Wings of the Wicked
Page 105

“You, too,” he said politely. “She’s told me great things about you.”
She smiled. “Forgive my excitement. I’ve heard about you my entire life—you and Ellie, or rather her previous incarnations. It’s taken quite a while for me to get used to the knowledge that my beautiful granddaughter is the vessel of Gabriel. But Frank Meyer knew her as soon as he saw her.”
Will nodded and his lips tightened. “Frank was a great man and a good friend.”
Nana’s expression grew serious. “I’m sorry he didn’t have a way of contacting you sooner to tell you he’d found her. No one knew where you were. We all know you exist, but so few of us had ever seen you. You had been searching for her for a long time, from what I’d heard.”
He swallowed. “Yes.”
I watched him carefully, fully aware of what a difficult subject my absence was for him. My grandmother perhaps had an idea, but she didn’t understand how much it truly hurt him. “But Will did find me. He always finds me.” I squeezed his hand. After a moment, his fingers closed tighter around mine.
She studied his face carefully, her eyes flickering to our enclosed hands. “You love her.”
Something closed around my heart as he nodded. “I do,” he said.
“Then you’ll do anything you can to protect her.”
He lifted his chin. “I always have.”
She smiled and nodded, her fierce gaze softening in an instant. “I have so many questions to ask you, but I’ll save them for another time. You have places to be tonight.”
I began to turn to leave the parlor with Will. “I’ll see you when I get back.”
“See you then,” Nana said. “It was wonderful meeting you, Will.”
“Have a nice evening,” he said in return with a nod.
We headed out to my car and drove away. Of course, I realized that Kate’s “small thing” plan was a trick as soon as we entered her basement and all of my friends jumped out of hiding places to surprise me and welcome me back with warm, open arms. I cried as I hugged everyone, so overwhelmed by the love in the room and by how much I had missed them. Why was I ever scared of facing them again? My friends never judged me, never condemned me for abandoning them.
I passed on the alcohol, letting Kate know that I was going home after this to sleep and to get up early and do more makeup work. Sweetly, she gave me a smile and a kiss on the cheek, fully understanding. Marcus surprised me by showing up, the scars on his neck and jaw plainly visible around the collar of his sweater. He and Kate were something like official now, and I was okay with it. Will was good to me; Nathaniel had been good to Lauren. There was no reason why Marcus and Kate couldn’t make it work in their own way. The only difference was that Kate didn’t know Marcus wasn’t human, and I wasn’t sure when—or if—he would ever reveal his true nature to her. But that was their business, and I would leave it to them. He was sweet and affectionate with her, and more polite to me than he had reason to be.
With a drink in one hand, he wrapped his other around mine, pulling my fingers to his lips for a gracious kiss. “May I borrow her?” he asked Will.
Will gave me a small smile before narrowing his gaze sidelong at Marcus. “Just bring her back and don’t put that mouth of yours anywhere else.”
I tried not to laugh when Marcus winked at Will before leading me away into a quiet corner. Although “quiet” was relative, since Kate’s basement had Chris’s DJ talents making the walls shake. How her parents even slept at night was beyond me.
Marcus leaned against the wall and grinned at me. “Hello, beautiful. How are you?”
I couldn’t help but smile back up at him. “All right. Surviving. Living.”
“How is your Will?”
My Will. They always called him my Will. I glanced over to where Kate was talking to him, and he actually appeared to be engaged in the conversation. I couldn’t hear what they were saying over the music and twenty or so other voices, but at last he seemed comfortable talking to her. I didn’t think they’d spoken more than two words to each other since the night up at State, but they seemed okay now. “He’s better,” I said. “It’s been especially hard for him. Losing Nathaniel and all.”
“And all… ?” His brow flicked curiously.
“How much do you know about what happened that night?” I asked. “Do you know about Bastian?”
Marcus shrugged. “Will told me Cadan finished Bastian off, but that was it. I’m a little surprised, to be honest. I didn’t think he was that powerful.”
“Will didn’t tell you anything else?” I asked, biting my lip.
“No. Why?”
I swallowed hard. “Bastian said that Will is his son.”
Marcus blinked in surprise but shook it off. “That can’t be true.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t think he was lying, and neither does Will. But we won’t ever know for sure. He also said that Will’s mother, Madeleine, is alive.”
Marcus let out a long breath. “Intense.”
“There’s more,” I said hesitantly, hushing my voice. “Cadan is also Bastian’s son.”
He gaped at me. “They’re brothers?”
“Half,” I corrected. “Madeleine was—is—angelic. Cadan’s mother must have been demonic. I haven’t used angelfire against him, but I saw the way the sun burned him once. I’m certain Cadan’s demonic, like Bastian.”