Page 35 of Fallen
Wreathing myself in shadow, I folded space and locked onto Anna’s location.
She sat in the small garden between the dormitories, the same garden I’d cowered those two boys Ryan and Jason after they’d bullied her several years ago.
A small peach tree, its branched laden with green, fuzzy fruit beginning to shift to shades of yellow, hovered over the stone table at which Anna sat. In her hand, she held a paintbrush. Before her rested a small easel with a thin canvas panel.
I circled around to her back, careful to stay upwind so she wouldn’t detect my presence. Even though I made myself invisible, I knew how attuned her sense of smell was to changes in her environment.
A translucent plastic cup of water sat next to the easel, and a wooden palette, with different colored blobs of paint on its surface, was propped in her other hand.
The brush moved across the surface of the canvas.
I sucked in a breath as I took in her work.
The entire panel had been painted black, but hundreds of tiny white spots dotted the surface. In the upper right corner, part of a yellowish-white circle had been painted, clearly the moon.
In the middle of the picture, a riot of colors bloomed outward like firecrackers. But instead of the normal circular explosion, they dipped in the middle, then pushed upward on either side, rainbow wings flapping in the night.
Is that how she imagines angel wings?I chanced a step closer, my curiosity and admiration drawing me toward this human who captivated me like no other.
Her hand stilled, and she turned her head to the side, breathing deeply.
I held my breath, freezing mid-step.
“Lucian?” she whispered, her nostrils flaring.
Damn the woman.I was not ready to face her yet. My feelings when it came to her—to us—were a jumbled mess of longing, fear, and self-loathing.
Sunlight caught in her hair, the light pulling my attention. Red like blood, the ruby shone, the black of the diamonds contrasting beautifully against the brightness.
I smiled, pleased she wore the gift.Why did I wait so long to give her a birthday present?
But I knew why. I gave nothing without reciprocation, and the thought of freely bestowing a gift with no strings attached had never crossed my mind.
Until the night of the Ferris wheel.
With a silent sigh, I drank her in one last time, then blinked away, knowing I should cut the cord to whatever this was becoming because the outcome would only lead to one place.
Hell.
Chapter 16
Part Two
Chapter 17
Lucian Elysium
Present Day
Invisibletohumaneyes,I paced in front of a duplex, my gaze never leaving the door of unit 23.
Like a siren’s call, I could feel Anna’s presence pulling at me, a temptation and torture wrapped together.
Though I’d resisted seeing her for a year, since the night I’d kissed her, I’d kept up with her progress at school and ensured money wasn’t an issue once she’d been accepted into the art college she’d chosen.
With a graceful swoop, Malachi landed gently at my side, the bright autumn sun lighting his serious expression, revealing highlights of black in his violet irises.
“I hope you have news about her parent’s whereabouts.” Reluctantly, I turned my back on the apartment to give Malachi my full attention.
