Page 88 of The Angel's Kiss
“Because look at me,” I motioned to my face and body and she rolled her eyes. “I’m irresistible.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going to try to make sense of that. Rai has always been...different.I suppose that’s why he was able to do what we couldn’t.”
I sighed. “The Owner of the Magic Shop said that our union was God’s will.”
Terri’s eyes widened then. “The Owner said that?”
I nodded.
“Holy shit.”
Again, I nodded, because I understood.
“Then I certainly won’t be judging your relationship if it was meant to be. Do you still feel like the Angel’s Kiss was a curse?”
“No. I believe I stopped feeling that way the moment you showed me the photo of that twelve-year-old boy. Seeing his picture and knowing that it was my job to protect him... knowing that someone needed me. I started to want to be what Rai needed me to be for him. I wanted to be...”
“Worthy,” Terri speculated.
I nodded. “Worthy of him. Yes.” I turned back around to watch more of the sun’s rising. Terri stepped next to me. “I’d done so many horrible things in my many years on this Earth. How he could see past all of that, to see that I loved him, I’ll never know.”
“We get visions, you know.”
I turned to her, frowning. “Yes, but don’t those end after a year? Rai still has them.”
She nodded. “I’m aware. Another thing that made him unique. We get the visions of our future Champions and the lives they’ve lived in order to prepare us for what’s to come. We get to know our Archangels and during our training, we get to meet them. Rai, all he had was his visions of you and from what I know, he pretty much kept them to himself, only confiding to Darius about what he’d seen. But there’s no telling what he saw of you. Perhaps it was enough to make him see you for more than your atrocities.”
“If he saw all of that and could still say that he loved me, then maybe God gave me a gift with the Kiss of the Angel,” I said, because I now knew what love felt like. To be the giver and receiver of it. No other demon would experience such bliss. I never wanted to exist without Rai... I felt content knowing that we were forever linked... as we were meant to be.
Terri patted my back. “You’re really one of us now, demon.”
I smirked and looked down at the city coming to life below as humans headed off to work their tedious jobs. “Well, the world is still here until we have to tackle the next crisis.”
“Speaking of crises, what are you going to do about the girl?” Terri asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll let Rai decide.”
“She’ll never be able to enter the Guild.”
“And she can’t stay at the Magic Shop,” I said.
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out together.”
“What about the barrier here? Can you repair it?” I asked.
“We’re sending someone to restore it today, but keep in mind, it’s not as powerful as the one on the Guild,” she said. “It will have to have that opening for you and her.”
“I know, but something is better than nothing.”
“We may be able to tweak it to make it a bit more powerful, but if demons have the right spell, they may still be able to break it.”
“Just do what you can,” I said.
She nodded. “Take care of yourselves.”
“You do the same.”
She smiled, then vanished. I took one more look out at the sky, then went inside to lay in bed beside Rai, taking him into my arms.
