Page 99 of Teach Me to Fly

“I love you too, Angel. I always have,” I whisper against her flushed skin.

Her breath is still hitching softlyas she lies curled into my side, her body slick with sweat, flushed andtrembling. I stroke her curls back from her face, watching her chest rise and fall with every shallow inhale.

She said she loved me. She finally said it.

I press a kiss to her temple and slowly slip out of bed. Her lashes flutter, but she doesn’t stir, murmuring my name under her breath.

“I’ll be right back,” I whisper, and she settles again.

In the bathroom, I remove the condom and toss it in the garbage bin before I run warm water into a basin, gather antiseptic, and fresh cotton pads, carrying it all back into the bedroom. Angelique watches me from the bed now, eyes open but still a little dazed.

“Are they bad?” she asks softly, her voice raspy.

“No,” I murmur as I set everything on the nightstand and kneel beside her. “But I’m still going to clean them.”

She nods and shifts so I can reach the cut on her inner thigh first. I dip the cotton into the warm water and clean the dried blood from her skin, careful not to touch the cut too directly yet. She hisses when I bring the antiseptic close, but I pause, pressing a kiss to the inside of her knee.

“Breathe through it,” I whisper.

She nods again, bracing herself while I work slowly. I speak barely above a whisper the entire time, murmuring things she doesn’t need to respond to.

“You did so good tonight.”

“You’re stronger than you know.”

“I’m proud of you.”

When I reach the last one—the one below her ribs—I pause and let my hand rest lightly against her side. I kiss the skin beside it, and she exhales shakily.

“I needed that,” she whispers.

“I know.” I look up at her, meeting her gaze as I pressthe gauze gently to the last cut. “I’ll give you what you need every time. No matter what it looks like.”

Her lip trembles, but she doesn’t cry. “I thought you’d get tired of me,” she admits.

“I thought you’d leave me,” I say back. “Turns out, we were both fucking wrong.”

When I’ve finished cleaning her wounds, I tuck the covers around her and climb in beside her, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her close. She rests her head against my chest, right over my heart.

“You love me?” I murmur, just to hear it again.

She nods against my skin. “I love you.”

My hand finds hers under the blankets, and we lace our fingers together.

“Then I’ll fight like hell to make sure you’re here to say it again tomorrow.”

Chapter 36

Angelique

The cemetery is quieter than I remember, colder too. I step off the bus and wrap my coat tighter around me as I make my way down the familiar path, my fingers tucked into my sleeves. My boots sink into the wet ground, the sound loud in the hush of early morning as the clouds hang low and grey above, like even the sky’s mourning this day.

Five years ago, today, my dad passed away, and this is where I buried him. I told Reign and Lando that I needed to do this alone and that I’d meet them at Imperium later for rehearsal, but as I round the bend that leads to the two old oak trees where my father’s buried, I freeze in place.

I catch a flash of white-blond hair, the unmistakable broad shoulders, the way his long black coat flutters slightly in the wind. I step behind the nearest tree, peering out from behind the trunk, heart thudding as I watch Reign. He’s standing motionless in front of the headstone, a small bouquet of marigolds in his hand—my father’s favourite. The sight punches the breath from my lungs.

“Hi again, Elijah,” he murmurs. “It’s been a while.”

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