Tanner had followed her. He stared at her with eyes that seemed so empty. Cold. Not like Tanner. Not like him at all.
“Wings don’t grow back.” She shook her head. The words tumbled from her as she said, “Not after a fall. All the angels know—”
“You didn’t fall.” Said simply. Sadly. “A shifter tried to force you to earth. He hurt you. But now, you’re healing.”
Healing. The breath in her lungs seemed to burn. Her gaze lifted and locked on his. “You did this.”
Tanner shook his head.
She grabbed his hands. She was still naked. So what? He’d seen her naked plenty of times and would do so again. “You did this,” she said again as the puzzle pieces slipped into place. When her scars had been itching, she’d been healing. Because he’d healed her. “When you brought me back . . .” Maybe even when he’d kissed her scars that first time? Was it possible? It must be. “You healed my wounds.” All of them. He’d given her his power, and he’d healed the flesh that had been clawed open—and the wings that had been savaged.
He’d given an angel back her wings.
Marna laughed and threw her arms around Tanner.
But he didn’t hug her back. Didn’t so much as move. A chill skated down her spine. “Tanner?” She pulled back to look at him. “What’s wrong?”
His smile was bittersweet. “I’ll miss you.”
But she wasn’t—
A wind swept through the house, ripping through the bedroom and rushing into the bathroom. The wind grabbed at Marna and pulled at her body. She waved her hands as she conjured clothes and tried to fight the force of the wind.
It was pulling her away from Tanner.
The wind felt like hands on her skin. Not rough. But steady, strong.
Tanner watched her. The wind tossed his hair, but didn’t move him.
Then Marna was back in the bedroom. The big window was wide open, letting in that rush of wind, and the angel that came in with wings of white.
Carmella.
Marna recognized the angel instantly. How could she not know her? Carmella—with her light brown skin and jet-black hair that trailed down her back—was the leader of the guardian angels. She’d been protecting mortals for as long as death angels like Sammael and Bastion had been taking their souls.
“It’s time to come home with me,” Carmella told her, the angel’s voice soft, almost sweet. She lifted her hand. “We’ve been hoping you would join us.”
Marna shook her head. “I’m . . . not a guardian.”
“You are now.” Carmella’s gaze drifted over Marna’s shoulder. To Tanner. “Your fate changed.”
And she understood. He’d changed her fate. An angel’s wings weren’t supposed to grow back, but Tanner . . . he wasn’t just a shifter.
Healer.
She turned away from Carmella and walked to stand right in front of Tanner. She could feel the small growth of wings now. Not itching so much anymore, not since the wings had broken through the skin. “You really did this.” With that light of his. When he’d healed her other wounds, he’d given her back her wings, too.
But it was Carmella who spoke. “Your wings didn’t burn away, Marna,” the guardian told her. Carmella’s voice was so easy and gentle, but without any emotion. “The burn is forever, but your injuries . . . even if your shifter hadn’t sped up the healing process, your wings would have returned to you eventually.”
Your shifter. “But would they have been black?” And would she have gone back to taking souls?
“You earned the title of guardian,” Carmella told her. “Because of what you did here on earth. You guarded those closest to you.”
Marna stared into Tanner’s eyes, and realized, too late, the words that Sammael had spoken hadn’t been for Tanner. They’d been for her.
Guard what you want the most.
He’d known that the Death Touch hadn’t come back to her because she wasn’t a death angel any longer.
She’d always wanted this. To be close to the humans. To be able to see them while they were happy, alive, and not on the brink of death. But . . .
But she wanted more now. Not just to see emotion. She reached for Tanner’s hand. He was staring down at her, but his gaze was blank.
“It’s time for us to go,” Carmella said.
“Just like that?” Marna whispered. After all the months she’d been down here, now the angel appeared to whisk her away? “Why didn’t you come sooner?” Marna didn’t look away from Tanner. He’d been there the whole time. He’d been the one guarding her.