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It had been a long time since Molly had felt the delicate stirrings of hope. Oh, her stomach had seen no shortage of butterflies and rocks depending on the occasion, but hope?
Hope had always been for the lucky ones, not her, so when Brass looked at her with a twinkle in his eye instead of the pained wince she’d been used to seeing lately, she wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Or the palm-sized velvet box he held out to her.
Molly’s breath hitched. “If that’s?—”
“It’s not. At least, not yet,” he said with a boyish smirk.
And boy, did that stir up some feelings she’d been trying to ignore because velvet boxes usually meant rings. Rings usually meant copious usage of a certain four-letter word that neither of them had mentioned or even discussed yet. Soul bonds, sure. The deed had been done on that front, and with her help, Brass had gotten his powers back. But jewelry contingent upon emotional attachment to a cursed fallen angel who was about to face down an immortal witch goddess and possibly lose his soul?
She’d had Thanksgiving grocery lists with fewer things to sort through.
Brass broke through her spiraling thoughts. “It’s something I want you to have. Open it. Please.”
Slowly, as if the thing were about to bite her, Molly unhinged the rich blue velvet box. Nestled within a powder-blue bed of satin lay a brass sundial highlighted with raised Roman numerals and accented with verdigris and gold. Across the top of the dial, curving around the vertical stick that pointed northward, were three Latin words: Sine Sole Sileo.
There wasn’t a diamond on earth that would have shone more brightly for her than the palm-sized sundial.
“Without sun, I am silent,” Brass translated the inscription. “There isn’t a creature on this planet that is immune from the sun and its charms. Cyro’s demons must hide from it. Ragana’s elements and moon cycles rely on it. It’s the thing that unites humanity and pulls us all under a common umbrella, regardless of motives.”
Then he lifted the sundial from the box and placed it in her hand. “This should remind you that you are so much more than what others have carved out for you. You’re not just an orphan, Molly, or a restaurant owner. You’re not merely a best friend or a soul bond. You’re a woman with boundless humanity and love, and you are not alone.” He paused for a moment, as if choosing his next words carefully. Her heart stopped beating until he spoke again. “Know that, as long as there is a sun in the sky, I will find my way back to you. Always. Whatever happens tonight, I will find you, no matter how long it takes.”
He kissed her swiftly and surely, capturing her shock and any unspoken words she hadn’t yet managed to conjure. The kiss was a burning promise against her lips. She clawed at his collar, desperate for more, yet somehow she knew her desperation wouldn’t be enough to keep him there. Soon, the bite of the cold swooped in and replaced the warmth he had enveloped her with.
Heated tears traveled down the closed fan of her lashes and landed on her wind-burned cheeks.
When she opened her eyes again, he was gone.
Chapter 29
As far as last stands went, Brass figured a football field was as good a place as any to make his happen, especially at one with near-perfect conditions for what he was about to throw down. Like clockwork, Aurora High School students had been officially let out for winter break at two fifty that afternoon, with teachers and staff fleeing the premises at a precise two fifty-five.
Good. No one would be around to see the fireworks, and fireworks there definitely would be. With his full angel fire thrumming just below his skin, he’d worked up enough concentrated power to melt the rafters and star in a one-man fire-and-brimstone performance.
A few more minutes and it would all be over. His curse. Ragana. Everything he’d sacrificed for nearly two thousand years. All his torments would settle into the past like ashes beneath his boots.
Brass walked out onto the fifty-yard line with the weight of all he was leaving behind dragging at his heels. It’d been selfish to steal that kiss from Molly and then vanish. The memory of it ghosted across his lips with so much regret. Hit-and-runs had never been his style, but he’d had no choice. If he’d stayed, if he’d lingered one more second against her perfect mouth, he wasn’t certain he’d ever have been able to leave her side again. Even during the briefest of moments when he had to lift his lips from hers and reposition himself to take more of her, the madness had already begun to creep in. As long as he was touching her, scenting her, filling his lungs with her in some vital way, he was whole.
Without her, however . . .
With great effort, Brass put Molly from his mind, let his eyes fall closed, and lifted his chin to the sky. Without the benefit of his sight, he knew the exact hues of what he’d find cresting over the stadium’s high western walls. Burnt oranges illuminating amorphous gray nimbostratus clouds heavy with the promise of snow. The thinnest line of scarlet spanning the horizon’s edge before a pregnant sun sank into shadow.
They were all things Molly, praise the mages, would see again and again if his plan worked.
All he had to do was buy himself time and breathe through the pain. Even as he stood there, armed to the teeth with firepower and fury, it was all he could do to keep focused. Sweat dripped down the back of his neck in a terrifying seduction. His temples pounded with promises not his own.
Fire warred with a rage that snapped at its confines. One more vicious bite and it would all be over.
Never.
Hang on just a little longer . . .
“What a sight you make, sentinel. I do say, red is most definitely your color.” Ragana rose to her feet from the bleachers to his left, commanding all the regality of a queen who’d lost her throne to a younger, prettier monarch only to win it back after a messy beheading. Crimson robes had been traded for a hunter-green velvet gown. A golden-stitched bodice hugged her torso like an intricately woven plate of armor, while the low neckline offered up her breasts like the ripe sins they were.
Then she vanished from sight, leaving the silver metal seats as empty as he’d found them, only to reappear in front of him before he’d had a chance to blink.
“Did you miss me? Or rather, more to the point, did you enjoy my gift to you?” She stepped forward and trailed a long claw down the open collar of his coat. “I do wish I could have been there when you fucked her for the final time, but watching animals rut is not something that stirs my blood.” She leaned in closer, caressing the curve of his ear with her tongue. He shuddered at the oily inkiness that slithered across his soul at the contact but fought to remain still as long as possible.
