“Mal.”
“Romero gave me a proposition.” He switched the subject, running his fingers through my hair.
“What kind of proposition?”
“The alliance kind.”
I placed a light kiss on his cheek. “Is that something you want?”
“Its not a want. More a necessary stepping stone.”
“Then do it,” I replied offhandedly.
He didn’t say anything else. With one arm holding me close, he rolled so we were on our sides. facing each other.
“Thank you,” I heard him say as I was dozing off.
I didn’t know what he had to thank me for. I was the one who should’ve been thanking him—for never giving up on me and remaining my best friend.
Epilogue One
Someone was touching me.
It wasn’t Samael.
The fingers were too dainty and soft.
“Thought you said no one in their right mind would walk in here without knocking?” His deep voice came from beside me.
I peeled my eyes open and immediately squinted. Long snow-blonde hair and cornflower blue eyes, skin as pale as a moon. Clearly, I was looking at an angel.
She laughed and waved a hand in front of my face.
“Most people refer to me as the devil’s spawn. I like your first impression better. It compliments my beauty.”
“Bella?”
“Guess it’s time to wake up.” Samael sat up beside me, carelessly allowing the comforter to fall away as he climbed out of bed.
“Malum! What is wrong with you?” Bella shrieked, covering her eyes.
I shook my head as his toned, bare ass vanished into the bathroom. As the door clicked, so did something else.
“Did you just call him Malum?”
She turned and looked at me, then hurriedly glanced away, shielding her eyes. “Can you please cover those?”
I glanced down, laughing at sight of my naked chest. “You’re the one who rushed in here guns blazing.”
“You think this is guns blazing? You ain’t seen nothing.”
She hopped away like a rabbit and headed for the door. “Hurry and get dressed. We need to be at your mama’s, and you’ve got a lot to tell me.”
I sat up and hugged my knees to my chest once she was gone. Our whole interaction just went down as if I hadn’t been gone for any time at all. It was weird. Of all people I expected her to the angriest, but she was just…Bella.
I spotted them when I came out the bathroom, fresh from a shower.
It was enough of a surprise to stop me dead in my tracks.
“Where the hell does he get these?” I wandered over to the dresser to take a closer look.
“I asked my uncle where to find some yesterday.”
I slightly jumped at the sound of his voice. I hadn’t seen him standing in the doorway, too distracted by the sight of my flowers. It felt like forever since I’d gotten these, and at one point I thought I never would again.
I was such an idiot.
Who would give up a man like him?
“I’ve always liked them,” I admitted.
He walked over to stand beside me, his mint scent assaulting my sense of smell.
“Is that why you just sounded sad?”
“No, that was because we wasted so much time being stupid.”
“You did that.”
I whipped my head around and glared at him.
“I was joking.” He raised his hands up in mock self-defense and laughed. “We didn’t waste time, Lils. We’re still young. This shit wouldn’t have worked any better if it were easier.”
“So, you’re saying you would do this all over again?”
“You wouldn’t?”
Would I?
I was nothing more than a naïve girl when I made a promise to a beautiful boy with a tragic smile. He’d grown so much since then. Jaded. Unhinged. So had the darkness within him. But he was so fucking incredible in my eyes. If I had to do this all over again, knowing what I did now, I’d still choose to run away with him.
I only wished I could fill the void he had inside him and make everything better. Things didn’t work that way, though.
If all it took were wishes to alter the lives we lived, no one would ever have to go through anything bad. The only one who could heal Samael was himself. I would still be here, reminding him he didn’t have to face his struggles on his own.
“I’d do it again. Maybe skip the part where I almost became someone’s livestock, though.”
He grinned and took my hand, weaving our fingers together. “You remember the promise we made?”
“You made me bleed for it. I’ll never forget it.”
“Think you can keep it now?”
“I will,” I affirmed, reciting the words in my head.
For worse or for better. Always fall together, never fall apart.
Oddly, this made me think of a story I read when I was a younger.
Maybe it was being back here that conjured up the tale again. I had an answer to the question now, too.
We were poetry, the kind that bled and wept—a tragically beautiful ode. It didn’t matter how hard we fought or the pain we inevitably caused; we loved harder. Neither of us could be without the other. We couldn’t escape whatever invisible chain kept us bound together.