“If only I could,” he murmurs, “but I can’t.” He takes the hat from my head. My hair falls and frames my face. His hand finds its way to the nape of my neck. His fingers thread through my hair. He leans down and whispers in my ear, “Reed is here. Tau insists that he remain alive for now; so do not make me kill him. Go to your room and wait for me.” He kisses my cheek and lets me go.
I walk through the door he holds open for me. Tens of thousands of angels reside here ready to do whatever Xavier tells them. It would only take them minutes to kill Reed. I shrug out of my white coat and hand it to Xavier. He gives it to a Power who has come to attend us. It occurs to me that I’m a lethal woman. I could kill them all. I glance at Xavier. I don’t want to hurt him. I love him, even if he acts jealous and arrogant. And we need his cooperation and his army in order to defeat Emil. I’ll have to be smart and use my head instead of force—or, in this case, magic and genetics.
Xavier looks away from me. He begins speaking in Angel to the Power by his side. I don’t know what he’s saying exactly, but I can guess it something like, “She’s to go directly to our suite. Follow her and report to me if she leaves or has any visitors.” I frown at them, but they ignore me.
I turn away from them. I take a few steps and lift off into the air, flying in the direction of my room. When I’m out of their view for a moment, I duck behind a massive column. Creating a clone, I release her to continue on in the direction of my room. I whisper a hasty spell to make myself invisible. My Power bodyguard passes me, following my clone. Hopefully she can make it to my room and through the door before he gets there, or my ruse won’t work for very long. I peek around the column and see Xavier flying in the opposite direction. I follow him, avoiding angels who nearly collide with me. I may be invisible, but I’m solid, so if they bump into me, they’re going to realize something is wrong.
I almost lose Xavier in a crowd, but I manage to locate him near the entrance of a tunnel. It really doesn’t matter anymore though, because butterflies are careening inside of me, begging me to follow them to Reed. Xavier turns down a corridor that has images of Heaven carved into the very walls. When he enters the room at he end of it, I have to cover my mouth and hold my breath to keep from gasping. It’s a huge round room carved from the gray rock of the mountain. An X-shaped cutout bisects the floor and ceiling in a crisscross pattern. As I look up, the cutout goes clear up for several stories to the moonlight and stars far above my head. When I look down over the cutouts in the floor, the drop goes on so far I cannot see its end for the darkness below. White recessed lighting glows almost blue, causing everything to have a soft, ethereal glow.
Tau stands on the other side of the abyss with Reed. They’re both dressed in black long-sleeved shirts and black utilitarian trousers. They look like human assassins without their wings out, but still very much like they’re ready to kill something. Tau’s attention is on Xavier, with his hands behind his back and chin up, he has perfect military form. Reed has a similar stance, but his eyes are not on Xavier, he’s looking at the door behind us. He feels me. He’s waiting for me to come through the door.
Xavier flies over the abyss in front of him, speaking to Tau in Angel. Reed doesn’t look at them. He keeps watching the door. An argument quickly breaks out between Xavier and Tau. I’ve rarely seen either of them in anything but full agreement with one another. The last time they argued in front of me was in high school and it was about me—about the amount of time Xavier had been spending with me and not with his friends. It was the time Tau had walked in on us in Xavier’s room and we were doing a little more than just talking, of course, he was Drew then. I don’t know what they’re fighting about now, but I can guess it’s about me again.
As quietly as possible, I fly over the cavern in the floor. Nearing Reed, I watch his pupils dilate when he picks up my scent. His nostrils flare. He doesn’t move an inch otherwise. I circle behind him. My first touch is to his sides as I slip my arms between his arms and wrap them around his waist. He stops breathing for just a second, but it is a testament to his control that he doesn’t flinch. I press my cheek to his back for a moment as I hug him and breathe him in. The riot of butterflies inside of me is chaos. I want to tear his shirt from him and feel his skin against mine.
I distinctly hear Xavier say the name “Atwater” during his Angel tirade. Tau is calmer than Xavier, but not by much. Xavier turns away from Tau. He strides to the hole in the floor, leaping over it to the other side without even having to fly. Tau calls to him, saying something more. I splay my invisible hands over Reed’s chest, holding him as I hide behind him at the same time. Xavier leaves the same way he came in. Tau follows him, jumping the huge X in the floor. He says something over his shoulder to Reed before he leaves the room as well.
“Are they gone?” I whisper.