Page 208 of Drown Like Heaven
He rolled over onto his back, letting me lay on his damp chest as he tipped his head back towards the clouds. Rain spattered down on his face, dripping over his full lips and straight nose, darkening his eyelashes. His wings held us strong in the air, keeping us in a flat vein of air.
“No,” he said, arms looping more tightly around my waist. Firm, unyielding. “I wouldn’t have. Everything of yours belongsto me, and that includes your death. You don’t get to take that from me. The only way you’ll ever die is if I kill you myself.”
He flipped us back, holding me underneath him with my back to my chest. I could just barely see our reflection in the ocean below, the darkness of his wings stretched to either side of us in slashes of black on the broken surface.
I extended my arm, letting my fingertips skim over the surface, watching the disturbance of the water trailing behind me. He pushed us faster and closer until the ocean was just a blur below us, so close that the tallest waves almost lapped at my legs and chest. Rain ran down my face in rivulets, dripping off my chin and nose.
If I shut my eyes, I could convince myself that his wings were mine. I was soaring miles away from land, surrounding myself with thunderstorms.
Mason pivoted, bringing us upward, higher and higher, until we were breaching the clouds, our chests pressed together again. Our hearts beating together.
Everything was colder in the clouds and I felt tingling all over my skin, prickling shards of electricity tickling my flesh. My eyes widened as my hair started to float around my head. Electricity buzzed and hummed in the air, lifting the hairs on my arms, tightening the muscles of my core.
“Am I about to get struck by lightning?” I asked shakily.
“No,” he reassured me. “Youarethe lightning. We are.”
I stared at him, noticing white flickers dancing around us through the clouds. The lightning sharpened his features. His dark hair and dark eyes, his brows drawn together.
“Just don’t let go of me and you’ll be fine.”
“What does that mean?” I blinked the rain out of my eyes.
“Your body can’t handle the amount of electricity coursing through it. Mine can. The longer we stay, the stronger it will get. And once we leave the cloud, we can’t keep the electricity,” heexplained, his powerful wings beating like a storm, keeping us here.
“It will strike,” I inferred.
“Yes.”
“How long can we stay here?”
“As long as you want.”
I turned my face down, pressing my forehead to his sternum. I still couldn’t quite breathe right, a numb ache crawling through me, drowning out everything else. Even in his arms, there was a wall I couldn’t climb.
“What if I want to stay here forever?”
“Don’t be difficult.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” My head whipped up and I glared at him, my lower lip wobbling.I just almost killed myself for you.
Why would I do that? What the fuck am I doing?
“Did you get what you wanted from this, Dakota? Are you happy with what you’re seeing?”
“Fuck you.”
“Oh, fuck me? You love saying that, don’t you?” Electricity was skating along the edges of his wings now, white light glistening on the wet black feathers, his eyes glinting with cruelty. His muscles rippled with each movement, strong and immovable.
I should’ve felt closer to him. Instead, I felt far away and small, smaller than ever. I’d given him everything, my entire life dropped into his palm, and all I’d been given in return was proof of how much bigger his darkness was than mine.
I’d wanted closeness, and what he’d given me was proof of power. Those two weren’t the same thing.
And it still didn’t make a fucking difference. I still needed him.
“You say that I can’t hide from you because I’m like you.” I jammed my index finger into his chest, right over his heart. I was so hungry for closeness I felt insane. Desperate, choking, angry, brokenly obsessed. Throwing myself at his walls again and again, never breaking through. “But that meansyou’relike me too.So you don’t get to hide, either.”
He didn’t answer.
