Grace and Glory (The Harbinger #3) - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,160

the cause.”

Ugh.

He sounded so...so wise, and it was weird and wonderful, but mostly weird.

I swiped at the tears. “Why?”

He seemed to know what I was asking. “Because it was the only way I could have any relationship with you. The only way I could know you.”

The knot swelled in my throat. “And Zayne?” I asked hoarsely. “You made sure he could Fall so he could be with me.”

“It was a small gift I could ensure.”

A small gift? A wet laugh left me. “And the stars? That was you.”

He nodded.

“And you...you are the reason why I’m alive right now.”

“Partly.”

I blinked. “Partly?”

“I had help from a certain human with a new lease on life.”

“The Crone,” I realized.

Michael inclined his head. “The potion she gave you didn’t just bring Zayne to you. It bound you to him. Similar to the Protector bond, but stronger. You carry a part of his essence in you. As long as he lives, you live. You are marked.”

I pressed tingling fingers to my chest, to where the strange scar had taken shape, right where the light that had come from Zayne had hit me. Suddenly I remembered the look Tony had given the Crone when she told me I needed to draw my own blood.

My wide eyes shot to where Michael sat. “I...I didn’t die, then?”

He shook his head. “You were weakened and slipped unconscious while the bond repaired the damage done.”

“But I thought an angel blade could kill anything?”

“The bond between you and Zayne supersedes all.” He paused. “Well, almost everything. If you were decapitated, then...”

I blinked slowly.

“You have his lifespan, Trinity.” Those all-white eyes bore into mine. “You do understand what that means?”

My heart skipped a beat. “I’m... I’m immortal?”

He smiled then, and there was a catch in my chest. There was such familial fondness in the curve of his lips. “You are as immortal as any angelic being is.”

“I won’t...age?”

He shook his head again. “Most angels stop aging once they reach a certain maturity,” he said, which explained why so many of them looked like they were in their late twenties. “But you stopped aging the moment the bond was forged.”

All I could do was stare at him, and I did that for probably several minutes as I tried to work my brain through the fact that I would not grow old and break my hips while Zayne remained young and gloriously broken-bone free. Not aging past nineteen meant I would probably be carded for, like, eternity—

Oh my God, like for an actual eternity. Or until my head was chopped off, Highlander-style, or until Zayne... I wasn’t going to even go there. There were far worse things than never looking older than I did now.

Like dying now or by old age, in Zayne’s arms—“Wait,” I exclaimed, pulling my legs up to my chest to stand. “Do I have two bodies now? The one that was back in that field and this one now?”

A perplexed look settled into Michael’s features. “You have the strangest mind. You don’t have two bodies.”

“Then does Zayne know I’m here?” I asked. “Because I died—or passed out. Whatever. I was with Zayne.”

“You were, but I simply willed you here.”

“You simply willed me here?” I repeated dumbly. “Like I went poof?”

An eyebrow rose. “Yes.”

“Oh my God, Zayne must be really freaking out!”

“Probably.” He said this like it was no big deal. That people poofing out of people’s arms happened every day.

And the fact that he could just will me from one location to another was another mind-boggling fact. “Is that something all archangels can do?” I asked, thinking if that was the case, then why hadn’t Gabriel just willed me to his location?

“You are of my flesh and blood,” he said, and I wished he’d stop saying it that way. “That is why.”

Made as much sense as any of this did. I scrubbed a hand down my face, over my eyes. My eyes. My stomach dropped as I lowered my hand. I was almost afraid to ask, but I had to know. “Will my eyes continue to get worse?”

“Would it change anything if they did?” he asked. “If you’d known that the bond meant an eternity of darkness for you?”

“No.” I didn’t even need to think about that. “Being blind isn’t worse than death. Having this gift of life—of a life longer than I can even comprehend—with Zayne is so much more than being able to see. I can learn to live without my vision.” And Zayne would be there to help