A Flight of Souls
Page 54

I fought furiously to pile good thoughts into my brain, one after the other, in spite of how little conviction I held. It was all I could do to keep myself from allowing depression to swallow me whole. But it was hard to light a fire in the rain. No matter how many pep talks I gave myself, my mind tossed them aside like trash, endowing my fears with free rein to once again rip through my tattered heart.
A warm glimmer in the water caused me to focus my vision. I stared down at it, and before I could turn around to discover its source, I felt something—someone—touch me. Arms slid around my waist. Then a kiss brushed my cheek. Twisting around, I found myself face to face with a beautiful, ethereal form I could only think to describe as an angel. An angel who was Ben.
I could hardly breathe, much less speak as Ben clutched me against him and stood me up. His dark brows knotted in a frown, his vivid green eyes intense as he examined my face. He trailed his gaze slowly from my forehead, to my eyes, to my nose, and my lips, as though he were cherishing every feature. His hands traveled up my back and rested at the back of my head before he leaned in and claimed my lips in a slow, tender kiss. My skin tingled at his touch. I kissed him more passionately, my own hands roaming him, relishing the contours of his body.
So lost was I in him, I couldn’t bring myself to part our lips for even a moment to ask him how and why he was here. All I wanted in that moment was to be as close to him as I could possibly be.
Too soon, his lips unclasped from mine and he stared deep into my eyes. Beneath his gaze, I felt that I was melting into him.
“Ben,” I managed. “You’re… an angel?”
At this, a small smile crossed his lips. His dimples reminded me why I had missed that smile so much.
“I’m more like… a fairy, actually.” His smile broadened, and it was infectious. I found my own lips curving.
“What?” I asked, my fingers tracing his jaw as I squinted, taking in his gorgeous face even more closely.
“How about I show you?”
His hands slid down my body, and the next thing I knew, he was scooping me up in his arms. My heart skipped a beat as he lifted us up in the air. The ground disappeared beneath us as we rose higher and higher into the dark sky, so high that the island stretched out beneath us in all its glory: the swaying sea of redwood trees, the regal mountains, the sparkling lakes, the lush meadows… but I could barely take in its beauty, for I was too enchanted by Ben, a far more beautiful sight to me.
As high as we were now, my heart was higher. It was up in space, turning somersaults in orbit. Closing the distance between our lips again, I whispered, “I love you, Ben. To the stars and back.”
His right hand loosened from its spot beneath my knees, and he guided me into an upright position. My arms wrapped tightly around his neck, his own arms engulfed my waist, keeping me flush against him, like we had been while still standing on the ground. Lost in his eyes, I soon forgot that we were hovering who knew how many feet above the ground. I’d never felt safer than in Ben’s strong grasp. Never more secure. Never more at home.
“I love you to the moon,” he whispered back, tasting my lips. “There was barely an hour that passed when I didn’t think of you… You’ll never know how hard it was to be so close to you, yet unable to touch you. To only be capable of reaching you in dreams.”
I closed my eyes, remembering my own pain.
His lips caressed the side of my face and then moved down to my neck before creeping up to my ear. I felt his Adam’s apple move as he gulped. “And I… if I could find a way to keep this body forever… God knows, I would ask you to marry me right now.”
His words left me winded. They sent my emotions into a tailspin. I barely even knew what to feel in that moment. The thought that he was proposing was a shot of ecstasy to my brain, but then a surge of fear washed over it. What does he mean, if he could find a way to keep his body forever?
“What?” I breathed, staring into his eyes.
Ben’s gaze was more intense than ever as he began, “This body is that of a fae. I don’t even know much about fae myself other than that they are elemental creatures who inhabit the ether in between portals, and their constitution is similar to jinn; they can switch between subtle and physical forms. But I don’t have this body forever… yet. It is on loan from another fae, and I have less than three days to meet his demands before I am stripped of it again.”
“What?” I stammered again.
As he went on to explain all that had happened to him since he left the oracle’s cave, I could hardly believe my ears. My head was spinning as I absorbed his words. How were we ever going to pull this off?
Then, slowly, my worry gave way to the other thing he’d said to me. “And you… you just asked me to marry you.”
I’d never even thought that I would consider marriage at my age. Heck, it wasn’t all that long ago that I had never even had a real boyfriend. But then circumstances had caused Ben’s and my life to entangle and, although I still hadn’t even been close to considering it, now that he’d mentioned it, exchanging vows seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
Ben tucked a stray strand of my hair behind my ear as he gazed down at me, emotion burning behind his green eyes. “I said I would, if I knew that I could keep this body forever.”
“And… what if I said that I don’t care?”
He furrowed his brows. “What?”
“Whether or not you manage to meet the fae’s demand, I don’t care.”