Page 126 of The Star's Sword

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The next morning was for me and Samael alone.

We spent it in bed, holding each other, talking, eating, bonding and just savoring each hour we had before more fighting started.

Not that I wasn’t looking forward to finally fighting Vasara, but every moment with Sam was precious.

Even more so, now that I knew what he’d been keeping to himself for so long.

After lunch, Samael was holding me in bed, both of us watching rain fall outside the window, his arms warm around me, his chest a solid wall behind me.

Nothing could have been more heavenly.

But then his hands covered mine and he squeezed them once, lightly, and I could tell he was about to say something I wouldn’t like.

He always had a way of giving me a sense of comfort before he said something difficult.

He was just so gentle like that. Thinking back to when I’d met him, and first seen him thrust a sword through a person’s head, I laughed at the idea of finding him savage or brutal.

He was violent, yes, but only as needed.

I prepared myself for whatever he was about to say.

“Cleo, if something happens…”

“Don’t say that.”

“But if it does…”

I turned my head aside, not wanting to hear this.

“I hope the unicorn serum works. I hope it’s not a myth. But the fact remains you are the ultimate weapon.”

“A fact I hate right now.”

“And unicorn serum might not be able to withstand your force, if ninth realm celestials die to it.”

I was quiet, heart thudding painfully, emptiness filling my heart.

“I’m aware of that,” I said. Deep down, the reality was that any of us could die during my rise. The thought that Sam might die was terrible. Horrifying. But after my talk with Ara, and Cayne, and coming to terms with the fact that this meant everything to Samael, I was committed.

I would see this through no matter how it hurt.

Rain streamed past the roses in the stained-glass windows, outlining a couple in the throes of ecstasy.

Sam and I had had so many moments like that. The time we’d had together had been so incredible.

I’d forgotten what it was like to live every day with abuse, with fear of what someone with more power would do to me if I resisted, life had been so good to me now.

And that was with frequent dismemberment.

So I understood that Samael, who’d had a much worse childhood than I had, would feel an even more urgent need to see justice done.

Whether he was there to see it or not.

That just made me love him all the more.

“If something happens to me, because you never know when the rise will happen or when you’ll have to use your inner weapon, I want you to not hesitate.”

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