Page 15 of Wings of Betrayal

“I can’t tell you how thankful we are that you relayed Hethenos’s plans to us. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have gotten our son back.”

Heat rises in my cheeks, and I glance down. “It was the right thing to do. I’m glad he could come home.”

Finlay remains silent, and Kastal awkwardly eyes us both before clasping his hands together.

“Very well, then. I’ll leave you to it.” He heads out through the front entrance, and once he’s gone, I’m able to relax a little.

“He likes you,” Finlay says, surprising me.

I rear back a little, raising my brows. “He blames me for everything that happened to you. So does your mother.”

“No, he doesn’t. He knows I’m back here in the Kingdom because of you. He said so himself.” He wanders farther into his manor, and after a moment’s pause, I hurry to join him.

It’s a relief that he likes me, if it’s actually true. But I didn’t miss his lack of reassurance about his mother’s feelings toward me. Hopefully, in time, she’ll realise I’m not to blame, either.

My eyes widen when Finlay opens a door on the second level to what appears to be his quarters, and I follow him inside. The room is large, and there’s an enormous bed positioned in the center of the room. Thick charcoal curtains are pulled back at the edge of his windows, giving way to a stone balcony with a gorgeous view of the surrounding grounds. A built-in oak wood bookshelf lines the left wall of his room, and there must be hundreds of books stacked neatly on the shelves.

Interesting. I didn’t peg Finlay as a reader.

Well, you never really gave me a chance. To get to know the real me.

I spin around to face him, and it’s hard to miss the sadness etched in his eyes. “I’m sorry. That whole ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ thing didn’t click. You were always just so?—”

“Arrogant?” he finishes for me.

I giggle. “Something like that.”

He walks over to some comfortable-looking charcoal armchairs positioned near the windows and sinks down into one. He stretches his left leg out to better fit his almost seven-foot frame. I sit in the other chair, and the silence presses down on us. I cough and open my mouth to speak when he does the same, and we both laugh.

“Thanks for coming to see me,” he says, shifting his focus to his hands in his lap. “If I’m being honest, I didn’t have the guts to visit you.”

Wetting my lips, I mull over his words for a moment. I like this new, honest Finlay. I can get used to this.

I clear my throat. “It’s okay. I just needed a bit of time, and I figured you could probably use the space, too. A lot went down.”

He nods, and it’s nice that he’s willing to just listen. In the past, he’s always been the one to interrupt. He absently picks at the edge of the armchair, his nerves showing through his usual cool demeanor.

“Harlum wouldn’t let me leave the Kingdom for weeks. He finally gave me my markings back, though, so I could visit Kyle in Zarquon.”

He runs his hand through his hair, tugging on the ends slightly. I can tell the mention of Kyle’s name affects him. Maybe he still doesn’t like him.

“Is there anything you wanna talk about?” I ask, feeling we need a change in subject. “Do you remember what happened when you were on Earth?”

I know it’s probably a sensitive subject, and him remembering anything at all could be a long shot, but it’s possible. Kyle does.

Silence passes between us, and I wonder if I’ve taken it a step too far by asking, but then he looks at me.

“I remember now, but it was strange, because at the time, I didn’t remember this life. When I woke up on Earth, I had no memory of my past. But now that I’m back here, I remember everything.”

“Kyle said the same thing.”

He chews his nails, his focus off in the distance as if he’s deep in thought, or memory. “I remember things I wish I didn’t. I remember seeing things, things that shouldn’t have been possible. At the time, they didn’t make sense to me. But they make sense now, sort of.”

I sit forward in my chair, drawing my brows together. “What do you mean?”

“I saw a group of these creepy-looking creatures. They looked like dead angels, and they attacked a guardian and an archangel, killing them both like it was nothing. I’m lucky they didn’t spot me, or they would’ve killed me, too.”

So Finlay has seen the lost ones. Gods above, how many of them are there?

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