Page 78 of Seraph's Tears
He stroked my cheek with the back of his fingers, the look on his face more eloquent than words.
“We’ll build a refuge here, together,” I promised. It was early January, the beginning of a new year, and a perfect time for new beginnings.
His answering smile was as bright as one of the stars he loved so much, and I knew we would be happy together.
Epilogue
Castiel
I watched as the human woman crept through the Great Hall, sticking to shadows. I smirked as I realized she had no idea how strong seraphim eyes could be. Shadows hid nothing from us.
The woman with the long, blonde hair crept toward the front door, glancing over her shoulder.
I stepped forward, into the dim light streaming in from the windows above our heads. My wings rustled.
She froze. “Is someone there?” Instead of sounding fearful, she straightened her spine and demanded an answer.
Interesting.
“Where are you going?” I asked, stepping into the light.
Her eyes, blue like the lake of Remia in spring, widened as she took in my form. “You.” Her lip curled. “What do you want?”
She didn’t know that I could hear her heartbeat, how I knew it increased whenever I entered the room. She was more frightened than she was letting on.
“I want to know where you’re going,” I replied, crossing my arms.
She eyed my bare chest, and I remembered how Eve had admitted it was unusual for human men to not wear shirts. “I’m leaving.” She sniffed. “Or have you kidnapped me?”
“You can leave when the captain says you can,” I told her. “I caught you in the village yesterday, and I know you had something to do with Eve’s disappearance. Until she says you’re innocent, you’re staying put.”
The woman put her hands on her hips. “I need to find my brother Absalom!”
I sighed, shaking my head at her outburst. I’d picked up a number of human mannerisms over the years, and I used them to my advantage here. “Lily, you will wait until the captain and his mate are recovered and come down. Then we will discover where your brother is.”
She glared at me. “My name is Lilith.”
I shrugged, as if it made no difference to me. Something about this woman made me want to tweak her nose. Perhaps it was how seriously she seemed to take herself, the way she wore her beauty and demanded I serve her every whim. After I’d brought her to the manor, she shouted and cursed at me, demanding I take her back to Lownden. Then she’d told me there was no way I could be a god or a sacred creature, based on the way I laughed. So I’d laughed harder.
Now Lilith crossed her arms, mimicking my posture. It made her breasts swell and press against the neckline of her simple gown, and my cock took note.
She spun on her heel, ready to stalk away from me, when suddenly she froze. Her back went rigid, and her hands dropped limply to her side.
Instantly, I drew close to her. Had she hurt herself somehow? Had she seen something to frighten her? I glanced around the end of the Great Hall, trying to see what I needed to protect her from.
She flinched as I drew to her side, shying away from the edge of my arm. Her face was pale and her eyes wide again. After a heartbeat, she turned to look at me. “What’s that?” She pointed to the round alcove at the edge of the Great Hall, the walls filled with stained glass from floor to ceiling.
I raised one eyebrow at her. “I’m not certain, but…bear with me…I believe those odd little holes in the walls are called windows.”
She rolled her eyes and huffed, then tiptoed closer to the alcove. I think I’d heard Eve call it an oriel once. “This scene is…familiar, I think.”
I took a closer look at the stained glass images, frowning to understand what she saw. The panels were of a landscape. The lower third was the green of grass, meadows, and trees. The center two panels showed brown buildings with steep, pitched roofs. A steeple jutted high above, with something, perhaps a bell? Inside. Above, the sky was filled with gray clouds, either because the glass was gray or because the actual sky outside only let dim, winter light through the windows. The sky itself was a deep, midnight blue turning in a gradient to light, morning-sky blue at the very bottom.
But it was the image in the center that arrested my attention. I swallowed hard, taking in the sight that must’ve caught Lilith’s attention, too.
In the center was a male seraph falling from the heavens. His face, though not etched in great detail, appeared to be screaming in agony as he tumbled from the sky. Black wings, broken with feathers trailing behind him, spread from his back. His hands were like claws, reaching for his home. It was a stark, agonizing image.
Chill traveled through my whole body, and it brought back every terrifying memory I had of the day we fell from Rundis and into this world.
