Page 54 of Angel Condemned

A woman cleared her throat and I backed away from Axton, my face burning. Her white wings were tucked tight behind her. Maybe his people didn’t like public displays of affection.

“Sorry. Hi, I’m Jody.” I extended my hand to the woman dressed in glimmering white robes. Her blond hair was tied up in a loose bun.

“And I’m the elder of the Angeliminir and Axton’s mother.” She straightened. “We’ve no use for you, human. You may leave now.”

“But I—”

Axton grabbed my hand and squeezed encouragingly. Though the woman made an irritated sound in the back of her throat.

“No.” Axton straightened. “We are mates. We’ve bonded and—”

“You mated with this human?” She scrunched up her nose like I was shit on the bottom of her robes.

“We did not, but she is my mate, if she’ll hav—”

“Silence. I will hear from the human.”

“Well, no, we only kissed, but I care about him deeply.” I let out a shaky breath. “I want to be with him. I—I” I hadn’t told Axton the depth of my feelings for him. Declaring my love in front of his people and not to him privately felt wrong.

“And your father?” She crossed her arms. “He is a very sick man. Did you do all this to use us?”

“What? No.” I shook my head. “I asked to have my father brought here because there was nowhere else to take him. He needs medical help, but Jerx said you didn’t have doctors.” Oh God, is she saying that my dad died while I was gone? “Where is he? I want to see him.”

“First, do you accept my son as your mate or is this all a ruse? I will know if you speak the truth or a lie.”

And I didn’t doubt her. I looked at Axton and knew I could never walk away from him. Not again. Not ever again. No matter what, I wanted to be with him. “I love him.”

Axton swooped me into his arms. Spinning me so fast I thought we were flying.

Then he kissed me and the world fell away.

“Enough, Axton,” his mother snapped. “Let the girl go so she can visit her father.”

Axton set me on my feet. I still felt dizzy. So happy like I was going to burst into fireworks. “Let me take you to your father.”

We followed his mother into the temple, my heart hammering in my chest. Dread filled me that I was only going to see him long enough to say goodbye. He was out of time for the transplants and they’d never operate without the money upfront. I’d failed. My throat tightened and I swallowed the mass of emotions threatening to choke me.

Inside a chamber of white marble, my dad laid on a bed covered with bright purple blankets. He had color in his cheeks for the first time in forever.

“Dad?” I sat on the bed beside him.

“Hey, pumpkin head.”

I burst out crying and threw myself on him. He hadn’t called me my nickname in years.

“You’re soaking me with your tears. Why are you crying?” he asked.

I pulled back, confused, and looked from Axton to his mom. “I-I don’t understand. You said you didn’t have doctors.”

“We don’t.” She brushed my dad’s hair off his forehead. “But we do have healers. A few of us, like myself and Axton, have the gift to heal another. But we cannot allow our enemy to know this. Not until I knew where your heart lay.”

“Y-you can heal him?” I looked over my shoulder at Axton. “And you never told me? After I explained why I did everything?”

“There wasn’t time.”

I stood and roughly pushed his shoulder. “We were locked up together for days. Any of those minutes you could’ve told me.” Plus what good would it have done? He didn’t know that they had my dad or that I barely escaped prison let alone stole a ship.

His hands grasped my wrists and I struggled against him. “You’re wrong, Jody, I couldn’t have told you in the prison at all. The Roulex would’ve overheard. They’d have used me—used my people—to heal them after battles. If they found out our secrets, they would never stop coming after us.”

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