The Rose Witch - Chandelle LaVaun Page 0,38
on fire and I knew I needed to breathe. In that moment, that initial version of him that I’d been afraid of vanished from my memory. Sure, Malachi was deadly. Lethal. But he was tender and kind…and I liked this version of him more than I had any right to.
He was an angel.
I was human. Sure, I was arcana, a witch, but I was mortal. I needed to put a stop to this feeling brewing inside of me before I destroyed myself and my heart. I’d only just met him and the intensity was dangerous. Nothing could ever work between us.
“I’m sorry I ran away from you,” I whispered while twirling my hair around my finger.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” he whispered back.
The question I needed to know but had no right asking burned on my tongue. I needed to just ask it, to get it out of the way. “Do you have a soulmate?”
He frowned and cocked his head to the side. “Why would you ask that?”
“The lines…on your body…they look like Tegan’s soulmate glyph.”
“Ahh…all of Heaven’s angels have these lines…” the dark golden lines appeared on his bare chest and arms. “It is our divine connection to Heaven and the Creator. Not all souls have soulmates, and I’m not quite allowed to get into the reasons of why. But for those that do, the soulmate glyph is a visual representation of that connection to both each other and Heaven, which is why it looks similar. Each of Earth’s species has a different version of their glyph, but witches are most similar to angels because they came from us.”
Silence.
“But do you have one?” It was killing me. I had to know.
“No.” He grinned and tapped on his chest. “If I did, there would be a heart-shaped crystal on my chest and the back of my right hand. As you can see, I have neither.”
The relief I felt was so intense I actually swayed on my feet.
I am so screwed.
It’s just a crush, Chloe.
Get ahold of yourself.
My cheeks burned so I knew was blushing yet again. We needed to change the subject. Fast. I looked over my right shoulder at his book floating in the air, but the second I did, golden light spilled from within the pages. Dark objects shot up and began to swirl.
Malachi pressed his finger under my chin and turned my face back to his. He shook his head. “Your magic is strong, I do not recommend looking in my books. You may not like what you see.”
I swallowed and nodded. I pressed my hand to my chest and felt the energy radiating within my pendant - Lilith’s pendant – and the whole reason for why we were even here rushed back to me. “Does it say how to get this off of me?”
He opened his mouth, then shut it and shrugged. “I’ve found something we can try.”
My pulse quickened. “What do you need me to do?”
He smiled. “Just stand there and look pretty.”
Chapter Twelve
Chloe
“Just stand there and look pretty.”
Heat rushed to my face. Just a figure of speech, he doesn’t think you’re pretty.
He walked to stand behind me and then his book floated to him. I felt the heat of his breath sweep across my neck. He reached up and brushed the strands of my hair aside, his fingertips burning a path over my skin. I shivered under his touch and prayed he didn’t notice. Not that he couldn’t hear the pounding of my heart or see my pulse ticking in my throat. I held my hands together to try and hide their trembling.
“Do you mind if— I need to unfasten your dress at the neck so I can get to the lock. Is that…is that all right?”
I nodded. Part of me wanted to laugh at how much of a gentleman he was when I’d thought he was a literal incubus…but as he unbuttoned my dress and the front pieces slid down, all the humor in me vanished.
I heard pages flipping and bright golden light shined over my shoulders. His fingers gripped the lock on the necklace at the back of my neck and then he chanted in a strange language. I took a deep breath — sharp pain shot right into my spine.
It cracked and burned like being struck by lightning. My feet were swept out from under me and I fell back, crashing into his chest. He reached out and caught me in the cradle of his arms just as my feet stepped