Chapter 41

Unlike that time when I got kicked out of Heaven and fell back to earth, the process of being reborn felt more like a transformative fire meant to burn away all previous encumbrances of my former existence to allow my true self to shine forth. The knowledge of who and what I once was collided with the old me.

The effect felt a lot like brain freeze and hurt like hell.

I saw a flash of red next and had to close my eyes against the raging blast of heat that followed as my entire ethereal body erupted in a burst of flames. Like the legend of the Phoenix, a new angel rose up out of the smoldering ashes left behind.

Thick wafts of smoke curled in front of me, making it hard to see. I didn't have a clue where I was, but I knew one thing without a doubt.

I wasn't alone.

I fought my way through the cold, hard darkness until my hands landed on something soft.

A pillow.

My heart soared when I felt another, and another. I grabbed one of the satiny pillows and held it up to my face, breathing in so deeply to the point of almost choking.

Besides ash and soot, I would have sworn I smelled the sweet scent of vanilla.

The room began to spin.

My eyes did a double take when the smoke started to clear and I realized I was back at the castle. Not only that, but there was someone on Vycandor's bed.

Thomas.

It just had to be him!

I could barely make out his form in the icy shadows of the turret chamber, all curled up under a thick bed of covers. My breath puffed out in excitement, the warm exhalation mingled with the cold night air to form small cloud like puffs of air, each breath coming more and more rapidly as I ripped off the bed covers only to find more ashes piled up in the form of a human shape.

Thomas was gone.

My mind refused to accept it. Especially after I'd tried so hard to save him. I was so certain that he was alive and well when I crossed over. In my wildest dreams, I never expected that he would succumb to the same fire that took my life. If that were true, then why wasn't any of the bedding burned? Surely if I'd caused his demise, the entire room would've gone up in flames.

But it didn't.

I tore apart the bed in complete and utter madness, shredding the sheets with my bare hands and then gutting the thick mattress stuffed with white goose down feathers and repeatedly throwing them in the air, until it looked like it was snowing.

Chest heaving up and down, I just stood beside the bed searching for my crime. If it was God that took Thomas away, then what was His point? Was it so wrong for me to be with him?

I cast my eyes heavenward, voice hitching on a sob. "If I couldn't save him, then what was the point of dying?"

I didn't even realize I was crying until an angels wing brushed my eyes, full of love.

"Sometimes it takes dying for a pair of angels to be reborn."

"Thomas!" I threw my arms around his neck and kissed every inch of his glorious face. "What happened to you? Where did you go?"

He paused momentarily to unhook my hands so he could hold them in his, giving me a gentle squeeze of reassurance. "The same place as you, I suspect." Arching a brow, I could tell he was waiting to find out if I remembered our special place on the other side.

I couldn't bare to keep him waiting a second longer. "I remember absolutely everything. About our secret garden. About you staying behind to be my Spirit Guide. And I remember the vow we made to love each other for all eternity..." My voice trailed off with the memory. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Thomas pulled me towards him in such a tight hug I thought for sure I'd be crushed. When he released me, he reached out for my hands again. He had such a sad, troubled look in his hazel eyes. Like a battered ship lost at sea after a great storm had passed. "How do you tell someone you're designed to love them if they don't even recognize you?" I opened my mouth to argue, but the answer fell from his lips. "An angel can never interfere with free will, remember? Besides, when I first saw you on the side of the road walking home from school that day you were incredibly self-centered."

I gasped in mock surprise. "Who, me? Never!"

"And surface-y," he added. "Don't take this the wrong way, Chaos, but you were always a pain in the ass. Once you were reborn, you became an even bigger pain in the ass."

He had me there.

Somethings never change. Like that strange magnetic connection we shared between two polar opposites. He was Heaven sent, and I was still Heaven's storm.

The perfect pair.

"But you never stopped loving me, right?" I whispered, allowing my eyes to drink him in. He was just as beautiful as the last time I saw him. Same square, determined jaw. Same pillowy pink lips. Same high, sculpted cheekbones. Same broad, intelligent forehead. And same unruly, chocolate brown hair that was short on the sides and piled high on the top, combed back into a pompadour that seemed to defy gravity. The pajama pants I'd let him borrow were gone – replaced by a pair of skin tight blue jeans. His chest, no longer bare, was covered in one of his usual white T-shirts and he had on the black leather jacket he always wore. A clothing trick he'd learned in his previous immortal life as a Guardian Angel, no doubt.

There was just no other way around it. Thomas was a tall drink of Holy Water.

Spying that I was as naked as a newborn, he dressed me in yet another frilly white, floor length gown – this one with even more ribbons and lace than before. If that was even possible.

He swept me up in his strong arms and twirled me around before answering. "I never have, and I never will stop loving you." Giddy with happiness, he put me down so he could lean over me and gaze into my eyes. "There has never been anyone besides you. You are my first love. My only love. Soon you will be my endless love. No one can deny the love we have inside. Even more so now that we are reborn and the fusion of our two souls is complete. We can finally unite as a pair of Odyssey's, a symbol of power, strength, and protection. Let's hold the ceremony in our secret garden. Once our bond is complete, we shall be as one."

As he said the words I'd always wanted to hear, my mind drifted back to Saint Augustine's Cathedral and the gleaming richness of the stained glass window depicting two angels, their glowing red and golden wings outstretched and proudly displayed as a shimmering beacon of hope for all the world to see. Poised on my left was the likeness of Thomas, looking peaceful and majestic.

Why hadn't I seen him before?

In my mind's eye, I stared harder at the window and noticed for the first time what appeared to be another angel on my right. A male angel, to be exact. He was turned to one side so that I could only make out his profile, but there was no mistaking the grim look on his regal face.

My awareness flickered somewhere between sheer agony and horror that stopped abruptly the moment I heard Courtney's voice.

"Is this the part where we tell Thomas about you and Vycandor?"