Page 180 of Inbetweeners
Phoenix’s had already emerged, somehow coming out of his clothes without ripping them. He looked so… A lump formed in Emmett’s throat.Handsome.
Please! Just come out!Then they were suddenly out, and Emmett almost fell with the speed of it, but he breathed a sigh of relief. Now all he had to do was fly. Just do it. Not be afraid. He hadfuckingwings. Gabriel was talking but Emmett wasn’t listening. There was no way he could walk to the edge of this platform and throw himself off. He could already see himself edging there like a tortoise, then fainting at the thought of take-off. Only one thing he could do.
He turned and ran and when he was within a few steps, he shut his eyes and kept going until only air lay under his feet. Only flying turned out to be harder than he’d thought and moving his wings was only taking place in his head.Shit.He opened his eyes to find himself falling through the sky with his wings flapping haphazardly and a touch frantically.
Concentrate! Beat them together. Up. Down.The force of the air as he fell was making it difficult, but then he managed one beat and his descent slowed. Then another and another until he found himself rising. “Woohoo!” he yelled, then regretted it, because nothing saidnewbiemore than an angel yelling that, but he gradually made his way back up the side of Eyria, never looking down, until he found the platform he’d jumped from and landed—not very gracefully—next to Phoenix, who was being restrained by two angels.
They let him go and Phoenix yanked Emmett into his arms.
“What the fuck? What the hell did you think you were doing?”
Phoenix looked and sounded so angry that Emmett was shocked. “What have I done?”
“All I’ve done so far in training is to practise pulling my wings in and out, and how to hover about six feet off the ground, and you go throwing yourself off a mile high tower? I wanted to come after you but they wouldn’t let me. Don’t do that again. You scared me to death.”
“Sorry,” Emmett whispered.
Gabriel laughed. “I told you you’d fly first. Well done. You corrected your fall. I’ve not seen anyone do that so efficiently on their first flight. Of course, I’ve never seen anyone who’s newly fledged throw themselves off the building. Another fifty feet and I might have had to send someone after you.”
Emmett blinked. “Might?”
“It takes a long while to regrow wings. And it’s painful. Be careful with yours. They’re beautiful.”
Gabriel left and the two angels put both Emmett and Nix through some training exercises, gave them a list of dos and don’ts—no immersion in water, no throwing yourself off high buildings until you were fully trained, and they were allowed to return to their room.
Nix held Emmett’s hand all the way back. “I don’t know whether to kiss you or thump you.”
“I think I’d prefer kiss.”
Nix pushed Emmett back against the door and as their mouths met, they melted into each other. Emmett knew their lives—well, what they had now—wouldn’t be easy, but they had each other and that was all that mattered. Together, they’d be happy. Even if they’d had to die before they found each other, theyhadfound each other and that was all that mattered.
