Page 2 of Deep Love

“It wasn’t a compliment.”

The border drew closer and closer. This wasn’t the way I’d entered Seraphia upon my death. Instead, we were at some shady back exit reserved for degenerate souls like me.

Only I wasn’t a degenerate soul.

Someone still in Seraphia was, and my only comfort right now was that at some point, Solari would see the massive error she’d made in ousting me. The real soul re-router was a bad seed, and bad seeds couldn’t last in Seraphia.

I was surprised Solari didn’t know who the real culprit was. She was, after all, a goddess with more power than anyone. Everything else in creation was beneath her level. Shouldn’t Solari have been able to see into all the souls in Seraphia and weed out the wrongdoer?

Why should I be sent packing when all I’d ever done was follow orders and enjoy Seraphia?

We finally reached the border, and I was out of delay tactics. This was it.

“Do you understand any attempt to end your second Earthly life prematurely will result in you being denied entry to Seraphia?” Criston asked.

“I’m not going to kill myself.” I pulled free, surprised they had both let go of me, but where could I go? I’d never outrun them, not with my powers nearly gone. A heart already beat in my chest, lungs expanded and contracted with the normal rhythm of breathing, and a contained feeling surrounded me as my soul generated the final details of the human body I’d be stuck in back on Earth. “Though I’m not sure I want to come back here if this is the treatment perfectly innocent souls get.”

Zeff turned me around to face the exit, a plain, white door with a simple, silver knob. Pretty nondescript for the exit from such a monumental place.

“Let’s see ’em, Delphi,” Zeff said.

“I’m not showing you my boobs before I go, Zeff.” I turned back to face them and folded my arms across my chest.

Criston rolled his golden eyes. “We don’t want to see your boobs, Delphi.”

I knew that. Another delay tactic that hadn’t worked.

“Can’t I keep them, boys? Pretty please?” I clasped my hands under my chin. “I’ve grown attached to them.”

“Rules are rules,” Zeff said. “Let’s go.”

A defeated breath whooshed out of me and I let my wings extend from my back. They were such pretty wings, white with lavender tips, and the idea of not having them anymore made my now-human chest ache.

“Wow,” Criston said. “Those are gorgeous. What a shame you have to lose them.”

“Right?” I folded my wings back toward my body. “How about we file the paperwork saying you did take them, but you fellas let me keep them instead? I won’t tell if you won’t.”

Zeff shook his head. “You know we can’t send you back to Earth with angel wings.”

“Let’s not send me back to Earth then,” I said. “Problem solved.” Retracting my wings nearly all the way, I marched toward the two thugs, intent on passing between them and heading back to Seraphia.

Criston snagged a feather on the tip of my right wing, plucking it out completely, while Zeff grabbed my arm and yanked me back toward the exit door.

“C’mon, boys,” I said. “Do you want to be responsible for kicking out the wrong soul?”

“More than we want to be responsible for going against Solari’s orders,” Criston said.

“Yeah, we don’t want to be escorted through this door too,” Zeff said.

I lowered my chin to my chest. “There’s no way out of this, is there?”

For a split second, empathy flashed in these two guards’ eyes, but then it vanished and Zeff gestured to me.

“Your wings. Let’s have them,” he said.

Slowly, I unfurled my wings again to their full span. Criston and Zeff both raised their right hands, and in the next moment, my wings were engulfed in flames, those lavender tips turning to gray ash almost instantly. I braced myself as the fire raced closer to my body, but the flames winked out as quickly as they had appeared.

My wings were decimated. I couldn’t see for sure, but I felt it.