Chapter 25
Star didn’t like the skewers, but he found the custard inside a folded cake tasty. They had a half dozen things they shared among them, but the custard was the only thing he went back for, getting a small folded custard cake of each flavor to share with Yuri.
The sun set, the sky a watercolor of blinding reds, orange and purple dripping over the city horizon. Lights danced all around them, chasing away the worst of the dark and leaving them in a sweet glow that soothed some of Star’s lingering anxiety.
“Which one is your favorite?” Yuri asked, nibbling a custard cake. “I think I can make these.”
“The green one,” Star answered without hesitation.
“It’s a bit like green tea with a hint of lemon,” Yuri said.
“You can make these back home?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Radu likes the puff pastry thing with the meat in it,” Star said, thinking as he’d watched them all. Lucian and Theo preferred the sweets. “Which one do you like the best?” Yuri analyzed everything he ate as though he were trying to figure out how to make it.
“The sausage flat bread,” Yuri said. “I wasn’t expecting sweet and spicy. I don’t think I can replicate it as the flavors weren’t familiar to me. But it was really good.”
“We can get the recipe from the shop owner if you’d like.”
Yuri smiled. “It’s okay. I think we should keep it a special treat for when we visit Auroi.” The group wandered through the streets, taking in the lights, the wafting scents of delicious food, and sounds of drifting music.
“Oh look, it’s a dance floor,” Yuri pointed off to a lighted area with a live band.
A long street of darkness stretched between the dance area and them.
Star’s heart leapt into his throat. He hesitated, freezing in the middle of the street and tugging Yuri back to his side.
The long shadows hiding in the corners of the darkness didn’t fool him. “What’s wrong?”
“Maybe we can go around?”
Yuri turned his gaze toward the darkened street. Lucian and Theo shared a funnel cake sort of thing, sitting on the edge of a high planter box, and Radu stood beside them, his gaze focused on the lighted dance floor, foot tapping to the music they could hear.
“Are there shadows? The sentient kind?” Yuri asked, a hint of fear in his voice.
“Yes,” Star said, the food becoming a lump in his stomach.
He didn’t want Yuri to fear them, but couldn’t help his own rising anxiety.
Would Yuri want them? Would he get mad if Star took them, or should they dissipate them?
All shadows were a part of Yuri and therefore a part of Star, but it didn’t mean it was a comfortable thing to gather them until the mortal side of them exploded.
Yuri stared at the darkness a few seconds longer, but he took a step forward, away from Star, momentarily breaking Star’s heart with the idea he wanted that darkness. Yuri gripped Star’s hand. “Come with me? Face them with me? Help me understand?”
Star tossed his plate away and nodded, his gut churning as they approached the narrow dark street, cursing the lack of lights in this section of the city.
Maybe he’d pull the counsel aside and ask them to add lights.
They paused at the end of the street, Yuri’s feet two steps into the darkness as he searched the long walls of darkness with his gaze.
Star didn’t need to search. The second they got close, the shadows moved.
They weren’t the physical monsters they’d been before Yuri had shattered them all, rather tiny pinpricks of movement running along the darkness like ants.
Was Yuri’s mortal shell strong enough without magic to know where they were?
Star wrapped his arm around Yuri’s waist and buried his face in Yuri’s hair, afraid to watch them approach, but more terrified of what Yuri’s choice would be.
Power or them? Star didn’t know which he’d choose, faced with the same options.
He needed power to protect Yuri, but without Yuri why would he need power?
Yuri reached up and slid his fingers into Star’s hair, his touch gentle and calming. The oppressive doom of the lingering darkness vanished from one breath to the next.
“It’s okay,” Yuri said. “They’re gone now.”
Star blinked and looked up, finding the alleyway clear of the moving shadows.
He studied Yuri, but he was unchanged. No hint of the dark clinging to him.
Tears blurred Star’s vision. Yuri chose them over power.
He didn’t know why it surprised him. It shouldn’t have, but it still made his heart sing.
“It’s okay,” Yuri repeated. “They’re all gone.”
“I’m dancing with the seraph this time,” Radu stated as he grabbed Theo’s hand and dragged him toward the dance floor, the pair rushing past them, through the dark.
“But I’m not very good at it,” Theo protested, but let himself be led.
Lucian laughed, but followed slower. “He protests, but he does all right.” He crossed through the darkened area unscathed, arriving at the dance floor where Radu led Theo in a ballroom style dance.
“I scattered them,” Yuri said. “I don’t need the power when I have all of you. You didn’t need them, right?”
Star shook his head.
“Do you hunger? Like it was for me? The endless need…” Yuri’s expression turned dark. “I don’t want you to suffer anymore. I waited far too long to release you.”
“It doesn’t hurt,” Star promised.
“Will you tell me if it changes?”
Their gazes met for a few long seconds and Star imagined a thousand lies he could tell, but offered the truth. “Yes, though I’m not sure you could help.”
“I can see them now,” Yuri said. His gaze flitting over Star. “Tiny specks of the shadows. I could release them from you.”
“Then we would lose our world between.”
“It would be okay to stay here. The city you built is beautiful. I can imagine spending the rest of my mortal days here with all of you. The others like it, too.”
“I don’t mind keeping the dark, sharing our world with the other archangels and having you in my arms,” Star said, reluctant to give away what little power he had.
“If that ever changes, and they hurt you…” Yuri warned, his expression stern. “No more suffering, Star. We are in this together. All of us.”
Star nodded, his heart slowing as the acceptance sank in. They weren’t abandoning him even for choosing to continue to keep some of the power of the darkness.
“Dance with me,” Yuri said as he turned to look up at Star, a soft smile curving his lips. “I’m not good at it, but it’s okay if we aren’t good at it together, right?”
Star nodded and let out a long sigh of relief as he let Yuri lead him through the dark and to the dance floor.