Page 74 of Seraph's Tears
Raw, red marks lined her wrists, as if she’d been bound so tightly it had torn her skin. I fought down the fury rising within me at the sight. I had half a mind to go back to the broken bodies on the cliff and drop them over the edge again. No one hurts my mate.
I sucked in a harsh breath when she bared her torso. A deep gash in her side was still healing. It no longer gushed blood, but the edges were raw and jagged. New, pink skin crept inward as the wound healed itself. As my ayim healed her.
Her leg was still broken and fragile. She hissed as I touched her calf, trailing my fingers up the cool, pale flesh and feeling each scrape and cut as it healed. One gash was particularly deep on her back. I licked my thumb and pressed it tenderly against the open skin.
She hissed and jerked, more in surprise than pain, then relaxed and groaned as the flesh knit itself together even faster.
“Remarkable,” I murmured.
“Gabriel.” Her voice came tentative and uncertain. “Could you ever forgive me for betraying you to them?”
I swallowed, looking up to meet her gaze. “I’ll always forgive you, even if I don’t understand it.”
She closed her eyes, her drying hair falling against her bare shoulders. She tucked her knees up to her chin, naked but now trying to hide from my sight.
I held back a frown at the movement. I didn’t want her to hide from me—ever. I never wanted her to feel like she had to hide her vulnerability. I pulled a quilt from the end of my bed and draped it over her rounded shoulders. “Here, if you’re cold.”
She took it wordlessly, though tears glinted on her face. After a moment of silence pregnant with unspoken regret, she gave a long, shuddering sigh. “I should’ve trusted you.”
My chest ached. “Why didn’t you?” I whispered.
“At first I didn’t know you. Then I wanted to protect you. Which is silly, I know, you’re a seraph. You don’t need protection. But Zor can be so vicious, and I didn’t know what they planned…and I knew I loved you, but I didn’t know if you loved me and wanted me hiding in Mirkwold forever.”
My anger from yesterday had drained away, leaving only yearning in my chest. I picked my words carefully. “Eve, do you remember what I said about our customs?”
Eve nodded.
“Not everyone finds their mate. It’s different than marriage, more physical and spiritual. More…more. A true match in every way. Mates bond with ayim, and that gives us a connection to one another. And…in the case of humans…” My voice turned soft, nearly as tentative as her own. “It apparently means you inherit some of our abilities.”
“Healing?” Her eyes flashed with an unknown emotion. She was trying to hide her feelings from me. I hated it, but I couldn’t fault her. Not after the last conversation we had ended with me storming away.
“And…likely your lifespan, too, since ayim is what gives seraphim their time.” I held my breath.
Her face changed, shock to surprise to uncertainty. She looked up at me through her eyelashes. “Is that…something you can adjust to?”
I stared at her. “Eve, did I forget to mention how finding one’s true mate is not guaranteed in life, and so we treasure that bond above all things?”
“But…” Her brow furrowed, a divot above the bridge of her nose. “I’m human.”
I laughed. “And?”
She looked down. “I’m just a human.”
Realization dawned. I reached out and stroked her cheek with the back of my fingers. “Eve, my beloved, my mate, I adore you. From horizon to horizon, and high as the clouds and beyond the stars. You have my soul. You have my heart—I’d happily cut it straight from my chest and hand it to you if it gave you any drop of pleasure. I love you, starlight.”
Slowly her eyes lifted to meet mine. Hope and wariness warred within. “Do you truly?”
I nodded, pressing my thumb to the seam of her lips. “More than words can express. I don’t care you’re human. I care that you’re mine.”
She smiled. “And you’re mine.”
Joy bubbled in my heart. “Yes, I am.”
“But what about Aerie?”
“What about it?” I eased on the bed so I could be nearer to her, my wings rustling.
“You want to go home,” she pushed. “You’ve been searching for a crack in our world for fifty years, Gabriel. How could I compete with that?”
