“Drop dead,” came Cassius’ voice, and then he was in the room, arms crossed, expression haunted. “First class not good enough for you? Private plane? Name it, and I’ll see it done.”
My eyes widened with each word that came out.
Mason just shrugged. “She wants to fly.”
I grinned at the idea.
“I’m not flying you to Scotland.” Cassius rolled his eyes, looking more human than I’d seen him in weeks. His dark hair went white as he sighed and opened up his arms as wings appeared, and then he muttered out a “Damn wolf…” before nodding to me and saying, “Touch a feather.”
“Really?” I tried to play it cool, but I’d been wanting to touch his feathers, to feel the texture between my fingers for days. “Any feather?”
“Or all of them.” Cassius grinned.
Mason growled like there was something I didn’t know about touching the feathers.
&nb
sp; I took a step forward and reached out to one of the plumes that curved down the wing; it shuddered under my grasp then wrapped its velvety tentacles around my finger and pulsed with my heart. It was warm. It felt… like heaven, like I never wanted to let go.
“She’s going to ask to touch them all the time now,” Mason grumbled.
“She’s very gentle.” Cassius winked at me. I knew he was trying to make Mason irritated, which proved true when Mason gripped one of the feathers with one hand and smacked Cassius with the other.
I gasped.
Was that allowed?
Hitting an archangel?
Hitting Cassius? Basically, the king of the entire immortal race?
Cassius simply smirked and then nodded. “Now. That’s settled. Let’s go.”
“Wait!” I said in a panicked voice. “Do I have to do anything?”
Both of them stared at me like I was an idiot.
I glared. “You know, like hold my breath… close my eyes…”
“It will be seconds,” Cassius said gently, “Just enjoy the ride.” He looked over to Mason and grinned widely. “I know I will.”
“That’s enough.” Mason growled as Cassius’ laughter filled the room, his eyes completely white as his wings curved around us.
And just like that.
I was weightless.
MASON
All too soon, we were in Edinburgh near the castle. Cassius landed between one of the least popular closes of the Royal Mile. My blood boiled as memories haunted me, of the sick that used to roam the streets, the plague that went underground for so long, the people living on top of people. The sheer disgust of the city, the rank disease that ran through it, years of no sunlight for some humans only to die in the dark alone without ever feeling the sun’s heat on their faces.
I turned my head to Serenity.
She saw the city with eyes that were new. Like a tourist, it seemed she wanted to take everything in, bad enough that the minute her eyes landed on a tartan, she started moving.
I jerked her backward and shook my head.
Cassius’ wings were tucked away as the three of us walked into the sunlight in the street.