never blamed you for Ariana’s death. It was an accident. If any, I blamed myself for a long, long time. Echo was the one who made me see how shit can happen.”
Reynner nodded. He understood now. Eve made him see. Hell, she’d practically whacked him upside the head, hauled him out of his self-loathing, and put his ass right back on track. “I always thought if I hadn’t taunted you into a fight, Ariana would still be alive.”
“There is something you should know about that day, what happened. Ariana…she was meant to die.”
“What?” Reynner snapped. Had Aethan lost his bloody mind? “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I can understand your anger. I was in that place too. For three millennia. Until several months ago,” Aethan said quietly. “A helluva thing to learn that death was my sister’s destiny. It’s all about prophecies. Hell, I never would have believed it if I hadn’t lived through it.”
“Prophecies?”
“Yeah. I was tied into one, as was my mate.Ihad to leave Empyrea,” Aethan said. “Though it didn’t seem like it at the time when all I felt was rage. And just when I thought fate had kicked me in the teeth once too often, I ended up finding salvation. My mate.”
“What about Ariana,” Reynner pushed, needing closure.
“She took my mother’splace in the Celestial Realm.”
And all this time—all this time they’d both lived with the guilt and self-recrimination.
“So, Ariana’s one ofthoseangels?”
“Ironic, isn’t it?” Aethan said with a wry smile. “We were created like them, and yetweare so unworthy.”
“Don’t let Michael hear you. He’d never let us live that down.”
Aethan laughed. They ambled back toward the castle. Reynner glanced around, absorbing the tranquility of the park-like gardens. As they cleared the trellis walkway and headed for the front, he asked, “Will you ever go back to Empyrea?”
“No. My obligations are to this world, and Echo likes her realm. Besides, I'm a Guardian. My allegiance is to Gaia.”
They stopped near the stairs leading up to the huge front door. The sun gleamed off the paintwork on his Porsche. Reynner noticed the slight dent where the demonii had crashed onto the hood. He should get that seen to.
“What have you been up to—well, since I last saw you in Empyrea?” Aethan asked him.
Uneasy, Reynner hooked his thumbs in his pockets. Tell Aethan he’d left their realm to search for him? Or about all the shit that had happened to him since? Yeah, he’d rather be thrown back in Hell.
“Things changed after you left…” Reynner told Aethan about the Stone of Light’s disappearance, about finding Eve and her abilities to help find the artifact. “Once the Stone is found, should be in a matter of days now, Lucan will take the artifact back. After that, we’ll make our home here and at Exilum. Like your mate, Eve prefers this place.”
A pleased smile touched Aethan’s mouth. “That is good to hear.”
Reynner didn’t care for this part, to wipe away his friend’s happiness. Nor could he keep something this important to himself. With no other way to do this, he just said it, “There’s something else you should know. It’s about your parents…they’re missing.”
