Page 215 of A Soul to Steal

Gideon’s softer touches, like his kisses, seemed to touch Aleron on a spiritual level. He’d like to see how docile this beast could become if Gideon lathered him in them from head to talons.

A grin formed across his features, widening until his teeth were revealed.I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to do that with anyone.Likely because Aleron might be the only one who would truly, utterly, and completely relish it.

“We are losing the light,” Gideon noted, gesturing his head to the fading dusk. Seeming to come to his senses, Aleron flared his wings and lowered Gideon into his normal cradle. “Wait! Don’t forget my case.”

Gideon reached for it, and Aleron lowered him until he could grab the handle. Awkwardly, he strapped it to his chest before pushing it behind him. He nodded that he was ready.

With a quick swoosh and flurry of snowflakes, Aleron leapt, only to flap them higher. He flew lower than normal, swaying side to side, ducking tree after tree as he followed Ingram’s scent.

Gideon held the strap of his case and gazed at his silver ring glinting in the sun.

I’m glad I didn’t have to sell my guitar.He’d taken it into the town in case he needed to trade it for the urgency he’d requested.

Asking someone to drop all their current orders on his whim was a hard sell. The blacksmith had fought him on it, claiming he didn’t have enough coin for him to drop everything he was doing right then to make them. No one liked to assist a customer who came across bossy and impatient, despite not realising there may actually be cause for urgency.

But the burly bloke had quickly changed his tune when Gideon said he’d be back after he sold his guitar. Only when he’dmade the offer to sell his prized possession, did the tradesman understand that Gideon really just didn’t have time to wait, and that it was important to him. Before that, the blacksmith had just thought he was being rudely entitled.

He would have liked to have nicer ones made, but he just didn’t have time. While the blacksmith had been working to make Aleron’s from iron, Gideon ran off to an actual jeweller. His own ring was pre-made and of silver.

However, Gideon didn’t walk on his hands, nor could he crush silver. Both were plain, looked identical, and had meaning. That’s all that mattered.

When he got down on one knee for this Duskwalker like an idiot, his emotions were so high and chaotic he hadn’t even thought that Aleron wouldn’t understand. He’d just had the urge to do it, and it’d gripped him so damn tightly he thought he’d break apart if he didn’t.

Because Aleron had mirrored him, he’d stolen even more of his heart. Gideon had been so scared doing it that the laughter that had burst out of him had been much needed and soothed his anxieties.

He lifted his gaze to Aleron’s skull.

I’m really glad he didn’t figure out that the golden rings were another set.Although he hadn’t purchased the one Beau had been intending for him, Gideon had been a nervous wreck at the thought of presenting his rings to Aleron.

He didn’t want Aleron to put two and two together.

I’ll tell him when we’re both ready.When Aleron understood Beau no longer mattered and was completely in the past. That he no longer pined after or wanted him because he’d found someone who, funnily enough, suited him much better.

The compromises between them were much smaller, and he was reaching for different goals.

Yes, he’d wanted to have a good-paying job, buy his own home, have a husband, and start a family.

His priorities were different now.

His home would be Aleron because in their own weird, wacky way, they were husbands now. He didn’t know about having a family, but maybe they could find a way to adopt some lost child in the woods that didn’t want to live in a town. He didn’t need a job, since he didn’t need to provide food for a belly that no longer required feeding, and he had a set of fluffy wings to keep him sheltered.

Gideon had always been adventurous, but he had denied that urge for many reasons. Beau didn’t want to risk leaving their town, and the Demons had kept his feet from truly itching to leave.

Fear? What was the point in having such an intense emotion when he had the biggest, baddest monster protecting him? Hell, even if Gideon was fatally wounded, Aleron could heal him, or he’d just come back to life.

So, when they were both ready, Gideon would completely reveal his past. Being fully open meant honesty in all regards, and he’d like Aleron to know who he had been. He’d like the chance to explain... why he’d been dying inside when they arrived on Earth.

He wanted to tell Aleron the truth, no matter how painful it may be, knowing that he’d be forgiven.

And that certainty of forgiveness meant much.

Gideon finally felt like he could accept it.

“We’re almost there.” The excitement in Aleron’s voice was palpable.

Gideon looked forward and smelt subtle smoke from a chimney hidden within the forest long before he saw it. Night came, just as a wooden house came into view with a smallclearing surrounding it. A wooden stake was sticking up from the ground a few metres from a set of porch steps. Odd.

Just as the last bit of light was about to snuff out, bright reddish-orange hair caught his attention. Wearing a blue dress, a woman crossed the clearing with a basket of herbs – that likely came from the garden partially buried in snow.

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