Page 46 of Wings of Death

He picks at a loose stitch on the back of the couch. “Yeah, she was. She saved my life.”

I draw my brows together at his words.

“She was the one who found me in the field. She brought me to the hospital, and she stayed with me. When they told her they couldn’t find my parents and that I was going to be put into a foster home, she adopted me. She took me into her home and raised me as her own son.”

I reach out and give his hand a squeeze, and he laces his fingers through mine. A sense of calm washes over me at his touch, and I imagine it’s a similar sensation for him.

“Do you know if it exists? Heaven, I mean?” His eyes lock with mine, and I can feel his desperation to know.

“From what I know, when humans pass, their souls shift into another dimension of sorts,” I explain. “We’re not exactly sure where it is, but we know they’re given a choice to return to Earth and live a new life. Those who do not wish to do so remain in the new dimension.”

A tear slides down his cheek, and he quickly wipes it away with the back of his hand. “That sounds like heaven to me.”

“She’ll be okay wherever she is. She’ll be happy,” I assure him. I may not know much about this dimension, but that much I’m sure.

I lean forward and catch the next tear that rolls down his cheek as his blue eyes stare into mine. My breath catches at the desire building inside me.

“You can feel that, can’t you?”

I nod.

“We hardly know each other,” he says with confusion.

It’s hard to put into words something that I barely understand myself. How did I have such intense feelings for Kyle already? He’s right—we hardly know one another.

“I think it’s the guardian bond,” I tell him, unsure if he believes it.

He shuffles closer. “But that’s between a guardian and a human, right? I’m not human.”

I furrow my brows, trying to make sense of the situation. He’s right. How can it be the same as a guardian bond?

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anything like this happening before.” But then it hits me. I have heard of thisbefore, when an angel finds their mate. The bond between mates is the strongest bond of all. But that can’t be what this is, can it?

“There’s got to be a reason the gods chose me. They bonded us together. They must have known who I was.”

His words pass through my mind as I try to think of an explanation, anything other than what he’s implying, but I can’t. It’s the only thing that makes sense, but why would they bond an angel from Silanthia with one from Zarquon? And then it occurs to me that the gods know everything, and maybe it’s connected to why he ended up on Earth.

“There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense right now. It must be confusing for you, but we’ll figure it out, I promise.”

He sits back against the couch and rubs his face before getting to his feet. “Are you hungry?”

As soon as the words leave his lips, my stomach rumbles, and I try to remember when I last ate.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says with a laugh and holds his hand out to me.

He pulls me up off the couch, and I follow him into the kitchen where he pulls out a seat for me at the breakfast bar.

“Something you may not yet know about me is that I’m a chef, which means I know how to cook food. Really well.”

For the next couple of hours, I observe as Kyle skilfully maneuverers his way around the kitchen, dicing and slicing up foods, some of which I have never seen before, and prepares the most delicious meal. We chat and laugh as we get to know one another, and it feels like the most natural thing ever.

He tells me about his life here on Earth, how he works as the head chef at the top restaurant in the city, how his mother,Susan, raised him here in New Zealand on her farm, which is now his, and how he has a big sweet tooth. He whips us up the most magical dessert called a chocolate fondant, a small circular chocolate cake with a gooey chocolate centre.

It’s one of the most incredible things I have ever tasted.

He tells me about the time he got hit by a car while riding his bike to school, and his mum was sure he broke his arm, but he was fine. He healed himself, much like I saw him do with the cut on his arm after the watcher attack. Much like I can do.

I tell Kyle about my father being the King of Silanthia, about my awful stepmother and sister, about my father’s guards and how the twins, Rimel and Yimel, creep me out. I explain what a Zelon is, and how I rode one. And I tell him about my lonely upbringing, missing my mother, but finding comfort in friendships with Lacinda and Demetros, and how Lissian, my mother’s best friend and my father’s first wife, has been like a mother to me.

---