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  The great white tiger, just as beautiful and immortal as Azrael, bounded across the deck, making the boat rock. “Baby!” I held out my arms and caught the massive tiger in an embrace. He licked my whole face with one swipe of his tongue.

  I stood and reached for Azrael’s hand. He walked slower than usual. “Let’s get some rest and then we will celebrate,” I suggested.

  Azrael didn’t argue. He guided me to his room and stumbled over the threshold of the door. His knees hit the ground. His fingers strained against his chest. There was something terribly wrong with him.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Sleep

  “Azrael, what’s wrong?” Even I knew this wasn’t normal energy loss. I pulled his arm around my shoulder and helped him to the bed. “Azrael, are you hurt?” I knelt by his bedside. His eyes glistened apologetically. “I tried to stop the Shadow Lord and the Shadow Wolf from getting to you. Somehow, they located Alamar, and I knew they would find you both. Baby and I confronted the Shadow Lord, but his pet jumped me from behind.” With difficulty, Azrael pulled off his cloak and rolled to his side. I hadn’t noticed his back until now.

  My eyes sprang wide opened in horror. The imprint of the Shadow Lord’s mace stamped his back in a gruesome, gaping wound. Fragments of his own bone stuck into the muscle and tendons like splinters.

  This looked far more serious than the wound to my shoulder. At least I had been able to close my skin up. It was amazing he could even walk at all. Baby moaned and laid his massive head on the foot of Azrael’s bed.

  “The Shadow Lord was about to drink my blood,” Azrael said in a weak voice. “He probably thought I was dead.”

  I held Azrael’s hand to my lips and asked, “How did you get away?”

  “Zacaris and Dandy came.”

  Anxiety rose in my throat. “Are they all right?” I asked, remembering the way the Shadow Lord had tried to bargain with me. “The Shadow Lord said Zacaris and Eva had been captured.”

  “He was lying,” Azrael expression tensed, but whether in anger or pain, I didn’t know. “The Shadow Lords always lie,” Azrael said.

  I stroked his cheek gently, and he sighed, his features easing. “The Shadow Lord took some of your powers from the blood on the mace. When he used your wind powers, I thought you were dead.” I slid Azrael’s gold signet ring from my thumb and placed it in his hand.

  Azrael made a fist around the ring and gave me an apologetic smile. “He came very close to killing me.”

  I gently grazed the swollen red skin on his back, careful not to come in contact with the wound itself or Azrael’s blood. I desperately wanted to use my fire to heal his wound. We both knew that wasn’t possible without risking a Starfire explosion on the ship. With how weak Azrael was, the explosion would probably kill him too.

  I ran my fingers through his hair and along his jaw line. My tears weren’t healing him as I had hoped. This was a burn and Azrael wasn’t a water Neviahan. The only thing that could heal us now was survival sleep, but I selfishly didn’t want to sleep after just being reunited.

  He carefully lowered himself onto his back, cringing as his injured spine made contact with the bed beneath him. Then he reached up to cup my face in his rough, but familiar hand, drawing me close to him and kissing my forehead as I nestled against his side. “I will be fine, my love,” he whispered in a gentle voice that reassured me more than anything in this world could. For weeks that term of endearment had been spoken to me in Italian—sometimes with sarcasm, sometimes with genuine feeling. When Azrael called me his ‘love’ it I felt comfortable and right.

  “What will happen now that I failed my first mission,” I confessed. “Alamar is as good as lost to us. It won’t be long before Erebus finds him and convinces him to join the Rebellion.” The anger and betrayal I had seen in Alamar’s face before we left his ship wouldn’t leave me. My rejection had stung him. “Will the High Druids ever trust me again?” I asked in a broken voice.

  A weak smile came to Azrael’s pale lips, but his eyes lost none of their radiance. “I doubt you failed your mission.” He spoke softly into my hair as he held me close to him. “Your mission was a success.”

  “Think of it this way,” Azrael started. “What good came out of this mission?”

  I leaned into him, basking in his familiar smell of leather and spruce. I thought about his words. Despite all the disasters, many good things had come from this mission. I had learned more about my immortal powers than I could have learned in any formal lesson. Alamar, for better or worse, had taught me to control my fire. Even his near-fatal wounds had shown me that my tears could heal burns.

  I had killed a Fallen Watcher, a Shadow Wolf, and a fierce Shadow Lord who had stolen some of Azrael’s power to control wind and took half of Starfire. If he had tasted my blood as well, Starfire would have been in enemy hands. Not even in my worst, haunting dreams could I imagine this beautiful Earth as a dark Neviah.

  “If it is any comfort,” Azrael said, brushing his thumb over my arm and breaking me out of my thoughts, “I have a feeling we have not seen the last of Alamar.”

  I shook my head and swallowed against the lump in my throat and the emotion welling inside my tight chest. “I never want to see that pirate again,” I said, my voice husky with the pain of it. Perhaps I had not loved Alamar the way he wished me to, but I hoped we would fight side by side against the Rebellion. Azrael was right. I had done everything I could. Now it was to Alamar to decide who he is.

  I nodded into him and wished for a subject change. I wanted to banish Alamar from my thoughts for the time being. “Is the Stone of Destiny safe?” I asked.

  Azrael chuckled at my diversion tactic then coughed from the pain. “Yes, the Stone of Destiny is safe.”

  I tilted back my head to study him and brushed his hair from his face. My love for him swelled, stronger than any pain. The reward of being here, strong and safe next to my beloved, was a thousand times sweeter than I imagined.

  Azrael gave my arm a gentle squeeze. “You are a much higher being than I am. I feel like I am the pirate for stealing one of the angels from Heaven.” He sighed softly. “I have been with little sun for a long time. I need to sleep, but I’m afraid if I close my eyes, I will awaken to find you were just a dream.”

  “I will be here when you wake,” I promised. “Always.”

  Azrael’s grip around me weakened. “You are braver than all the knights in England and more valiant than all the saints. I don’t ever want to let you go, and I don’t ever want to be apart from you again. For the rest of eternity, wherever you go, I will go. Your people are my people, and your king is my king.” His heavy lids fell lower each time he blinked. “You, Aura, are like the beautiful, warm, and powerful wind. How could I make the wind mine and still give you wings to fly? If I trapped the wind in a jar, it would no longer be wind. If I tried to harness you with my sail, I would only slow you down.”

  I couldn’t help but think about how Alamar had tried to both trap me and slow me down in an attempt to bridle my heart. I smiled at Azrael and stroked the side of his face, gently guiding him to sleep.

  “One of these days, if you allow me a chance to court you properly, I will learn to capture the wind while still allowing you to flow freely.” Azrael said softly, his eyes closed and did not open again.

  Carefully, I nestled further into his side and stared at the porthole opposite us. The sun reflected off the ocean waves as Azrael’s ship rocked idly without wind to fill the sails. My own eyes felt heavy with much needed survival.

  No matter what happened, he and I were part of each other now. Our bond was stronger than any weapon, nation, or enemy. Our connection was deeper and more powerful than the ocean. Our love would last long after this Earth and universe passed away.

  I lay next to him, reveling in the way his breath came evenly and the peace of his expression as he slept. Baby lay protectively at our feet, guarding us so we could sleep. A ray of warm light shot through the porthole. B
rilliant beams glowed off Azrael’s skin in a radiance I would never forget. The sunlight hit my skin, and like a thousand mirrors, my Lifelight sent rays of colour and warmth over Azrael’s slumbering body.

  I waited to see if he would awaken, but he didn’t. It could take years or decades of survival sleep before he would fully heal. I fluttered my fingers over my own wounded shoulder. As much as I wished to lie awake and watch Azrael I needed survival sleep as well.

  I didn’t know when we would awaken, but someday we would arise again and continue the fight.

  THE END

  A Sea to Sail On

  I will give you a sea to sail on,

  And a horizon to sail to.

  I will give you winds to fill your sails,

  And a song to fill your heart.

  I will give you an ocean blue.

  A star will be your guide,

  And love will be your light.

  I will give you waves to bring you life,

  And the moon to give you tides.

  I will give you an ocean blue.

  I will give you sapphire seas,

  And golden sunlight.

  I will give you silver stardust.

  The purest pearl of my heart,

  from the sea’s deepest part,

  Treasures rare and vows, I swear.

  I will give you a sea to sail on,

  And two tears from my eyes.

  Joy, for time remembered,

  Sorrow, for a dream that will never be.

  I will give you a sea of tears,

  Filled with all my hope and fears.

  I will give you the northern lights,

  Even when you sail south,

  I will give you storm and ice,

  So you may know joy on calm seas.

  I will give you firelight,

  So you will know how to describe

  The burning inside.

  I will give you a sea to sail on

  And a horizon to sail to

  Winds to fill your sails

  And a song to fill your heart

  I will give you the truth about your past

  And the answers to the questions you ask.

  About the Author

  Deirdra (pronounced: Dare-dra) has traveled the country as an Amazon Best Selling author and speaker and sold books worldwide to a variety of audiences. She writes theological fantasy, organizational self help, true crime, and fiction for children in trauma.

  Deirdra is the founder of Eden Literary Foundation which is a non-profit for printing, gathering, and distributing donated books to niche market populations such as children in the foster care system, military personnel and their families, women in prison, and other groups.

  Find Deirdra Online:

  www.Knightess.com

  www.HerEden.com

  www.EdenLiterary.com

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