Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“Sparkle, you’re looking at me like I’m an alien.” Illium was moving around, his wings restless. “I’m still me.”
Aodhan met his gaze when the other man paused for a moment. “No, Blue. We can’t pretend. You’re you…but you’re also something different.”
Illium’s smile faded. “Whoever I am, I love you. Always have. Always will. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that.”
Heart tearing in two at the vulnerability in Illium’s voice, Aodhan strode across to haul the other man into his arms. “You’re dazzling,” he whispered. “And you’re mine. I’ll fight for you even against the power of ascension.”
The sparks of energy on Illium hit Aodhan again and again, but he clenched his teeth and rode them out, Illium in his arms. “What did Raphael say?” He needed to hear it directly from Illium.
“We’re allies.” He looked up at the sky revealed by the hole in the roof. “Adi, I need to fly, use up some of the excess.” A glance, a silent question.
“Let’s go.”
Aodhan wasn’t surprised in the least when his lover took off like a bolt of lightning once they were in the sky, only to return a minute later at the same speed.
Aodhan kept on the same path until, at last, Illium had flown hard and fast for long enough that he could be in one place. Except, of course, he spiraled up to do a complicated aerobatic maneuver that had him flying under then over Aodhan.
Aodhan laughed. “You’re an archangel! Act with decorum!”
“Hah! Never!”
And for that moment, it was all right—they were once again just Illium and Aodhan out for a flight.
When the two of them landed, it was in the snow-kissed mountains north of the city.
Walking to the edge of a small cliff, Illium stared out in the direction of their home. “Raphael won’t push me to leave, but the power inside me tells me I have to be gone soon. It’s like a cresting wave—I can never allow it to crash in the territory of another archangel.”
He turned, looked at Aodhan. “That’s when things go wrong; I feel it in my cells. When archangels draw blood. Too long too close together. I’d never forgive myself if I pushed Raphael to hurt me or if I did the same to him.”
Worried as he was about what ascension meant for them, Aodhan’s first priority would always be Illium’s huge and glorious heart. A heart that was breaking at the sudden cessation of a life that had been the culmination of all his hopes and dreams. Striding over, he clasped Illium’s nape and tugged him to his side while sliding his wing over those of silver blue.
It should’ve felt odd to do this with a being of such power, but this was Illium, the friend who’d been by his side his entire life, the lover whose back he’d stroked only this morning while kissing his nape to wake him to the glowing dawn. Illium had been smiling even before he’d opened his eyes, slumberous and beautiful. Aodhan had kissed his shoulder then, before stroking his hand down his lover’s muscled arm to entwine their fingers.
He loved waking with Illium, his Blue who saw beauty in every dawn, and had not a drop of jaded ennui in him.
Illium came into the embrace with familiar grace, his head against Aodhan’s shoulder.
“It’s still friendly ground.” Aodhan ran his thumb over Illium’s pulse. “You’ll always be welcome in Raphael’s territory; you know that.”
“But never like I was,” Illium said, his voice rough. “Never again like that, Adi.” His hand fisted on the back of Aodhan’s tunic as he turned so their eyes met. “Everything has changed—everything but one. You.”
Illium spoke on before Aodhan could respond. “More than anything else in this world, I need you to be my Adi, need you to be my friend and lover. Don’t ever treat me any different, or you’ll break my fucking heart.”
Illium saw Aodhan’s pupils flare, those stunning crystalline eyes devoid of the wary barriers he’d glimpsed after first returning home. Barriers that had kicked him in the gut, awakening fears from long, long ago.
“Shit,” Aodhan said, and shoved a hand through his hair. “I’m acting weird.”
That quickly, the fears retreated under a wave of affectionate amusement. Because they were them again. “A little. But you’re excused. It must’ve been a shock to have your studio destroyed.”
Aodhan squeezed his nape. “Asshole.” He pressed a kiss to Illium’s hair in that way that had become a habit with Aodhan over the years, a caress with an edge of protectiveness to it that always warmed Illium from within while making butterflies flutter in his abdomen.
That he’d done it now, when Illium had just ascended, the power differential between them a gulf vast enough to absorb oceans? It calmed any worry Illium might’ve had.
“You do owe me a new studio, by the way.” A nuzzle of Illium’s temple, the scent and heat of Aodhan home in a way nothing else could ever be. “I was…out of balance for a short time, Blue. I worried.” Huskiness in his voice. “About us. If you’d want us now that you’re an archangel.”