We thanked her and headed toward the tea room. Last time I was here, the house was empty. Mila and Mr. Aleksandrov were its only inhabitants. This time, there were guests, reporters, camera men, maids—the list went on and all of them eyed us strangely because we were in our gym clothes and Eli still had his towel slung over his shoulder. I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe Mr. Aleksandrov had let all of this go to his head. One person doesn’t need so many people to depend on. We approached the tea room and the maid held the door open.

“Ah, Eli and Ruby, please, come sit down.”

The doors were closed behind us and the busy whispers disappeared. I was happy we could talk alone with Mr. Aleksandrov, away from his vast entourage. Eli and I took a seat across from him. I glanced around the room and noticed it had been remodelled. The beautiful antique gold-edged table we had sat around last time was replaced by a long, dark wooden table with chairs to match. It didn’t feel inviting or warm, it felt intimidating, like we weren’t worthy of his presence.

“Excuse the mess and the people. The council is still sorting everything out.”

I wanted to chastise him about the men with the guns, the maid at the door, the reporters, the camera man, and even the tea room, but those didn’t affect me directly. However, Mr. Aleksandrov making me one of his head guardians? That affected me, big time.

“I hear you made an important announcement last night,” Eli said.

“Yes.” Ivan turned his attention toward me. “You ran out.”

“As you can imagine, it was a bit of a shock to me,” I mumbled.

Eli leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees. “Goddesses aren’t meant to fight,” he stated fiercely.

M. Aleksandrov grabbed a pen from its holder, scribbled on a piece of paper and slid it over to us.

“You forget she isn’t completely a goddess. She has special abilities that are very important to the council and to me. My decision is final.”

Sprawled onto the paper in black ink was a warning: We can’t talk here. I’ll come find you later.

Mr. Aleksandrov used his wand to pull the flame from the tea light candle and burned the paper. Eli and I rose from our chairs and waltzed from the tea room. There was something going on here, something to do with me, and we had to wait for Mr. Aleksandrov to tell us.

“What do we do?” I whispered to Eli as we walked across the field and back toward the armed security team hidden in the shrubbery.

“We wait.”

When I arrived back at my place, Mila was awake and making breakfast. She didn’t look too good. Her pale-green complexion told me she’d been hugging the toilet bowl all morning.

“Ruby!” she greeted me. “There you are. I’m making bacon and eggs f—” Cutting her sentence off, Mila placed a hand on her mouth.

I cringed, taking a step back. “Maybe I’ll take over breakfast…”

Mila sprinted from the room and I chuckled to myself. Somehow I had become immune to hangovers. That didn’t mean I’d forgotten my first one. It was the morning after the dance and I felt disgusting. The bacon sizzled in the pan, making my stomach growl. The eggs were done to perfection, they were light, fluffy, and salted just right.

With a freshly washed face, Mila re-entered the room and leaned on the bench. I pushed the plate of eggs over to her and I could’ve sworn she turned a shade greener. “I think I’ll have toast instead.”

I turned away and popped two slices of bread into the toaster.

“I don’t suppose you were too drunk to remember last night?” she asked sheepishly.

I shook my head. “Nope, I’m surprised you remember, though.”

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to do that to you… I remember the promise you made me, it doesn’t count. I want you to do whatever you want.”

I smiled at her. Looking at her face now, I could tell she wanted me to keep my promise. A drunken promise was still a promise.

After breakfast, Mila went to the library. She needed to grab a few books for her upcoming plant essay. I wasn’t allowed to go; visitors weren’t permitted to wander around the school campus, so I showered instead.

The first droplet of water hit my skin, immediately releasing built-up tension. It had only been an hour or so since my work-out session and already my muscles were becoming stiff. I closed my eyes and the hot steam enveloped my body. So many voices were rolling around my mind. ‘My first act as the higher power is instating Ruby Moore as one of my head guardians.’ Was it his decision? The note he wrote suggested otherwise, perhaps the council was running the show? Steam clung to the shower glass, blocking out the rest of the bathroom. I tilted my head back, letting the water run down my hair. ‘We can’t talk here. I’ll come find you later.’ I couldn’t be misinterpreting the situation—it seemed so clear, so undeniable. What did the council want with Mr. Aleksandrov, better yet, what did they want with me? A goddess had never protected anything before… they weren’t meant to. There was a chance the council genuinely thought I could protect Mr. Aleksandrov, but as the higher power, he’ll have the best guardian angels protecting him… he wouldn’t need me.

After the shower, I got changed and headed to Eli’s house. It had been over two hours since we left Mr. Aleksandrov’s house and I hadn’t heard anything. Eli didn’t have my number, so how would he be able to contact me? My running shoes scuffed against small pebbles as I made my way to his house. I knocked on the door and after a few seconds, Eli and I were face to face. A delicious, clean scent wafted up my nose. His semi-dried hair was ruffled and a drop fell onto his white t-shirt that still clung to the damp patches on his body.

“Hey, has Mr. Aleksandrov contacted you yet?” I asked, forcing my gaze from his hair to his eyes.

“No, I’m still waiting.”

“Oh…”

I glanced awkwardly around the porch. Now what? Eli’s left eyebrow twitched in amusement and he fought back a smile. “Would you like to come in?”

“Um… sure,”

Eli leaned against the wall, leaving a gap for me to pass. I stepped inside and my arm swiped his. The electricity I felt made me gasp involuntarily. A hot blush flared through my cheeks, but I kept walking, hoping Eli didn’t notice my amateur reaction.

Jeez, relax. Freak. I chastised myself. The door closed behind me and I was completely encased by his clean, crisp scent.

I still had a strong physical attraction to Eli and being away for a year only increased my desires. At Mount Kuuce we almost ‘did it’ and it was perfect—or at least it would have been. It didn’t matter to me that we never had sex. What mattered to me was that I’d finally found someone I was comfortable with, drawn to, and absolutely, without a doubt, in love with. And I blew it.

“Would you like a drink?” Eli asked, walking over to his fridge.

I frowned. It was way too early for alcohol.

“This early?”

His lips curved into a delectable smile at my disapproving tone. He pulled a water bottle out of the fridge and I suddenly became embarrassed.

“Oh, you meant water.”

He tossed the water bottle to me and I caught it before sitting down on the couch.

“When do you think Mr. Aleksandrov will come?” I asked.

“It could be anytime.” Eli leaned on the breakfast bar and watched me. His face was unreadable, he appeared to be deep in thought and I wasn’t sure if I was overstaying my welcome.

“I can go…”

“No, no, it’s okay.” He walked over and sat on the couch beside me. “I feel as though we should clear the air.”

“There’s no need. You made everything clear last night and you’re absolutely right. I’ve let you down and I’m sorry.”

“I said some pretty harsh things last night. I should be the one apologizing.”

“You have every right to be mad. Last year I told you I loved you. I forced you to say it back and then I ran.”

A silence fell in the house and I became increasingly uncomfortable. I shifted in my seat and tried to rise to my feet, but Eli grabbed my wrist, forcing me back down.

He frowned at me, his eyes taking on a darker edge, like he was in pain. “Have your feelings changed?”

My heartbeat sped up. His green eyes watched me intently, painfully, waiting for an answer. My throat went dry. What answer did he want? His face was so stern, so serious…I couldn’t tell.

“No, my feelings haven’t changed.”

His eyes reflected his relief, but his face remained unreadable. Had his feelings changed?

“I… uh…” I cleared my throat. It had suddenly gone dry. I swallowed in an attempt to moisten it. “I tried to forget about you, but I couldn’t. Every night before bed I’d tell myself how much of an idiot I was for leaving you, and yet at the same time I was chastising myself for letting things get so far. We can’t be together, and as long as you’re an angel and I’m a goddess, it can never happen. I’m tired of dragging you along. I don’t want to be selfish with you. I want you to be free, to marry an angel, have children…” The sentence was bitter on my tongue. “If we’re together, you’ll probably get killed eventually, and I don’t think I can handle that.”

He sighed and sat forward, leaning his elbows on his knees. “You’re as susceptible to death as I am. I share the same fears that you do, but if we live in fear, we’ll never be happy. We should appreciate every second that we’re alive, that we’re together, because who knows when it’ll be the last time? As for marriage, I do want to get married and have children, but if being with you meant I couldn’t have those things, then I’d give it up in a heartbeat.”

Eli took my hands between his and shifted his weight so his face was mere inches from my own.

“I love you, Ruby. I tried to convince myself that I didn’t, and for a while there, I even believed it, but then I saw you again, looking as beautiful as I remember, and all the walls and barriers I built came down.”

I ran my thumb along the back of his hand, ignoring the way my skin tingled in his grasp.

“Mr. Aleksandrov is on our side. Is he working on getting the intimate relations ban lifted?” I told him about the conversation Aleksandrov and I had in the car a year ago, when we drove away from Gerald Harbor.

“He wanted to lift the ban to help Mila, but she and Gabriel are over. I don’t know how high that is on his priority list now. All I know is, there’s no way the council will lift that ban. It would cause too much of a riot,” he explained.

“Why? It doesn’t affect anyone who isn’t involved with a guardian.”

“It’s not that. People are just used to things being this way. They’re programmed to think it’s wrong. It’ll take a lot more than lifting a ban to change their minds.”

I thought back to when Mrs. Ploit told me how wrong and disgusting it was to be involved with a guardian angel. “Mrs. Ploit said that it has been that way for centuries… How long did Lucian rule for? We age like humans do.”

“A higher power can rule for as long as they want to. They use witches and charms to dramatically slow down the aging process, if they age at all. Lucian ruled for three centuries, I think.”

Three centuries? That’s three hundred years! I cringed. Lucian didn’t look a day over fifty. Although, being a vampire stops aging and no one knows exactly how long he’d been a vampire.

“What will happen to us if the ban doesn’t get lifted?” I mused.

Eli shifted onto the floor and knelt in front of me. “Then we run away together.”

“I thought you said—”

“Forget anything I have ever said,” he interrupted. “I don’t care if I get banished. If we spend the rest of our lives running, then so be it.”

Then he took my face in his hands and kissed me earnestly, his willing lips moving against mine. I was shocked, too shocked to respond appropriately, and so he pulled away, analyzing my reaction. My blood boiled under my skin and burned in my lips. I wanted to kiss him back with as much passion and desire as I could muster, but there was something I needed to clear up first.

“Last night, you made your choice and you left. What made you change your mind?”

“After I left you, I remembered something my father told me when I was young. I had a small toy horse, and by accident, I snapped its leg off. Out of frustration,1 I threw it in the bin. Later that night, my father brought it back to me and told me that if I cared for something enough and it breaks, I should fix it, not throw it away.”

Eli took my face in his hands. “When I got home last night, I realized how irrational and childish I’d been. I care about you so much. So much that I feel like I’m in physical pain whenever you aren’t around.” He placed a kiss on my forehead. “This is what I want. You are what I want.”

Without warning, I kissed him hard. My heart pounded out an uneven rhythm while my breathing quickened. My fingers moved greedily through his damp hair. I wanted to stop. It wasn’t fair to him, not after what I did, but I couldn’t stop. My body was being over-run by feelings I’d never experienced before. I ignored my inner voice chastising me Selfish, selfish, selfish! it said. This was okay, I was staying now, I promised Mila that I would and I could make it up to Eli. He pulled me to my feet, pressing his body against mine so he could feel every line. I tensed my leg muscles, preventing myself from melting into a soft pile of flesh.

“Aleksandrov could arrive at any minute,” Eli mumbled as we broke apart for air.