15. ACHERON
There was very little that distracted Acheron Taranis – Lieutenant in the Tienthan. A guardian angel. All the accolades that made up who he was had one thing in common. Lives depended on him. Distraction, in and of itself, meant lives lost. He couldn’t afford to be anything but focused. A razor-sharp blade oiled to perfection.
“Alright, boys, next point wins.” He grinned, panting. The sun at midday was sharp, beating down on his skin. Acheron wiped the rivulets of sweat that ran down his face. In a crash of shirtless muscles, the angels of the Tienthan rushed against each other in a rugby scrum. The sound of it cracked and thrummed through the air. Ash loved that sound – the power that emanated from the deadliest legion across all the realms.
The leather ball rolled between their feet as the two teams charged against one another with all their might, fighting for the ball. Ash broke from the scrum, took hold of the ball and flew to the other side of the field to lead his rugby team to victory. His friends tried to tackle him, but he deflected them easily with a strong push of his hands. He dodged, spun, and sidestepped swifter than a lightning strike. That was until he saw Sophie sitting on the other end of the try line.
His step faltered, falling shorter than he intended. Sophie. Her purple, unbound hair shone brightly in the sun. She wore a sheer black chiton covered in small sparkles. The sheerness of the dress pulled his focus, reminding him of how he found her at her front door yesterday morning, wielding a fire poker in her hands. It looked like she was about to murder him. And that thought alone made Ash’s wings flutter involuntarily.
Shit.
The next thing he saw was dirt as Deymos spear tackled him right in the guts with a CRUNCH.
Ash groaned. By the time he recovered, his face was covered in dirt and his knees were torn up. He sat up, slicking the dirt off his face.
“You’re getting sloppy, Ash,” Deymos teased.
Ash gave the god of dread a flat stare as Deymos helped him up with a clasp of a strong hand.
Eros poked his head into Acheron’s vision. “More like, he’s getting soppy.” Eros grabbed Acheron’s shoulders and straightened him, so that he faced Sophie, who was waving at them from the try line. Cal sat by her feet with his tail wagging.
Eros waggled his eyebrows at Acheron like an absolute deviant. If Acheron could, he would start an outright brawl with Eros and Deymos. Right here. On the field. In favour of not causing a scene, he opted to narrow his eyes at his brothers.
Eros shot his arms up in surrender and slowly backed away. Ash shot him another dirty look before righting himself. His immortal heart fluttered the slightest as he flew over to Sophie.
Be still.
The mighty push of his wings as he landed close to Sophie made her chiton billow. The strands of her hair, made from sparkling starlight itself framed her face, just like how the night sky was destined to frame the moon. There was a perfection in which the way her features aligned.
Ash bowed his head in greeting. “Come to perve on all the shirtless angels, have we, my lady?” He smirked, knowing he’d get a rise out of her.
Sophie crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. The way her nose scrunched and how her brow furrowed when she looked at him that way. Adorable.
“If you weren’t my guardian angel, I’d strangle you right now.”
Ouch. It almost sounded like she meant it.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time, Sophie,” Ash teased, making his way to the refreshment table to grab himself a drink. He sipped the cold water, as he turned and leaned against the table to face Sophie. He felt rivulets of sweat trickle down the expanse of his torso.
Is it getting really hot out here?
Sophie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ve come to ask a favour actually.”
“A favour?” Interesting.
Sophie moved closer to the table, eyeing his wings as if she wanted to touch them, “The Tienthan train almost every day. Eros told me that as the Godlands Aerial Legion, you are the most powerful legion across all the realms.” She lightly caressed one of his feathers, examining the delicate barbs with her slender fingers and curious eyes.
Ash tried to focus on anything but that touch that sent shivers down his spine. What was she talking about? Right. True. The Tienthan, made of twelve gods and goddesses blessed with the gift of angel wings, was the legion called upon to settle cross-realm battles the gods and goddesses from all pantheons dared to raise.
Focus. “Where are you going with this?” The question came out softer than he intended. Ash held his breath and tried his hardest not to move as she took a closer look at his wings.
“I’ve got some things to take care of in Faery.” Sophie brushed her fingers along the edge of his wings and they ruffled in response to her heated touch.
A flash of the scene in Faery that Ash had found Sophie in left a pang of feral sickness and rage in his stomach. He’d heard Sophie’s echoed wails from the Godlands. Her voice called to him – loud and clear above the chaos. A voice that needed a guardian angel. When Ash raced across to the Faery realm, he was surprised to see the male that looked so much like him. Ash knew who the male was the moment he saw him. Lethe. Cerri’s son. Ash didn’t have the full picture of what transpired between Sophie and Lethe, but he could easily draw conclusions.
Sophie continued. “Some things that require me to be a bit more physically ready. What better way to prepare than with the best legion known to the gods? I want to train with you.” She paused. “And the Tienthan, of course,” she added too quickly.
“But you’re not an angel of the Godlands,” Ash noted. Not that there would be an issue with her training with them as she was, but Ash wanted to test something.
“Just because I don’t have wings doesn’t mean I can’t participate in the training aspect. C’mon, I promise I won’t slow you down!” Sophie pleaded with puppy dog eyes.
Ah there it is.There was fight in her still. “And what do I get out of this?” Ash spread his wings just a little closer to Sophie so she could examine them more easily.
Sophie turned swiftly to perch herself on the table, to face his side. “Surely watching me fail at weapons or falling flat on my face trying to wield my own mana would fetch a decent price?”
“Hmm, that does seem like a decent trade-off but I’m not entirely sure . . .” Ash stroked his chin dramatically.
“How about an IOU? A favour that is.” Sophie beamed from where she sat, her purple eyes dancing in the sun.
Oh, Ash loved favours, especially ones that were owed to him. Ash pushed himself off the table to stand before her small figure. He raised his tattooed hand between them. “Deal.”
Sophie jumped down from the table onto sure feet. She took his hand in her own. “Deal.”
As their hands met, electricity thrummed through the air. Trees rustled. Flowers stretched awake.
“Training starts in an hour by the waterfall,” Ash said smugly.
Sophie’s smile was all trouble. “Game on.” She wanted a challenge; he knew that much. And a challenge was what he was going to give to her.
Their hands fell away.
With a sharp whistle, Sophie called Cal to her. She nodded a thanks before making her way toward the town centre. Ash watched as Sophie disappeared into the distance with his furry best friend.
“You can come out from behind that tree now, Eros,” Acheron sighed, folding his tattooed arms.
A groan of annoyance sounded from the tree line not too far from where Sophie and Ash had been speaking. Eros appeared before Ash. His strawberry-blond curls were now pushed back with a hair band. The god crossed his arms and eyed Ash suspiciously. A mischievous grin splayed across his face, and he teased, “You let her touch your wings.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. “It was nothing.” Oh, it was definitely something.
“You keep telling yourself that,” Eros drawled. With that, Eros turned to peel away. “See you at training!” he called behind him.
Ash waited for Eros to disappear before flexing the hand he swore still tingled with electricity. The hand that touched Sophie’s.
Did she know?
When Sophie awoke in the Godlands all those weeks ago, Acheron prayed to the Fates that she remembered. Years, they’d been apart. He searched her eyes for a glint of recognition, a morsel of memory, but all he heard was the heartrending whisper of “Who . . . are you?”
He never prayed to the Fates, but in that moment he did. And when that innocent question gutted him from navel to chest, he vowed to never pray again.
But there was something warm about her today. Soft. Like a flower bending to the sun, she seemed more grounded. Given who she met with yesterday . . . maybe she did know.
Like that darned day Sophie finally moved from her bed, Acheron dared to do something stupid.
He dared to hope.