Gage rolled his tongue in his cheek, his face remaining hard, and for a second I was sure he was going to quip something like, “Are you sure about that?” but instead he nodded and said, “Yeah, I get that. And I appreciate it. I just don’t like all the tests and being cooped up in the healing center.”
Aurelia nodded. “I won’t force you to get any more testing done, but I do recommend it. The more we understand about the changes you’ve gone through, the better.”
Gage tensed up next to me, but I don’t think Aurelia noticed.
“I’m fine, really,” he said. “Just anxious to see some action. I’m not used to being benched.”
A small smile curled Aurelia’s mouth. “I believe that. You certainly caused my people an awful lot of trouble when you were a Shade. I’m glad we’re on the same side now.”
Gage looked down at me. “Yeah, me too.”
I felt another warm fuzzy feeling in my chest. I knew what he really meant was that he was glad the two of us were on the same side. I agreed.
“Gage, I’ll talk to you in a few days about getting skills tested to join missions,” Aurelia said, and Gage’s entire face lit up.
“I… that would be awesome.” He fumbled over his words and my heart filled with so much gratitude for Aurelia in that moment.
Aurelia nodded and opened her mouth to speak again when her cell phone rang. She pulled out her phone and then frowned at it before putting it away.
She looked to Dash. “Will you come with me? There’s something that needs to be handled. It won’t take long though.”
I was instantly on alert. Something had clearly happened, and I wanted to know what.
“Sure.” Dash tipped his chin toward Gage. “See you back in the room, man.”
“Yeah,” Gage said in return, and I watched Aurelia and Dash leave.
“You okay? You seemed a bit defensive about the tests at the healing center,” I asked when the door closed behind them.
A dark look crossed his face before he nodded. “Didn’t sleep well. Just still getting used to stuff here. They don’t make us do that stuff at Shade Academy. I’m not really used to being told what to do.”
My heart melted at that. I couldn’t imagine what it was like to be a Shade one day and then be stripped of power by the angels of Avalon the next. Being Arthur’s son, he was seen as the prince of Shade Academy and given whatever he wanted, and here he had to follow all these rules.
“But Aurelia offering to test you so you can go out on missions is pretty cool,” I changed topics and Gage grinned.
“That will be awesome,” he agreed.
“What if we went on a date?” I pressed my body against his in an effort to distract him further. His eyes went half lidded, and before he could respond I decided to mess with him. “Oh, that’s right. You don’t date or do relationships.” I stepped back with a playful grin, throwing his words back at him from Shade Academy and the days of our fake dating.
He reached out and grabbed my hips, yanking me toward him with a half-cocked smile. “Woman, get over here. There is no one I would rather date than you.”
Tipping his mouth to mine, our lips met in a spine-tingling kiss.
Mmm… finally.
I opened my mouth to deepen the kiss when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I ignored it, immersed in the deliciousness that was Gage, but it buzzed again. And again.
No.
Gage pulled back and looked at me. “Blowin’ up.”
I sighed and pulled my phone out, looking down at the person who had interrupted that amazing kiss. When I saw Indigo’s name, my heart sank. Gage stiffened when he caught sight of it too.
Indigo:I could be killed for this, so delete these after you receive them.
Indigo:Go to the Trinity Church cemetery tonight at midnight.
Indigo:Arthur is meeting Apollyon and they are talking about your mom. That’s all I know.
