“Layla has Fallen.”
Three words. A statement. One I’d refused to believe until I saw the proof in her black feathers.
I stood in her doorway, stunned by the sight of all those ebony plumes.
King Sefid was right. His daughter had Fallen.
Oh, Lay, what have you done? I wanted to ask her, but I was too stunned to speak. Too furious to move. Too enraged to trust my own voice.
I knew something was wrong when the king requested a midnight meeting. But this was worse than wrong. It was catastrophic. Life-destroying. Lethal.
The future queen of my kind had sinned so horribly that her wings had turned black, marking her as an infamous Noir. And it was now my job to help her reform. To guard her. To ensure no one harmed her while she underwent reformation.
A task I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.
But the king had requested it as a personal favor.
“You’re the only one I can trust to guard her.”
A bold statement, considering our history. However, I wasn’t one to refuse my liege. Nora Warriors always bowed. So I accepted my new assignment. Which was what brought me to her door now.
“Auric!” Her blue eyes sparkled with excitement, her cherry blossom scent circling me in a claiming stroke that nearly undid my resolve. It served as a pungent reminder that she’d entered her courtship season to find a mate.
Then she hugged me.
Like her wings weren’t a shade of startling black.
Like she’d done nothing wrong.
It sickened me that she could be so oblivious to the pain she’d caused everyone around her. She’d defied us all. Threatened her royal placement. And for what?
I refused to ask.
I refused to listen.
I refused to hug.
“Let go,” I snapped.
She stilled against me, her slender shoulders curving ever so slightly. “S-sorry,” she whispered, releasing me far too slowly. “It’s just been a while since—”
“Do you think I’m here to chat?” I demanded, arching a brow. “I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to see you. I don’t even want to be near you. But you’ve made that impossible, Princess. Now pull your wings into your back. These men are here to strap those ugly feathers down. Then we’ll be on our way.”
“I…” She frowned. “On our way?” She blinked at the two Nora Guards behind me, their bulky size similar to my own. “Auric, I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to understand,” I replied. “Prep her.”
I stepped aside, allowing them entry.
Layla stumbled backward. “Auric, what’s going on? I don’t… I—”
“Snap your despicable wings in, or they will do it for you,” I informed her, already bored by her crude act. As if I would ever consider her an innocent again.
“M-my wings?” she repeated, then flared the plumes wide instead of doing as I instructed. Her lips parted as the ebony tips came into view, and just for a moment, I wanted to believe her shock.
But I knew better.
Nothing she could say would save her from this fate. Her father had forgone the trial to keep this out of the public eye. As far as everyone else would know, she’d gone on a long vacation somewhere to continue her training for the crown in private.
“Oh gods,” she breathed. “Oh, Auric, you have to—”
“I don’t have to do anything,” I corrected. “Now tuck in your wings. Last warning.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong!” she exclaimed, backing up to the wall beside her bed. “I’m innocent!”
Like I hadn’t heard that from other Noir before.
Despicable angels.
And now Layla was one of them.
Fucking perfect, I thought, stalking toward her to grab hold of one wing and shove it into place. I was done playing nice. She would submit. She would behave. She would reform. And then, I would be done with her once and for all.
1
Layla
White wings.
Everywhere.
In the cockpit. The aisles. Next to me.
But not behind me. No, my wings were black. Something everyone else on this plane had made abundantly clear when they strapped me into this damn chair.
No trial.
No questions.
No chance to ask for remorse.
Just an old guard—whom I once considered a friend—showing up to deliver a sentence.
Noir Reformatory.
My fate.
The plane’s engines thrummed in time with my pulse. Fast. Hard. Terrifyingly loud. I couldn’t control it, my heart fluttering inside my chest with the fury of a thousand wings.
Every part of me shook from head to toe.
Including my legs, something I realized when Auric’s hot palm landed on my bare skin.
He shoved my thigh down, ceasing the nervous motion, and glared at me from behind a curtain of long blond strands. “Deal with your emotions, Princess. Or I’ll deal with them for you.”
Electricity danced along my limbs.
I used to crave Auric’s touch.
Not anymore. Not since he was assigned as my personal warrior guard on this mission to reform.
I jerked my leg free from his hard fingers and scooted as far away from him as I could. Which wasn’t far, thanks to the strap securing me and my black wings to my seat.
How is this my life? I wondered for the millionth time. What have I done to deserve this?
Auric blew out a long-suffering breath, his flinty, turquoise gaze leveled at the armed guards near the front of the plane. I could feel his irritation as plainly as I could smell his evergreen scent. It wrapped around me like a warm blanket.
A complete contradiction.
He was harsh, cold, and dismissive.
Yet he reminded me of home.
The duality was maddening.
“I’ve done nothing wrong, Auric,” I said for probably the hundredth time. “Come on. You know me. This is all some sort of mistake.”
He rolled his head on the seat rest to look at me. So beautiful with his smooth, unblemished skin, those delicate blond strands of hair, and an angular face that looked as if the gods themselves had sculpted every valley. But his expression remained remote. As distant as if the entire ocean beneath the plane separated us rather than six inches of battered vinyl seat.
He said nothing and looked away again. Dismissing me. Ignoring me. Not believing me. Just like everyone else.
My throat tightened.
Auric and I had been close, once upon a time. But playing the role of my Royal Guard had possessed an entirely different meaning back then. His absence had changed me, had changed us both.
To see him again like this… I bit my lip. This wasn’t my Auric—the one I’d fantasized about for years—but a stranger.
When I’d hugged him earlier, there’d been no familiarity. No kindness. No emotion.
He wasn’t my guard anymore but a warden assigned to fix the broken princess.
And now he hates me, I thought, my stomach twisting as I gazed out the tiny porthole window.
My reflection didn’t match my new role as prisoner—aside from the black wings strangled by the leather straps that cut into my feathers. The secured ends wrapped around my shoulders, digging into my exposed skin in a pointless effort to keep me flightless.