across his skin. And he remembered the visitation.
Waiting out the sunset, he stood alone on the shore and let the water kiss his bare feet. He closed his eyes and spread his arms and allowed his wings to burst out from the scars on his shoulders. They billowed behind him, bobbing in the wind and giving him a weightlessness that provided some momentary peace. He could see how bright they were in their reflection on the water, how huge and fierce they made him look.
Sometimes, when Daniel was at his most inconsolable, he refused to let his wings out. It was a punishment he could administer to himself. The deep relief, the palpable, incredible sense of freedom that unfurling his wings gave to his soul only felt false, like a drug. Tonight he allowed himself that rush.
He bent his knees to the sand and kicked off into the air.
A few feet above the surface of the water, he quickly rolled around so that his back was to the ocean, his wings spread beneath him like a magnificent shimmering raft.
He skimmed the surface, stretching out his muscles with each long beat of his wings, sliding along the waves until the water changed from turquoise to icy blue. Then he plunged down under the surface. His wings were warm where the ocean was cool, creating a small wake of violet to encircle him.
Daniel loved to swim. The chill of the water, the unpredictable beat of the current, the synchronicity of the ocean with the moon. It was one of a few earthly pleasures he truly understood. Most of all, he loved to swim with Lucinda.
With every stroke of his wings, Daniel imagined Lucinda there with him, sliding gracefully through the water as she had so many times before, basking in the warm shimmery glow.
When the moon was bright in the dark sky and Daniel was somewhere off the coast of Reykjavik, he shot out of the water. Straight up, beating his wings with a ferocity that shook off the cold.
The wind whipped at his sides, drying him in seconds as he sailed higher and higher into the air. He burst through thick gray banks of clouds, then turned back and began to coast under starry Heaven's expanse.
His wings beat freely, deeply, strong with love and terror and thoughts of her, rippling the water underneath him so that it shimmered like diamonds. He picked up tremendous speed as he flew back over the Faroe Islands and across the Irish Sea. He sailed down along St. George's Channel and, finally, back to Helston.
How against his nature to watch the girl he loved show up just to die!
But Daniel had to see beyond this moment and this pain. He had to look toward all the Lucindas who would come after this one sacrifice--and the one whom he pursued, the final Luce, who would end this cursed cycle.
Lucinda's death tonight was the only way the two of them could win, the only way they'd ever have a chance.
By the time he reached the Constance estate, the house was dark and the air was hot and still.
He tucked his wings up close to his body, slowing his descent along the south side of the property. There was the white roof of the gazebo, an aerial view of the gardens. There was the moonlit pebbled path she should have walked along just moments ago, sneaking out of her father's house next door after everyone else was asleep. Her nightgown covered by a long black cloak, her modesty forgotten in her haste to find him. And there--the light in the parlor, the single candelabra that had drawn her to him. The curtains were parted slightly. Enough for Daniel to look in without risk of being seen.
He reached the parlor window on the second floor of the great house and let his wings beat lightly, hovering outside like a spy.
Was she even there? He inhaled slowly, let his wings fill with air, and pressed his face against the glass.
Just Daniel sketching furiously on his pad in the corner. His past self looked exhausted and forlorn. He could remember the feeling exactly--watching the black tick of the clock on the wall, waiting every moment for her to burst through the door. He'd been so stunned when she sneaked up on him, silently, almost from behind the curtain.
He was stunned anew when she did so now.
Her beauty was beyond his most unrealistic expectations that night. Every night. Cheeks flushed with the love