Demon Bound

had moved off, until Ethan had left to speak with Selah.
    Jake took her hand, held her gaze as he brought her fingers to his lips. “So,” he said, “it looks like I’m going to be as badass as you are when I grow up. Wanna take a victory dance?”
    In the courtyard, a few Guardians were moving to the heavy beat of the music. “I will dance,” she agreed. “But only if you will wear your wings.”
    “You drive a hard bargain, goddess.” But he stood and formed his wings.
    His full-sized wings.
    “Oh!” Alice’s laugh pealed out. “You wretch! You didn’t say they’d finished healing.”
    “They didn’t. I didn’t have time.” Jake turned his head, his brows furrowing as he studied them over his shoulder. “How much you want to bet it’s because I Fell and was transformed again?”
    “Yes,” Alice said. And in their natural size, they were much larger than her own. She would have to remember to amend that, and shift hers. When he wasn’t looking, of course, so that it wouldn’t be too obvious.
    Jake glanced at the courtyard, then at the sky. “Dancing—or fly?”
    She stood. “Let’s fly.”

    This , Alice thought, was cleansing.
    The glass-smooth sea that surrounded Caelum lay below. She and Jake skimmed above their reflections, so quickly that her dress whipped her legs and her hair came free of its braid.
    For the first time in over a century, all of her was free of its bindings. What an exhilarating feeling it was.
    Jake rolled in beneath her, flying on his back, grinning as he stole a kiss. She gave him the next one.
    “So,” he called over the wind, “next Sunday?”
    “Yes.” And the next and next and next. “What shall we do until then?” She would make plans for the next hundred years. Starting with the next hour—she planned to fly and feel the wind on her face and think of nothing but the present.
    Until her gaze slid down Jake’s taut form, and—unbidden—an abundance of salacious thoughts rose.
    His grin widened. “Wanna ride?”
    And how lovely it was, that she could alter her plans whenever she wished.