“What? He knows his dad is a—”
“Just shut up, Chord,” she snapped, placing a hand on Soren’s back. “For once in your life, just shut up.”
Gray shot Chord an apologetic glance his way, though he predictably followed after his soul twin and her little spawn.
“Jeez," Chord muttered loud enough for only Sev to hear, "Our group has turned into a bunch of downers.”
“Death has a tendency to do that to people.”
“Lucky you and I are both soulless assholes.”
Sev dipped his head in a nod. “True.”
They followed the horde of Halos into the towering city. It was ever-so-slightly reminiscent of Arx Isle, only much larger. Where Arx Isle was a quaint little city, Hiraeth was a metropolis.
“Why would they call it Hiraeth anyway?” Chord’s mood had officially been darkened by Aurora and Logan. “That sounds like a Middle Eastern town or something. Though, I guess Jesus hung out in Bethlehem, so…”
Sev shook his head. “Actually it’s Welsh. And the name is rather fitting, given the circumstances.”
“Of course you know the origin of the word. So, what does it mean, then?”
Sev’s long black hair blew back, trailing across his sharp jaw like a ribbon caught in the wind. “It’s a word that represents homesickness for a home you can’t return to, or that never was.”
Chord frowned, kicking at a stray pebble, which skittered across the glass-inlaid road leading into the city. “That’s depressing.”
“I think it’s nice.”
“Well, you’re British.”
Sev’s eyes scanned their surroundings like a laser, drinking in everything they passed. “What does my being British have to do with anything?”
“You people think everything is nice.”
Sev’s brow rose as he sent Chord a smirk. “Not entirely. We don’t tend to think the French are very nice.”
Chord threw his head back into a loud guffaw and reached for Sev’s hand. His fingers, long and slender like a pianist’s, slid through Chord’s easily. Finally, they were on the same page at the same time. Now if only they could get their climaxes to match up as easily. Chord had a tendency of arriving early.
He couldn’t help it. His parents had always valued punctuality above all things.
Four
AURORA
Aurora was awakened by a loud banging sound. For a moment, she thought maybe she had been put into the room next to Sev and Chord and that they were taking advantage of their rekindled flame. But as her consciousness grew more aware, she realized it was actually someone pounding on her front door.
UGH.
Groaning dramatically, Aurora slid out of bed, pulling open the curtains to see if she had overslept. The floor-length windows opened high over the city of Hiraeth. The Halos were being housed in massive apartment-style buildings, a hundred stories high. The city was still bathed in a dark blue, the hint of the sun’s arrival low on the horizon. So, it wasn’t even dawn yet…which meant she had plenty reason to be upset with whoever was so rudely banging her door down. Plus, Soren was asleep in the other room—at least he had been before the door-banger arrived.
Michael had arranged for Aurora’s son to be put with his mother, not knowing the child would likely rather be housed in Gray’s apartment since he was the only one of the Halos the boy would speak to. Soren wasn’t even a teenager yet and was already being completely impossible. Aurora’s earlier life prediction that she wouldn’t make a good mother was being confirmed more and more each day.
Wrapping her silky black robe around herself as she finally made it through the massive apartment to the front door, Aurora looked through the peephole and sighed. Then she plastered a big, false smile on her face to greet her old Stellar trainers.
“Patrick and Abigail! So lovely to see you guys. How ever may I help you on this super early morning?”
The angel Stellars exchanged an amused glance, moving past Aurora into the room.
“By all means,” she muttered, closing the door behind them. “Come on in.”
Patrick clasped his hands before him, not bothering to sit on any of the fancy furniture. Angels probably never got tired—even this damned early in the morning. “We apologize if we’ve bothered you. Michael asked us to arrange a meeting with the two of you.”
“Well, there’s only one of me," Aurora said. "Where’s Gray?”
The front door opened in answer to her question, followed by Gray, dressed in his dark red armor. Aurora drank him in, pretending her body hadn’t just alerted to his presence in a rather distracting way.
“You’re wearing armor,” Aurora noted warily. “Why are you already wearing armor?”
Gray shrugged and nodded his head towards Patrick and Abigail. “Ask them.”
Eyes rolling from Gray to the two unsympathetic looking angels, Aurora sighed. “We’re training today, aren’t we.”
It wasn't a question.
“What ever gave you that idea?” Abigail asked with a smirk. Patrick laughed.
Gray flashed Aurora a knowing grin. “I think your sarcasm rubbed off on them on Arx Isle.”
Aurora’s shoulders sagged. She wasn’t even going to fight it. She was too tired, and Soren was asleep in the other room. “Fine. I’ll go change. But we better stop for some coffee and food before we so much as speak about training.”
Patrick nodded. “We wouldn’t dream of depriving you of your coffee, Aurora.”
Gray was right. Apparently, she had rubbed off on them.
Aurora sauntered sluggishly back to her room to change before whirling around and walking backward as she said, “Gray, can you write Soren a note while I change? I don’t want him to wake up and freak out when I’m not here. Not that he’d care.”
“Don’t say that.” Gray shook his head. “And, yes, I will.”
“Who is Soren?” Abigail asked Aurora.
“My son…” Aurora answered from the doorway to her bedroom, her hand resting impatiently on the doorknob. “Wait, Michael told you to come wake us up at the buttcrack of dawn to work on our Stellar powers, but he didn’t say I had a son?”
Abigail and Patrick’s faces went white, their eyes on each other now, communicating silently. Perhaps angels had the ability to hear one another’s thoughts.
Aurora put her hands on her hips now. “What’s wrong?”
It was Patrick who spoke. “Nothing,” he said, his gaze still on Abigail. “Hurry and get changed. We don’t have much time.”
“But—”
“Go.” Patrick’s once-light-hearted humor had vanished, replaced with something much more sinister.
Aurora looked to Gray, who seemed just as confused as she was. His shoulders lifted in a small shrug, and she clenched her jaw in frustration, turning on her heel and closing her door behind her to get changed.
Stupid, secretive Stellars.
Like all of the angel patisseries, the little coffee shop at the base of the Power Halo apartment complex made the most decadent lattes and pastries, rivaling the best of the best in the rest of the world. With steaming latte in hand, Aurora was more inclined to forget about the earliness of the morning.
The four of them strolled through the streets of Hiraeth as if they were a band of tourists in a foreign city, rather than two pairs of soul mates looking for a place to train. The narrow streets were lined with buildings one might find in Rome--only, instead of aged stone, they were made of pearlescent marble.
Gray reached over and grasped Aurora's hand. A small part of her still wanted to pull away, to not let him in, if only out of habit. But the rest of her--the now dominant part--let him thread his fingers through hers. She squeezed back reassuringly, something she would have scoffed at a few months ago.
But after she’d fought demons, seen death, and been reunited with her estranged son…she realized there were bigger things than her ego. And that Gray was absolutely nothing like David.
Abigail stopped in f
ront of a building made entirely of sparkling glass and graphite. “This will do.”
Cupping her hands around her eyes, Aurora leaned against the window to peer inside. “Looks like a ballet studio.”
Abigail shot her an amused glance, brushing a strand of auburn hair out of her eyes. “It is a ballet studio.”
“Abi used to be a dancer,” Patrick said as an aside to Aurora. “Now, wherever we go, she always seems to have access to one. Part of the magic of the Light, you know.”
“Magic?” Aurora squinched up her nose as she filed in through the glass door. “Surely angels don’t believe in magic. That’s witchcraft.” She was being facetious, of course, but the other Stellars didn’t always seem to catch this.
“Magic can be defined as inexplicable things happening.” Abigail grasped ahold of the barre along the mirror and moved smoothly up on tiptoe. “Well, much of what the Light does is beyond explanation. So magic seems like a perfectly fine word to me.”
“Fair enough.” Aurora let go of Gray’s hand, crossed her arms, and leaned into her hip, watching Abigail go from first, to second, to third, and back to first position. “So, what magic are Gray and I doing today then?”
Abigail pushed away from the barre and did an elegant pirouette across the floor. “What you should have been doing long ago.”
Jeez, Aurora thought with reluctant approval. Abigail sure had gotten snarky since they’d last seen each other. “And? What should we have been doing?”
Abigail moved to stand beside Patrick and took his hand, fixing Aurora and Gray with a knowing grin. “Taking advantage of the power of your physical connection.”
Pursing her lips to the side, Aurora exchanged a quick glance with Gray, who seemed just as wary as she. “What do you mean by that?”
“Well,” Abigail said, grasping Patrick’s arm in an endearing way, “Last time we met, you two were certainly not where you should have been as Stellars. There was clearly hostility and animosity keeping you from reaching your true potential. I’m so happy you managed to get past that.”
Aurora took a small step away from Gray. “Now wait one second. You’re acting like we just got together because we’re Stellars.”
Abigail dipped her head in a nod. “Well, yes.”
“No,” Aurora countered, growing frustrated, something that always seemed to happen around these two. “That’s not why we got together.”
Patrick inclined his head. “Why then?”
Gray was the one to answer this time. “Because we love each other. You know, the old-fashioned reason to start dating someone.”
Abigail smiled widely at this. “Even better. Though, you’ve likely always felt this way because you’re Stellars.”
Aurora snorted, rolling her eyes at the ridiculousness of this. “Okay, Abigail. Just tell us what you want us to do.”
Smirking, Abigail said, “As you wish, Rora.”
Aurora’s mouth fell open as her head snapped to Gray. “Did you tell them how much I hate that nickname back when we were training on Arx Isle?”
A crooked smile made Gray’s mouth lopsided. He didn’t look even a little bit sorry. “I might’ve.”
GRAY
As it turned out, when they allowed themselves to touch, skin to skin, Stellars were even more powerful than Gray had even imagined. It felt a tad bit uncomfortable when Patrick and Abigail had Aurora and Gray stand before one another. They were as close as they could be without being naked, wrapping their arms around each other’s torsos. Aurora was a head shorter than him, so he settled his chin in her golden hair, unable to stop from smelling the familiar scent of her shampoo—lavender and honey.
A fascinating, and also slightly awkward, biology class had taught him all about pheromones; he was well aware that females released theirs through the tops of their heads. Aurora must have been releasing extra—or perhaps Stellars were more sensitive to them—because the longer the two of them stood like this, the shorter Gray’s breaths became, and the more he wanted to kick Patrick and Abigail out so he could remove the impenetrable armor barriers separating him from Aurora.
Patrick and Abigail circled like sharks around them, with hands clasped behind their backs. Aurora closed her eyes and buried her face against Gray’s chest, likely more out of embarrassment than anything.
Stepping closer to Aurora and Gray, putting a hand on both of their backs, Abigail pressed them tighter together. “When you allow yourselves to get over the human insecurities of being this physically close, you allow your Stellar powers to reach their full potential. Your heart is where your body stores your soul. When your hearts are this close, you can tap into that power like never before.”
Gray peered over Aurora’s head as Patrick moved to the barre, pulling it towards him, opening the mirror like a door.
The dim lights of the studio, flickering like flames in a fireplace, wrapped them in a soft blanket of comfort. Abigail continued to speak, though her words were more hushed, taking on a lullaby-like quality. “Now, all I want you two to do right now is just feel each other. Gray, listen to the subtle inhale and exhale of Aurora’s breath, feel the gentle thumping of her heart against your chest, smell the scent of her skin, the warmth of her body pressed up against yours. Aurora, I want you to do the same.”
Was Abigail’s goal to turn him on or something? Because that was, unfortunately, all that was happening at the moment. But then Gray mentally shook himself, shuffled his feet slightly, and pulled Aurora closer, intertwining his hands behind her. He was behaving like a foolish, teenage boy. There was more to her than the subtle physical qualities of the mechanics of her body. He could almost feel her energy thrumming out from her like a steady vibration. He wasn’t sure if it was because they were Stellars or what, but lately he was able to feel her presence before he ever saw her.
Patrick disappeared behind the door in the mirror, and Gray was only half conscious of him as he felt Aurora’s breaths grow deeper, as if she were breathing him in. But then Patrick reemerged holding onto the tails of an assortment of demon dummies with each hand. Gray tensed, and Aurora moved to turn her head.
“Don’t break the connection,” Abigail said in a melodic whisper. “Continue to feel one another, as if you were actually one person rather than just one soul. Aurora, when Gray breathes, you breathe. Gray, your heart beats when Aurora’s heart beats. Try to see that in your mind’s eye. This is so important.”
Trying to ignore the band of demon marionettes Patrick released into the room, Gray took another steadying breath, closing his eyes as he tried to imagine him and Aurora melting into one another, becoming one person.
He tried to picture what that might look like. For a bizarre moment, he saw a strange combination of the two of them morphing from one sex to the other: a female with curly brown hair and hazel eyes who then metamorphosed into a male with golden hair and irises of the bluest sapphire. One more change happened, this one a little more subtle. The man kept his blue eyes, but the blond hair turned to Gray’s dark brown curls until this person had all the best physical qualities of both of them.
There was something strangely familiar about the man in his mind’s eye. And it took Gray a long moment before he realized what it was. Then, as if catching on to what Gray was thinking, the man with the dark hair and blue eyes grew smaller—he didn't just shrink, but actually became younger. Square jaw and thick muscles smoothed out until the man was nothing but a young boy.
A boy whose features Gray knew well.
The boy was Soren.
Just as Gray’s eyes flew open, the demon dummies exploded into a thousand torn fragments, fluttering around him and Aurora like confetti.
Distant words of congratulations and encouragement came from Abigail and Patrick as they praised the two of them for destroying the demon puppets without so much as drawing their weapons. Gray’s heart beat inexplicably fast now, and he wasn’t sure if it was from the adrenaline from the explosion or…something else.
Aur
ora’s brilliant blue eyes looked up into his, asking an unspoken question. Are you okay?
He tried to smile but knew it didn’t meet his eyes.
Then a loud, piercing sound met their ears—similar noises came from outside the studio as well—like an amber alert going off on the cell phones in a room full of people.
Gray felt pulsating warmth and a tightening on his wrist. He looked down to see the black band Aella had given them—a Prophecy, she’d called it—now glowing white. Small black words scrolled across the band like a marquee on the bottom of a news channel.
Horns have been spotted breaking past angel-created boundaries, forcing themselves into the homes of sleeping humans to create more Beasts for Caducus’s army. Halos are being discharged as these break-ins occur. Be prepared to depart from Hiraeth as you are needed.
Aurora’s wide eyes snapped up to Gray’s. “My mom and brother,” she breathed. “What if our house was one of the ones they hit?” She turned to Abigail and Patrick. “Why didn’t they tell us where the break-ins have been happening? Do they not think that’s relevant information?”
Abigail answered her, but Gray didn’t hear. The noise of his own blood rushing in his ears drowned out any and all sound. Aurora still didn’t know her brother had been killed. He’d been waiting for the right time to tell her, but he knew deep within him that was never going to come. There would never be a good time to tell the woman he loved that he’d been present for the death of one of the people she loved most. She deserved to know, he knew she did, but that didn’t make it any easier. Because, once he told her, he knew she would hate him.
“Gray?”
He blinked and glanced up. The way Aurora was looking at him made him think she’d said his name more than once.
“Are you okay?”
Biting the inside of his cheek, he shook his head. “No.” This visibly took Aurora aback. Gray never said he wasn’t okay. He was always the first to say things would work out. He was the first to see the silver lining, the bright side. So, for him to say that things weren’t okay… Well, it was clearly not a good thing. And the others knew it too.
Stellar (The Halo Series Book 3) Page 3
