Page 84 of Beyond the Storm
“Yes.” There wasn’t a doubt in my mind. “I do.”
“Then trust that I will hold on to you and never let go.” Kallias kissed the tip of my nose. “You are too precious to me.”
Knowing my voice would quake if I spoke, I only nodded. He gave me another kiss, this time to my lips. More of my unease melted away, like maybe he truly was the sun. Gently, he turned me in his arms to where I faced away from him.
He held me from behind and pressed his mouth to my ear. “We once lay beneath the stars. Now, let us fly amongst them.”
As my feet lifted from the grass, my stomach stayed on the ground. My head felt light, and my heart raced. I clung onto his arms as nervousness took me captive.
“I’ve got you,” Kallias whispered. “Look at your mountain. See the way the moonlight bounces off the peak.”
I tore my gaze from the grass stretching far below my dangling legs and did as he said. My breaths stammered as I looked at Mount Taygetus.
“You’re smiling,” he said.
And I was. I couldn’t stop. Once the shock of being so high in the air passed, I found beauty in the sights around me. The land far below. The mountains. And the stars that looked close enough to reach out and touch.
“Kallias!” I looked back at him, my heart close to bursting. “I understand now what it feels like to soar amongst the clouds. This feeling… it’s how you make me feel too.”
He nuzzled my nape before continuing forward, the heavy flapping of his wings filling the air. “Do you wish to return to the ground?”
“No,” I said. “I wish to fly with you forever.”
That night was the beginning of a new life.
Long after Kallias landed, I still felt as though we were soaring through the air. That weightlessness wrapped around my heart, and the longing I’d held in my chest ever since I was a boy finally waned. He introduced me to his brothers, some I had met already, like Bellamy and Alastair. Others I spoke to for the first time.
“Welcome to the family, human,” the one named Raiden exclaimed, clapping me on the back.
“Humans,” Daman muttered. “How revolting.” He then sneered at me before returning to his spot in the corner.
“He likes you.” Bellamy slid his arm around my shoulders. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t have said anything at all.”
“I dread to see how he treats those he dislikes.”
Bellamy laughed.
Galen didn’t trust me. Alastair seemed cautious of me but was polite. Gradyn latched on to me and wouldn’t let go. He then fell asleep that way. When Lazarus visited, he was still as cold as he’d been the first night I’d met him. However, he showed little hostility toward me, other than to warn me that betrayal meant death.
“Do not pay him any mind,” Castor said. “He says that to everyone.”
As the days turned to weeks, the eight of them opened my eyes to a world I’d never thought possible. They taught me about demons and other creatures that posed a threat to mortals. They taught me how to fight them as well. It came easily to me.
“I do believe you were born to fight demons,” Kallias said after my first hunt with them. We had tracked a group of demons and disposed of them before they could harm anyone. It had been quite the shock as the creature burst into flames seconds after my blade sliced through it.
I tossed him a smile. “My sword is an extension of my arm. Demon or man, my aim strikes true.”
Kallias had then tugged me to him and kissed me hard on the mouth. Rain fell from the night sky, washing away the ashes littering the cold ground. Winter had reached us.
I thought of Nikandros, then, and of the blossoms that would bloom again someday—when we’d get to see each other again. He was all that I missed from my previous life. When our missions brought us closer to Sparta, Castor checked in on him for me, always keeping a distance. My companion had met a warrior and grew close to him as two lovers would.
Nikandros had found his own happiness, and it eased some of the ache in my heart from missing him.
I also learned more about fallen angels and the dark king who ruled over them: Lucifer. We located one battalion of enemy soldiers commanded by a powerful demon lord, who Bellamy used Lust’s power of seduction against to subdue.
As for my fated mate bond with Kallias? It only strengthened as weeks bled to months. The connection had first brought us together and built the foundation for our relationship, but we fortified it as we learned more about each other’s lives—as we fell deeper and deeper in love.
And gods did I love him. I had never loved anything or anyone more.
