Page 39 of Knight’s Absolution

“You’ll be okay, big guy. Hang in there.” She patted his shoulder. “Does Luna eat and drink? Or is it just blood?”

“I don’t know.” Fucking hell. He should know that. Why didn’t he ask her?

“Okay, well, I’ll head down with some food at mealtime and ask. It’ll give me an excuse to check on her without her thinking I’m ignoring her wishes. Can you hold out until then?”

“No,” he said honestly. “I can’t.”

Grace nodded in understanding. “Do what you need to stay solid, just give her the rest of the day, okay?”

Gunner jerked up his chin and strode off. He wouldn’t usually care what anyone else thought. The only person’s orders he followed were Chaos’s. But Grace had been through this recently, and she was right, even if he hated that she was. It would be so easy to make the wrong move and send Luna running.

Instead of breaking down her door and dragging her back to his apartment like he wanted to, and never letting her out of his sight ever again, he sat on the floor by her door, leaned his head against the wall, and stretched his legs out in front of him.

Yeah, he seriously needed to calm his shit down. Closing his eyes, he attempted something he hadn’t since he found her, something that had never worked before—he reached out to her with his mind.

Well, fuck.

He felt her.

She was there, still inside. Relief pounded through him. She was close, just inside the door. Could she feel him, too? He focused harder, trying his best to wrap his senses around her, to comfort her the only way he could.

Gunner didn’t know how long he’d sat there, a few hours probably, his eyes closed, just letting his senses curl around her, letting her presence soothe him.

It was nearing mealtime; Grace would be here soon to check on Luna. The thud of boots, not Grace’s, reached him a moment later. Someone sat beside him.

“She okay?”

Silas.

Gunner didn’t open his eyes, kept his focus on his female. “I’m not sure. She’s blocking herself, but not totally? I’m not sure what I’m feeling, I just know she’s in there.”

“She’ll get through this,” Silas said.

“You know this? Or are you just spouting shit you think I want to hear?”

There were several beats of silence. “I may have had a lot of my powers stripped and been thrown out of Heaven, but I’m not completely useless.”

“That’s not an answer,” Gunner muttered.

The angel shifted, getting comfortable. “I can’t see the future the way I once could, but I get this feeling, if that makes sense?”

Gunner huffed. “Not even a little bit.”

The angel chuckled low. “When I think about Luna, the feeling is…good.”

“These feelings, is that how you knew she had something to tell us in the control room yesterday?”

“Yeah, something like that. It’s a feeling, but it’s more visceral than that. The heart of her, Gunner, it’s so bright and warm. She’s full of goodness, but yesterday she was afraid, sick with guilt. A dark shadow hangs over her. She can’t see the truth through it, and right now she doesn’t know who she is, she’s never been given the chance to know.”

Gunner’s gut gripped tight. “You got all that from a feeling, huh?”

“Well, that and a bit of keen observation.”

Gunner opened his eyes and looked at the angel. “You wanna tell me what I can do to reach her?”

“Before I lost my powers I would have known, but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you. Now, I have no fucking idea, but this feels…right.” His silver eyes met Gunner’s, the corners crinkling. “How’s that?”

Gunner huffed out a laugh. “Fucking useless.”