Page 40 of Wings of Valor
“Would you mind if I stayed to watch you imbue?”
His questions take me by surprise. Not just that he’s asking, but he sounds genuinely intrigued. It seems like anytime someone wanted to watch me in the past, it was always with the hope they’d see me fail. His request doesn’t feel like that. It’s a nice change.
“Not at all,” I reply, then pick up the blade I’d just put away, close my eyes, and coax my internal pool of sunfire to life.
Kirach has lost enough.I’velost enough.
We’ll get Zeke and my parents back, even if I have to defy the entire city to do so.
17
Another day goes by without making any headway. Castiel and I just got back from following up on a possible Auriel sighting that didn’t pan out, putting us right back to square zero.
I hate this.
“The rune weaver is done, and we have a very tiny window to pick it up,” Raphael says, handing me his phone so I can read the message.
I pass over the location to read the time frame. We have an hour to waste before the deadline, then only a mere twenty minutes to show up for our gear before that window closes. “They don’t give much notice, do they?”
“Looks that way.” Raphael eyes me as I try to hand him his phone back but doesn’t take it. “I thought maybe you could go.”
“Okay,” I say, raising my hand so he’ll see that I’m holding his phone out for him, but he still doesn’t take it.
“Okay? Just like that?”
“Why would it be difficult?”
“You didn’t look at the location, did you?”
My brows furrow as I pull his phone back and reread the message, paying attention to the location they shared.Fuck.Only two blocks from my grandparents’ house.
Noticing my reaction, Raph says, “I know you like to go home about as little as I do, but it would be a good opportunity to grab that book on the demon blood tree. Having more information would probably be worth it, given how little ash we have left.”
Ugh. I hate that he’s right. The last thing I want to do is go home, but we need all the help we can get, so it sounds like I don’t have a choice.
“I can go with you, if you want?” Hayliel says, coming over to join us.
“That’s a great idea!” Raphael adds excitedly, but I’m not so sure.
“Oh. You don’t have to. It’ll be super quick and probably not worth it at all.”
“Do you not want me to go?” Hayliel asks, and I see through the mask she wears. She can’t hide her disappointment from me.
Before I can respond, Raphael chimes in. “Theo would love for you to be there. He’s just a little shy about his family, that’s all. But you met Zeke’s dad and my parents, and since we’re giving this whole joint relationship thing a try, it makes sense for you to meet his, too.”
Hayliel takes my hands in hers, squeezing them as our eyes meet. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
I hate that I’m making her doubt herself, but the last thing I want is for her to find out about my parents. Will she look at me differently if she knows what happened to my dad? Or howmy mother hated me so much that she chose to leave instead of staying and taking care of me?
Raphael’s voice fills my mind, his tone gentle and reassuring.Hey. What happened to your father wasn’t your fault, and your mother left because she’s a coward. Don’t let what’s been happening lately drag you back into old thinking patterns.
I try to let his words wash over me. I really do, but the worry continues to fester in the back of my mind. What if Hayliel blames me? What if my grandparents say or do something to set me off?
“It’s alright,” Hayliel says with one final squeeze of my fingers. “I should probably stay here and imbue weapons, anyway.”
Fuck. The last thing I wanted to do was make her think I didn’t want her there. Without knowing why, she probably thinks it’s something she did. I swallow down my fears and take a deep breath. “No, no. I want you to come. It’s just … going home always makes me a little crazy, and I didn’t want you to see me like that.”
Her eyes search mine, and then she pulls me into a hug. When we separate, she cups my cheeks, forcing me to look into her eyes. “I am madly in love with you, Theo. Every facet of your being calls to mine, even the parts you don’t want me to see. Even the parts you aren’t fond of. Nothing will change that for me.”
