He didn’t show any sign of the hunger for my soul—or any of the others’—at the moment, but I knew it was in there. Caged for now, but in there anyway.
Jaden didn’t object. I could see how hard he was trying to believe Adam was—and would stay—in control.
“Mom and Dad won’t be happy about the bush,” Adam winked at me—my stomach jolted with a million of butterflies—and turned to walk back inside
“You love him,” Jaden said—a fact, not a question.
“More than is healthy,” I sighed and leaned back on the bench.
“Despite the fact that he is a demon,” again not a question.
I just nodded.
Of course it would be better for me to love someone whose instinct didn’t tell them to drain my soul. Someone less demon, more angel—like the one who had sacrificed himself for me.
I didn’t mention that against all rational thought, a segment of my heart had developed an attachment to Adam’s little brother, too. That tiny part kept painstakingly screaming for my attention.
It would have to wait.
Even with the prospect of Volpert’s defeat, there were plenty of challenges awaiting us in the near future—not all of them involving the supernatural.
My finals were around the corner. It was the one thing I couldn’t procrastinate—and I shouldn’t. Now that I had the hope of a future once more, I wanted to be prepared to live it.
And I wouldn’t be the only one to expect that from me. Sophie would return from Indianapolis soon. She would want to see me graduate, and it was because of my wonderful new family, that I could. They had made sure I was safe.
Volpert was gone—for now. Jaden had said, that even if he had survived the attack, he wouldn’t be coming for us anytime soon, and his clan would be disorganized without him. His face hadn’t been one-hundred percent convincing but I chose to trust him—he had been right before.
“Do you think we should tell Sophie?” I asked him, my eyes on the dead circle of vegetation.
“We’ll have to eventually. Even if Volpert is dead, there will be those seeking revenge for him. Demons are vindictive creatures...”
We had both been staring at the garden for a long while when Jaden pulled me against his side and kissed the top of my head. “I have somewhere I need to be.”
He slid to his feet and smiled his angelic smile, his eyes soft-glowing orbs of liquid gold. “I’ll be back soon.”
And he was gone.
The sun was escaping the sky and vanishing behind the horizon when I sat down on the front porch. Jenna had dropped me off—in her very own angelic way, teleported me into my kitchen. I had cleaned the house just enough to make it look like I had been living there for the past few weeks.
My mind was still caught in the dilemma of the Gallager brothers. Both of them had declared their feelings for me. Hard as it was to admit, my heart was split and beat for both of them. One I loved in a fated way, but an impending affection for the other was sneaking in.
No matter what would happen, Adam was part of me and our love had survived death. There was a chance it would survive his instincts. He had demonstrated that he was capable of control and there was a good chance he would do so again—and I would be at his side to help him get through it.
I wrapped my arms around my legs and rested my head on my knees. For the first time in weeks, I was alone. After our victory, it had been a group decision that permanent supervision had become temporarily obsolete and I was free to walk more than three steps without a Gallager shadowing me.
It would take a day or two to get used to the regained freedom. By then Sophie would have returned home and I would have survived the finals. At least that was the plan.
Of course there were more things to consider than that. There would come a point where Sophie would need to learn about the threat she had escaped. I was planning on protecting her from the truth for as long as I could, but with Adam back in my life, it would have to be sooner rather than later. His resurrection without a doubt was going to raise questions.
And wasn’t it better to be prepared if Volpert did return? We didn’t know if or when his clan was going to avenge our attack on their leader. It was bound to happen—not any time soon, Jaden had said—but it was going to happen. And then it would be an impossibility to keep Sophie out of it.
I watched the last rays of sun tint everything in beautiful orange light until my heart felt a little less heavy.
It was impossible to know what exactly would be coming for us—even though we knew that something would—but if the prophecy was right, we wouldn’t need to fear, as long as we had Adam’s love, for it would save us all.
Epilogue
Jaden
Their eyes were following me with detestation, resentful glares watching every step I took up toward the front of the translucent hall.
Glistening light was filling every corner of the space. It didn’t hurt my eyes the way it would hurt normal ones. My angel eyes were made of light, hidden behind golden irises, disguised as human eyes. Light didn’t hurt my kind—I was light.
My feet carried me forward steadily, the familiar yearning to walk through the gigantic portal at the end of the room setting in without delay, but I was forbidden. I had made a decision. I had traded my right to return home. This hall, the gate to the eternal light, was as far as I would get. For now.
Knowing that Claire was safer because of me made it worth the risk of being denied entry forever. Being allowed to protect her made it even worth enduring their stares.
It wasn’t how they would normally look at me. I was one of the older ones among them—an idol for some. In our hierarchy, this demanded respect.
It was also not how they should be looking at me. The celestials were supposed to be noble and forgiving...tenderhearted. But centuries of serving in the realm of mortals had rubbed off on all of us. We weren’t as dignified as we liked to think.
One pair of eyes didn’t shun me. Compassion was welling enclosed inside two perfectly round, violet disks, when I was walking past the celestial who was sitting a little aside from the others.
Garreth nodded at me and his chestnut braid moved on his shoulder as I passed him.
Thank you, I thought at him.
If anyone understood, it would be him. He had made the same mistake I had. He had fallen in love with his fosterling. The difference between him and me was, that he had been able to let it go. He had moved on as instructed and he hadn’t failed to protect those who came after Constance.
When I looked into his eyes, I saw how he was different from the others...the purer ones. Those who had never been intrigued by human emotions.
They were perfect in their roles. Functional protectors. A force of good, keeping the balance in the world those humans had to live through before it was their time to move on.
Garreth and I were frontier runners. We both had conceived the thought of human love, and it had softened us over decades, until we had finally allowed ourselves to dive into the emotion.
It had cost him the respect of the others, and it had cost me everything.
When I’d been assigned to Claire fifteen years ago, I’d thought of it as fate’s cruel joke, seeing the smile of the love of my existence—all new and innocent—on Claire’s lips. Seeing Agnes’ graceful movements in Claire’s every step.
I had gotten used to it—to Agnes’ eyes looking back at me from Claire’s face, staring at me in awe, in fear, in hope...
The tips of my wings’ lowest feathers touched on the perimeter of the most elevated area in the hall as I was stepping up the stairs.
They were wide and flat and smooth under my bare feet. Brilliant, little rainbows were flickering across my white garment and up along the stairs, delivering my attention back to where I was headed.
The Council of Elders was throning on the platform, each of them radiant with light.
I shrank as the sight of perfection was epitomizing my own flaws.
> All four of them sat in stoic stance. Nothing could touch their peaceful and righteous aura—or so it appeared as I watched them.
They only gave a sign that they had noticed me when I stopped at the foot of their seats.
“Welcome, brother,” Jophiel greeted me in her breezy voice. Her presence trickled down my back in a whirl of elegance and delicacy as she turned her pate to face me, and her translucent hair cascaded in gentle waves, shining in soft shades of the entire color spectrum.
I lowered my gaze in awe from the most beautiful, most perfect of all Elders, when her light-gray eyes met mine.
Beside her, Ameretat lifted a slender hand in greeting. Apart from that, her petite figure stayed motionless. Her dark skin was gleaming most exquisitely under strands of silky, black hair, but her equally black eyes remained focused on a distant point behind the present.
Azrael nodded at me, strands of purple hiding his perfect features.
“You have come for re-assessment,” Michael finally spoke. The cloak of light flowed around his majestic figure when he stood up. It didn’t fail to call for the same reaction I always had when confronted with him.
“I have.” My voice was thick with the knowledge that I hadn’t achieved what I had promised.
Displeasing the Elders was inexcusable—especially displeasing Michael.
Now it was time for me to defend my actions. I had wanted to keep Claire safe. Instead, I had agreed to a risky path by allowing Adam back in her life, putting her in danger every moment of her short existence. It was a step backwards.
And worse than that, I had put her at risk by letting her go to Volpert.
Of course she was safe and he was gone—for now—but I couldn’t rely on the crisis to be over. Only after I’d see Volpert’s dead body would I believe he was gone for good. Until then I wouldn’t rest for even a second—insignificant as that timespan may seem to an old soul like me. I had made poor decisions ever since I had been watching over her—
My chances of ever seeing the other side of the portal were melting away.
“Your mortal fosterling is still alive,” he recognized, curls bouncing around his face when he nodded at me, acknowledging the miracle that Claire was still breathing.
“She has been close several times. Fate has been knocking on her door more than once since we have agreed to this arrangement,” Azrael noted, and he would know. After all, he was the one to help humans transition into what was awaiting them beyond their mortal lives.
I swallowed.
“What can you tell us about the demon?” Jophiel asked through my fear. She was intuitive and empathic—maybe the closest one to understanding my decision to bargain my right to return home. Love radiated from her like a solid wave. She was love. The same way that Ameretat was immortality. It wasn’t something any mortal could understand.
“He has a conscience,” I spoke the first thing that came to my mind.
Jophiel sighed an airy sigh and gazed into the distance.
She drew up the image of Adam from my memory for all of us. In this realm, we all had a shared consciousness we could tap into.
The demon was drifting within all our minds, his black wings the only proof of his once angelic nature.
“He remembers everything,” I defended my decision to allow him near Claire. “He remembers that he marked her. He remembers his family. He helped bring down a powerful demon.”
Ameretat changed the vision of Adam to an image of Claire, resting in Adam’s arms, eyes closed, face full of trust.
“This is dangerous,” she warned. “He is immortal. She is human. We don’t know if his conscience will be enough to save her.”
I saw the image through her eyes and her angle became clear momentarily. I could feel the danger, the strength of his immortality, the misplaced trust, and Claire’s breakable soul next to Adam’s dark heart.
“He remembers he loved her,” Jophiel shed her perspective onto the vision and it changed in all our minds.
Suddenly Claire’s trust appeared like an investment. Her pulsing heart was pumping not only blood; it was pumping affection—love—through her entire body. And where her skin touched Adam’s, the love would seep into him—crystal liquid disappearing between black stones.
I felt warmth and hope at the possible facet of what we were seeing; and the others could see it, too. There was something in Claire’s fundamental being that could change everything. There was a chance.
Azrael turned his onyx eyes on me, presenting me with his slant on the scene. All warmth drained from me when I watched Claire turn cold beside Adam, her pale, trusting face becoming a reminder of my selfishness.
Four consciousnesses were lingering in mine, observing my hope being shredded to pieces as Claire’s light disappeared within Adam until she was nothing more than a cold shape against him.
I sank to my knees under the weight of the possibility. “I won’t let this happen.”
The vision disappeared and the gleaming light dazzled me after the image of darkness.
Michael’s diamond eyes pierced into my mind and he spoke without using his voice.
“She is still alive. And you still have time to right what you have wronged.” He sat and held my gaze for a time span that human senses cannot comprehend before he dismissed me with an infinitesimal gesture of his fingers.
It felt like an absolution.
I bowed my head to the Council and got back on my feet.
All four of them were meeting my gaze before I turned to leave. Jophiel’s light-gray irises were gleaming. She was love, and love was what she was anticipating.
Her vision of Claire and Adam carried me along the rows of spectators like a raft. All of them had seen what I had seen. They all knew my pain and my hope. But none of them understood—none but Garreth. His violet eyes still held the ancient grief of loss.
After one last longing look at the gate, I continued to the other end of the hall until I stood at the fringe of the realm.
Claire was my last chance to redeem myself. I would stay with her until her very last breath—even if this meant I would never return home.
Thank you for reading Black!
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About the Author
“Chocolate fanatic, milk-foam enthusiast and huge friend of the southern sting-ray. Writing is an unexpected career-path for me.”
Angelina J. Steffort was born in 1984. She has multiple educational backgrounds, including engineering, business, music and acting. Angelina writes YA fantasy and paranormal with a strong romance component, and is the author of The Wings Trilogy. Angelina lives in Vienna, Austria, with her husband and her son.
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www.ajsteffort.com
Also by Angelina J. Steffort
White (The Wings Trilogy Book 1)
Black Page 39