“What are you thinking right now?” Reed asks, searching my face.
“Umm, right now?” I ask, trying to stall because I just got caught reveling in the fact that he’s mine. “I was just thinking about how happy I am, about this,” I say, feeling myself blush as I trace the shape of my wings that are imprinted on his chest.
“This makes you happy?” he asks and when I nod he speaks to me in Angel as he tenderly kisses the symbol of his wings etched into my skin just above my heart.
“What did you say?” I whisper because I haven’t learned to speak his language yet. It still sounds like music to me, like a hypnotic lullaby.
“Me, too,” he replies, smiling broadly.
“That sounded a bit more than ‘me, too,’” I counter, but Reed’s smile only broadens. “And I wasn’t just thinking that, I was also wondering what I can call you.” At his look of confusion, I go on, “I mean, you’re not my ‘husband’ because you’re much, much, more than that…” I trail off, waiting for him to say the word for what we are to each other, now that we both swore a vow to be united for eternity.
He responds immediately in Angel and I smile because I should’ve known that it wouldn’t be English. It sounds like he said aspire, but in a way that is so beautiful that it makes tears form in my eyes. My voice is thick when I ask, “Translation?”
Groaning, Reed’s brow creases in a frown. He is struggling with the limitations of the human language, so I wait patiently for him to answer me. “It means…‘beloved above all others’… ‘most revered, venerated’…but it’s more than that. It means ‘essential to me’ and ‘a part of me.’”
I can’t help the tears that slide from my eyes. “Aspire,” I whisper to him as my hand cups his cheek. His eyes close briefly, savoring the contact.
Feeling Reed tense against me, his eyes snap open as he begins scowling right before he says, “We are busy right now, Zephyr. Come back later.” Quickly, Reed covers me with a silk sheet.
“I cannot. This is important,” Zephyr replies from somewhere outside of our room. From the distance, it sounds like he is standing near the stone bridge that traverses the jade-tiled pool in the courtyard. “You should answer your phone.”
“He was kind of in the middle of something, Zee. He still is—how important is it?” I ask, trying to hide the irritation in my voice.
“Very,” Zephyr replies and at the sternness of his voice, dread seeps through my senses. It causes my arms to tighten on Reed, pulling him nearer to me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, hearing panic in my own voice.
A growl comes from Reed then as he leans his forehead to mine. “Evie, it’s okay, whatever it is, I’ll take care of it,” Reed says soothingly, trying to calm me down. But I have seen too much lately to be reassured by his words.
“Is it Dominion?” I ask Zephyr with my heartbeat drumming rapidly in my chest. I look over at Reed, seeing that he is already dressed. Startled by the fact that I hadn’t even seen him move, I sit up in the large bed, pulling the sheet up with me and wrapping it securely around me. Zephyr steps into our room then, keeping his eyes averted from me as he speaks directly to Reed, but he is using their Angelic language that I can’t understand. My panic increases. Zephyr never does that. He never speaks in anything but English when I’m around because he knows I can’t understand them. Something is wrong—something big—something he doesn’t want me to know about.
“What’s going on, Zee? What’s happening?” I ask them, looking between their two faces as they debate something important. If it has to do with Dominion, it can’t be good for me. The military headquarters that acts as the high court for Power angels put me on trial for my life only days ago, which wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t also told me at the time that the only right I possess, in their eyes, is the right to pray for death.
The next thought has all of the blood draining out of my face as I whisper, “Brennus—”
“No, it is not Dominion or the Gancanagh,” Zephyr says rapidly, trying to reassure me, but still, his face looks grim.
There is only one other thing that can be severe enough to warrant a look like that from Zephyr and my brain can’t even move past the name that it keeps repeating over and over like a prayer. Russell. Something inside my heart recoils painfully.
“Where are Brownie and Russell?” I ask them, watching their faces closely. They both have blank expressions, like they are deliberately trying to hide something from me.
“They are still in the Ukraine,” Zephyr replies in a calm, soothing voice. “They are being very cautious and they are moving slowly. Many, many kingdoms have risen and fallen in that part of the world. Many beings still like to call it home,” Zephyr explains with patience.
I exhale a breath that I didn’t know I was holding as his words register with me. I know I won’t be able to completely relax until they are both safely with us. I still have no idea yet what I will tell Russell about Reed and me. I made Buns and Zephyr promise that they wouldn’t breathe a word of the binding vows to either Brownie or Russell. I have to be the one to tell Russell and it has to be face to face. No matter what I say to him, he’s going to have a hard time understanding why his soul mate has chosen to bind her life to someone else, after all of the lifetimes we have shared together. I don’t think I’m going to be able to explain it to him, my need for Reed. I don’t even understand it. All I know is I tried to live without Reed and it was impossible. I was dying inside every day.
“Maybe we should go to them. We can pick them up and bring them back here,” I say, because I’m extremely worried about them. Brownie is a Reaper angel, and although she’s immensely stronger than a human, she does not possess the brute strength of a Power angel. Russell is part Seraphim angel and part human, like me. His strength will soon rival that of Reed and Zephyr, and all other Power angels, but he has not fully evolved yet, so he is at a disadvantage should he run into a fallen angel…or Brennus.
“Zee and Buns are going to go to the Ukraine. They are leaving within the hour,” Reed says softly and I bounce out of the big bed and head to the bathroom wrapped in a sheet. After I retrieve some clothing on the way, it only takes me seconds to change before I am back in the room, searching for a bag to pack some of my clothes.
When I look up, I see Zephyr and Reed studying me. “How long will it take us to get there?” I ask, trying to gauge what I will need to take for the trip. Buns has done some shopping for us, but Zephyr has been attempting to lock her down. He has been trying to explain to her that she is a target for the Gancanagh, too, since she is my friend, but she doesn’t want to listen to him. She has never really had to take any of this into consideration before because she is a divine Reaper angel. Since her job is to negotiate for human souls, she has essentially been immune to the fighting taking place between divine Power angels and the Fallen. As for other beings, they too, leave her alone because of her divine status. But the Gancanagh have vowed to get me back. They have even gone so far as to attack Dominion’s compound while I was there to “rescue me.” It would be nothing to them to use Buns to get to me and I can’t have that.