She stared up when she reached him. He didn’t step over the velvet rope, standing sentry instead, face impassive.
His breath was wind rustling her bangs, chilling her skin.
“It does not belong to you,” he said with a slight incline of his head. She looked at the ring circling her thumb.
“He asked me to keep the ring for him,” she said. People glanced at her curiously, bestowing polite smiles since she was an aspirant.
“Do not hold what does not belong to you.”
The urge to tell him to mind his own business spiked through her, but she held her tongue. As she passed, a phantom wing beat the air directly in front of her and she strode through an icy mist that dampened her skin. She gasped for breath and pushed her way inside.
The ES security officer blinked. “Is it raining?” he asked.
She shook her head, handing him her invitation before she hurried to the bathroom to dab the moisture off her skin. Fortunately, her makeup wasn’t terribly smeared and the damp evaporated quickly as she stood beneath the vents blowing heat.
Who—and what—the hell was that?
She looked at the ring, bending her thumb against her palm, pressing the ring tight to her skin. She wondered if the ice angel had meant something other than the ring when he’d told her to let go of what didn’t belong to her. She scowled. It wasn’t as if she’d tried to sink claws into Nathaniel. On the other hand, she didn’t intend to just pass him his ring and walk away. She wanted to help him, and if she was being honest, she wanted to be near him again. At moments, the way she craved him overwhelmed her.
Kate took a deep breath, pulled her shoulders back, and exited the bathroom, wishing she had a way to reach Nathaniel. What if he didn’t return for days? Nothing drove her crazier than waiting.
Crossing the prism-patterned sapphire and periwinkle carpet, she’d nearly reached the ballroom doors when she heard birds chirping. She turned, and a pair of lime-colored lovebirds with salmon pink faces flew into the stairwell just before its door whooshed closed. Impossibly, she still heard tweeting.
Frosted angels at the door and chirping lovebirds in the lobby that no one seems to see except me? Surreptitiously, she pinched her arm. The sharp pain sobered her. Okay then, Alice, go down the rabbit hole. Or up, as the case may be.
Kate strode to the stairs, dragged the heavy door open, and ascended.
On the roof, snow-dusted wire topiary skeletons of mythical creatures stood next to planters filled with rock crystal and alabaster. A winter garden, she mused. She pulled her wrap tighter, her breath smoky on the cold air.
“One of these things doesn’t belong. Which one?” she whispered the childhood singsong, spotting another enormous angel. Formed from golden light that shone outward, he wore a buff-colored loincloth and a gold ring around his neck. Skill had apparently not been spared when forming the angels, but despite the aggressive musculature, he carried no armor or weapons and his tousled hair flowed carelessly.
“Hello, Kate,” he said as the lovebirds flew past and landed on the head of a bear topiary.
She approached him. “If you’re about to bark out some orders or recriminations, you can save your breath.”
He smiled. “Not recriminations. Advice.”
She raised her brows.
“Destroy the ring now, and when you see him, don’t allow yourself to hesitate. Let instinct guide you.”
“Who are you?” she asked, unable to move away from his glowing warmth.
“Don’t waste time on things that are of no consequence to you, Kate. Ask important questions as your education and experience would dictate.”
“Why should I destroy Nathaniel’s ring?”
“That ring was forged in the flesh of a future angel. Gadreel flamed the ring and burned Nathaniel with it, leaving a scar that never fades. Hatred bound them together, demon and angel, in an epic battle. When the angel’s wings are fully formed, he will take up the dagger and hunt, the urge irresistible. They track each other through the ring, drawn to the symbol of their malice. Destroy the reminder, and you’ll spare him the memories for that much longer.”
“He doesn’t remember what happened?”
“Not yet. I was given permission to alter the course of his memory’s return.”
“Why? By whom?”
He smiled. “Nathaniel was not born an angel. He was human, and after nineteen hundred years his heart needs more than vengeance. It seeks what it lost. Love. In you, I saw a spirit that suited his. So I showed you to him. When the ring was torn from his finger during their battle and fell to earth, I cast it into your path and let you see it. You took it up and kept it of your own accord. The angel chief of war thinks Nathaniel carelessly let the rain hydrate the blood and soak your skin, that you were bound by an angel’s blood by accident. I say there was nothing accidental about Nathaniel’s distraction. He did not dry the water from his skin before taking the ring and you had it clutched in your hand while you slept for a reason. In anticipation of each other.”
“But he never talked to me. Never introduced himself. It’s been years since that night. If we’re so fated, why did he ignore me all this time?”