Gates of Rapture (Guardians of Ascension 6)

She moved forward once more until she was now in the absolute present with Leto, still in his bizarre beast-form, crushing the air from her lungs, his weight growing heavier and heavier.

She was still locked into her blue flame power and was still rummaging around within Leto’s soul. She saw the nobility of his character—that his loyalty, until the moment he’d become a spy, had defined him. Breaking that loyalty had caused a cancerous growth in his heart. He no longer felt worthy of life, of what was good in life. He especially didn’t feel worthy of her. She also had the sense that the change he underwent with increasing frequency was permanent.

As she released Leto’s soul, she returned to her reality and Leto’s beautiful weight on her. She hated this war and what it did to fine, worthy ascenders, how Thorne had lived in pain for centuries, increasing when her twin sister, Patience, was taken; how a decent man like Leto had been turned into something almost unrecognizable.

Now she had returned to participate in the war in a way she had never imagined doing before. She was obsidian flame and had an opportunity to change the future.

Struggling to take her next breath, she knew the time had come to leave this dark place beneath the earth, to get some distance from Leto and chart the course she had set for herself.

Leto, you’re very heavy. Can you move, please?

She gave him another push back with her shoulders and when he still didn’t budge or respond to her telepathy, she simply folded from underneath him, hoping that his wings would lie flat afterward.

She materialized beside the mattress. The soft light blue linen sheets hung over the sides and spread out like a lake on the dark gray stone of the floor.

She gasped. She had never seen Leto’s wings so close before. She took a step forward, careful not to step on either the mesh superstructure that held the feathers in place or the feathers themselves. She had forgotten how beautiful Leto’s wings were; upper and lower wings essentially created four panels. The feathers were a deep blue like sapphires.

He was so beautiful, even in his beast-form. She felt an almost overwhelming need to stretch out beside him and offer him what comfort she could.

Right now, however, what she needed was time to think about what coming back to Mortal Earth would mean for her in the coming days. She thought the thought, and folded to the bottom floor of Leto’s cabin. A quick search through his home brought her to his expansive bathroom on the second floor and the sight of what she wanted now more than anything. A shower.

* * *

Endelle wasn’t alone in her office, but she might as well have been; at least that’s the way she felt. Thorne stood across the room by the east-facing windows, his back to her, talking quietly into his phone to his woman, his breh, Marguerite. Every once in a while, he’d laugh. Despite the passage of five months when Thorne had bonded with Marguerite, Endelle still had a rock in her chest that she couldn’t seem to get rid of. The rock was Thorne-shaped. He had a new life now with his breh and as the Supreme High Commander of the Allied Ascender Forces, but that didn’t change how much she missed him.

Thorne had been her right hand all these centuries, but he’d split from her and now lived his own life. She understood and respected that he had a new role to play. She just hadn’t realized how much she had relied on him or how important he’d been to her.

She’d get over it, of course. But today was one of those days. She had a nasty gut feeling about the war, that something bad was on the wind. In former times, she’d have had a sit-down with Thorne; they’d talk it over, then strategize.

Now? He had other duties, important ones, like building her army.

He was powerful as hell now and actually served as part of the obsidian flame triad, not as a significant player but as the anchor. Between that, and adding to her massive Militia Warrior forces daily, he sure as hell didn’t have time to soothe her shitty loneliness.

She rubbed the back of her neck, which reminded her of the other glorious part of her life right now, that she had permanent scars back there, also something she couldn’t get rid of. That Sixth bastard, Braulio, had put them there, but she still didn’t know what they were for or what he’d really done to her. She only knew she often woke up sweaty and nauseated and ready to do battle with anyone and anything.

Jesus H. Christ. Too much shit in her life.

She sat at her desk in her office, leaning back in her tall chair, her head pressed against the Appaloosa horsehide that hung over the back. With her elbows on the arms of the chair, she formed a steeple with her hands and tapped her fingertips together.

Her gaze shifted past Thorne. The windows had been replaced since her last freak-out when she was sure Thorne was dead. She’d gone full-out, batshit crazy and demanded that James, another real Sixth Earth piece of work, get his ass down to her office on Second, bring healers with him, and restore Thorne’s life. Hell, she’d threatened to destroy the planet if he hadn’t.

So James had come, with the Sixth healers, and brought Thorne back.

And there Thorne stood, a changed man, his back to her, his Droid Ascender pressed to his ear. Marguerite was pregnant with twins, and he was playing the concerned husband role like he’d been born to it. God, staring at him was like looking at an amputated leg, the portion that had been removed. She kept wanting to reach for Thorne and reattach him somehow.

“So how are you doing?”

Endelle flipped around in her chair to find that Alison had just folded into her office. “How the hell did you sneak in here without my knowing and why the hell are you grinning like that?”

“I have news.”

Endelle waited to hear what it was. But Alison didn’t say a word, she just kept grinning like someone was tickling her ass-crack.

“Okay, I am so not in the mood for any f**king games.”

Alison lifted a brow then turned slowly around until Endelle had a perfect view of her bare back and what looked like wing-locks.

“Holy shit.” She rose up from her chair and looked closer. “Alison, don’t be shitting me. Does this mean you f**king got your wings?”

Alison turned back around, her expression euphoric. “Yes, Madame Endelle, I so f**king did. I woke up this morning, felt a little strange, then a vibration flowed through me like an electric current. The impulse to mount my wings was almost overwhelming. As soon as I told Kerrick what was going on, he folded me to the back lawn and I let them fly. I still can’t believe it.”

Neither could Endelle. Despite the fact that Alison was only recently ascended from Mortal Earth, Endelle had always known that Alison would mount her wings early. Anyone with that much power wouldn’t wait decades to take to the skies.