Wings of the Wicked - By Courtney Allison Moulton Page 0,128

ever have been prepared to face. We sat in the living room, on separate couches, staring at the filthy carpet in silence. Marcus and Ava had left. Our clothes were torn and bloody, and the first floor of the house was all but completely destroyed. Nathaniel was dead. The Demon Queen and the Fallen angel of death were now running rampant in the human world. Bastian claimed that Will’s mother still lived, that she was somewhere out there in the world as a relic guardian. Will had seen Cadan kill his father before his eyes and was unsure if he should have interfered instead of letting Cadan do it. For so long, Will had believed that he had no family, that all he had was me. But now everything had changed. And now I held the secret that Cadan was Will’s half-brother, a secret that ate at me from the inside out.

Dawn was creeping over the horizon, casting a glow through the broken windows and breaches in the walls. And finally, after what seemed like a thousand years of sitting in complete silence, Will rose to his feet. He moved past where I sat, looking straight ahead, his body rigid from head to toe. I got up to follow him, keeping a tentative distance.

I followed him out to the deck, where he moved to the edge and stared out onto the destroyed lawn. I was freezing from the icy air and the cold ache in my heart. He descended the stairs slowly, heavily, and headed to where Nathaniel had fallen. He paused there and stared down at the ground. I eased close to him with caution, watching him. His arms hung at his sides and his fists rolled into tight balls, the skin stretching white over his knuckles as his wings grew and slipped through the tears in his shirt. They expanded unhurriedly, solemnly, and the light of the dawn cast a golden glow across the pearlescent feathers. At his feet were Nathaniel’s remains.

“Will,” I whispered, stepping in front of him. “Say something.”

The silence between us was like a void sucking at my brain. He stood there, a statue in the dawn light, his face hardened like the stone Nathaniel had become. I reached for him, a little afraid that he might crumble if I touched him.

“I’m so sorry, Will,” I breathed.

He stared down at me, the green of his eyes dulled to a barren gray, and his lips tightened as if he wanted to say something but refused. His wings stretched away from me and folded to his back. I slid my hands around his head and through his hair, stood on my tiptoes, and kissed his cheek. He exhaled but stayed so stiff that I thought he’d shatter any moment. I kissed his lips, stifling a cry, and his shoulders sagged as a tear ran down his cheek.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, and kissed him again.

My hands slid down his neck and chest and up his back, his feathers brushing my skin. I rested my cheek against his chest. He moved at last, leaning over me and wrapping his arms around me. He buried his face in my hair at the bend of my neck and squeezed me tight.

I pulled away and he looked into my face sadly, his arms lingering around me. “You need to rest,” I told him. “Get some sleep.”

He shook his head heavily. “I can’t. Not now.”

“You will once you lie down.” I took his hand and led him back into the house. We stepped through the wreckage and went up what was left of the stairs to his room. The second floor was basically untouched and appeared almost as if nothing had happened at all. In Will’s bedroom, the morning light began to stream through the blinds, making the room feel a little warmer than it was.

I shut the door behind us and turned to him. I pushed his shredded shirt up and over his head. His eyes were glued to mine. His skin was pale from exhaustion and lack of food, making the tattoos covering his right arm, shoulder, and neck contrast even more violently. I turned to drop his shirt on the floor behind me, but when I turned back, he wrapped an arm around my waist and opened his mouth against mine, kissing me much differently than I had kissed him minutes ago outside. He pulled me to his bare chest and his kiss was deep and hot, sending a