The light collapses inward with a thunderous crack, and Rowan drops.
He hits nothing but lands in a heap at my feet. Falling to my knees beside him, I grab his arm and shake him, desperate to get him to wake.
“Rowan! Rowan! Please!”
Groaning, he looks up at me. “What…What happened?”
“I don’t know.” I glance at his back. “But your wings. They’re gone.”
“What?” He pushes to his feet and reaches over his shoulder to find only bare skin. “How?”
“And the gold…” Standing, too, I point to his chest.
He nods toward mine. “Yours, too.”
He’s right. When I look down, my skin—all of it—is unblemished. No gashes or blood. As if the fight with the Order never happened at all.
Rowan holds his hands in front of him and turns them, like he doesn’t recognize the body he’s been left with. I know what I saw. I know what I felt. But besides that, nothing makes sense.
“I don’t understand,” he says. “I’m…”
A voice answers from behind him.
“Just a man.”
Rowan stiffens.
I look up to see a woman suddenly there, the endless white folding in on itself to give her shape. She’s beautiful in the way storms are beautiful. Powerful but untouchable. Something you admire from afar and can destroy everything in its path. Wine-red lips. Golden hair pulled back from a face carved from marble. She’s naked, her body the perfect womanly shape, breasts full and high, with skin glistening as if touched by the sun. Her wings unfurl slowly behind her, radiant white feathers that shimmer gold with the slight movement. It’s breathtaking to behold.
“Ceri.” Rowan bows slightly.
He knows her? Is she another Cupid? She must be.
“Don’t punish her,” Rowan says, moving in front of me. “Strike me down. I’m the one who broke our rules. Again.”
What, no!I don’t even want to imagine what the gods will do to him this time, now that he’s disobeyed them a second time.
But Ceri ignores him and steps closer. “You love her.”
It’s a statement. Not a question. But he doesn’t deny it. “I do.”
“There are rules,” she says. “The curse has taught you nothing.”
My heart lurches.
She turns her attention to me. “And you, human, you have fallen in love with him?”
I hesitate. Will my confession damn him? Should I lie?
“It’s okay, Lyra,” Rowan whispers with a small smile. “You cannot keep the truth from the god of passion and love. She can see what your heart most desires.”
A god?
Fear races through me. So not just an angel, like him. She’s the god of Cupids.
I nod, and take a deep breath to try and calm myself. “I have.”
“I see,” Ceri says. Her gaze flicks between us. “It is a soul bond. You have found the one your soul was created for.”