Awaken the Soul (Havenwood Falls High)(31)

“Drink, and come find out.” He winks and walks by, continuing to the edge of the floor and slipping his hands into his pockets. Waiting.

I take one sip and set the cup on a table. Zara is already on the floor, along with everyone else we’ve been sitting with, but I don’t care about them. Right now, it’s me and my angel.

His eyes sparkle as I join him. My hands slip between his waist and arms, and press his back, bringing him closer. He keeps his hands in his pockets, a smile playing on his lips. I’m wearing four-inch heels, and still he looks down at me. So not fair, but I love it. I hold his stare.

After a moment, he caves, and I’m wrapped in his arms. His unnatural heat sears through my gold velvet dress, warming my skin. His chin rests on top of my head as he inhales deeply.

“Ginger and mint,” he says with a touch of humor. His lips kiss my hair, before he pulls back. “That was how I knew it was you that day. I smelled ginger and mint, and I knew.”

I press my cheek to his chest. “What happens next?”

I didn’t mean to ask, but the questions linger. Sebastian’s words won’t let go of me. He said I had a calling. He questioned if I would stick with Breckin. He insinuated Breckin knows more than he’s telling me.

Breckin inhales deeply. “We live. We celebrate being seniors, and we do all of those things normal couples do.”

“Breck.”

“Vivie.” His fingers dive into my hair and tilt my head back. “I have found the one whom my soul loves.” He quotes a Bible verse, as though every answer we need lies in those words. “We were not put together to be torn apart. I don’t know what comes next. I wish I did.”

I close my eyes and push away the uncertainty. He’s an immortal angel. He can think that way. I’m not sure I can—I almost died once. He has until his birthday—four months—before his father returns and he’s forced to join him. What then? I shiver, and Breck shushes me, like he knows where my thoughts turned.

Shifting, he lifts me at the waist and hoists me to face level. “All I know is that you are my soul. I will do whatever it takes to keep you and to call you mine.”

Hugging his neck, I touch my forehead to his. “I have found the one whom my soul loves,” I repeat as my lips touch his.

Our paths collided eight days ago, but our souls were destined for each other. Our future chosen long before we were born. That is what I know. How? There’s no explanation, but deep within, something sings when it sees Breckin Roberts. And when I close my eyes, it tells me our story is far from over.





Epilogue





Elias





“You ran out of the house yesterday,” I call over my shoulder. He didn’t make a sound, yet I know he’s here.

“Oh? Did you miss me?” Hamon asks, and I turn. He leans against the open door to my hangar, his legs crossed at the ankles and his arms crossed at his chest.

I close the lid to my toolbox and adopt my own pose of insolence, propping my hip against my work bench. “Hardly”—I snag a rag and wipe the grease from my hands—“your son might, though.”

“Breckin hates me.”

“Do you blame him?”

“No.” Hamon straightens, pushing his hands through his hair and stretching his neck from side-to-side. “You kept things from me, Elias.”

His voice is filled with a deep-seated weariness. How much are his alliances requiring of him these days?

“I’m doing what you asked all those years ago,” I say, recalling another night, seventeen years ago, when he also appeared in my hangar.



June 2000



The echo of footsteps in my hangar stills my hand. He’s been missing for months, but I can’t look at him—my anger is too strong. Yet, I have news.

“Phaedra’s descendent had a child.”

He stops walking. “A girl?”

“Aren’t they always?”

“The father?” he asks as he rolls his broad shoulders back.

The question hits a nerve, a reminder of my failure, and I don’t reply.

“You have watched over her line for two hundred years, but this you do not know?” He sneers.

“I was dealing with the mess you made, Hamon. I left her unprotected.”

Stretching his neck from side to side, he steps farther inside, his wings bristling in the light breeze. Months gone and that’s all he wants to know? His inability to speak of Phaedra’s descendants aggravates me, but his unwillingness to ask about Breckin sets my blood to boiling.

I don’t hide my irritation. “You have no other concerns?”

“Is her child the same as the others?”

“Human? Yes, she seems to be.”

He stuffs his hands into the pockets of his dress slacks and releases a long exhale. “And Breckin?”

It’s about time.

“Obviously, he is half angel. He is healthy.” One of the Nephilim, not something Heaven likes having around. “The woman I hired seems nurturing. You should stay in Havenwood Falls for a while and spend time with him. He is your son.”

“He is nothing. You’ll watch over him as you do Phaedra’s blood, and when he comes of age, he’ll join the ranks.”