Page 187 of Nightshade

“An angel who doesn’t believe in kindness?”

“I’m drawn to it, for reasons I can’t understand, really. But it’s certainly not ingrained in me. Nor mercy, for that matter.”

Pausing in tying the twine, she looked up, thoughtful for a moment. “Speaking of merciless, I meant to ask, seeing as it’s not mentioned in the book. What happened to Drystan? I’m assuming you killed him for what he did.”

“You assume wrong.”

Frowning, she tipped her head. “What? I got the impression …. Well, it seemed everyone thought he was dead.”

“Everyone did think he was dead. Including you.” I caught the flinch of her eye when I said that, as if a part of her still couldn’t accept who she was.

She would, in time.

“What happened to him, then?”

“I handed him over to a band of criminals. Fallen angels, most of them.”

“You set him free? I thought you were far less forgiving than that. Particularly after what he did.”

The old feelings of rage bubbled inside me again, and I had to remind myself what had happened was many years past. “I was. I wanted to kill him. But I made a promise to my mother that I wouldn’t.”

“Because he was human?”

“Drystan wasn’t entirely human.”

For the second time in a matter of minutes, her mouth hung open, eyes wide in shock. “What?”

“He was cambion. Same father, a Dalgoth demon, but his mother was human.”

Eyes pensive, she shook her head and sat back in her chair. “Wow. Why did the bishop treat you so cruelly, then?”

“The two of them chose to hide their true nature. To assimilate and deny what they were, in favor of blending in. A small price, in their eyes, to be loved by an entire village. It only fueled the bishop’s belief that I was the aberration and that my condition was curable.” I crossed toward the window, staring out over the treetops that stood along the edge of the mountain. “I didn’t know I could command lightning until the night I destroyed Praecepsia. I’d toyed with fire and lightning, but never to that extent. I’d been taught my whole life to hide what I was, or suffer the bishop’s cruelty. Some things I hid well. Others, not so much.”

“So, Drystan … do you think the Fallen spared his life?”

“Not likely. The Fallen aren’t known to be altruistic, when it comes to half-breeds.” I glanced over my shoulder to find the laces on the bodice of her dress had come loose, widening the neckline, the sight of which sent an unexpected rush of blood to my groin. Such simplicities I’d found inexplicably arousing about her. My staring must’ve drawn attention to it, as she went about retying the laces again.

“Remy is Fallen, isn’t he?” At what must’ve been a concerned look on my face, she added, “I just assumed because … well, because he gives off kind of an oily aura.”

Smirking at that, I turned back toward the window. “Yes, he’s Fallen. And he knows to keep his distance from you, unless at some point, he no longer values his life.”

“How did you two hook up?” At the frown I shot back at her, she chuckled. “I don’t mean hook up.”

Nodding, I told her, “It was Cassiel who convinced him to help me escape Virgil’s prison. Though, I don’t think Remy was ever entirely convinced. Cassiel had visited an oracle who gave him the impression that sparing my life and escaping Virgil would somehow redeem him.” It’d troubled me to think it was my blade which ultimately sent him to Ex Nihilo.

“Perhaps he was redeemed.”

“There is no peace in the place to where I condemned him.”

“How do you know, if you’ve never been there?”

“I’ve lived my own version of it, every hour of every day for centuries.” My thoughts wound back through the years before I’d lost my memory. The way every second had ticked in mocking as I sat in that bell tower, day after miserable day. Waiting for her return. Wondering if she would know me, or if I’d become an unfamiliar face.

Face twisted with worry, she tapped a finger against the tabletop. “A while ago, you told me of the blood moon prophecy. That this was the year of the pentad. If that’s true. If all of this is true, then--”

“You’ve nothing to worry about. I will not allow anyone, or anything, to take you away from me again.”

With a nod, she lowered her gaze and stood up from the table, coming to a stand in front of me.