The next few days passed in a slow crawl, almost too painful to bear. Avon was recovering with care from mourning its losses, slowly forming back to its old ways. Angels were quiet and the air was morose, so stale and spiritless, it was as though the sky itself was in a standstill.
Without the guardianship to escape to, everything seemed too normal, lacking the excitement I was used to. I hardly went out anymore, there was nothing to do, but it was also a plus keeping my distance away from Enrique who was hell bent with bringing up our near future which dawned like a cold dark breath down my spine.
"So, it must be nice with all this time off," Gwen said, as she moved around the kitchen, the pan on the stove sizzling.
I groaned as I toyed with my Shadow-dagger, my fingertip balanced over its sharp tip.
"I can't take it anymore," I grumbled. "It's so boring around here. Its like everyone's dead." I instantly regretted my words.
Gwen stirred her pan. "The silence is nice. No more raids, no more demon talk, its giving people a moment to calm down after everything that's happened. It's a good break, Lilith."
I rolled my eyes. "The Council hasn't even said a word about the traitor-have they even found him yet? Tortured him even?"
"Get that stuff out of your head, Lilith. Go flying, go find Enrique and start planning your life. You're a big girl now, second in command, the Guardian commander's new sworn love, you're life is full of excitement," Gwen said enthusiastically.
I rolled my eyes, regretting I'd told her anything about Enrique and my great new future that was approaching like a storm. She didn't seem to see it my way which was the same feeling as being stuck in a tar pit, slowly sinking into your doom.
Suddenly someone knocked on the door and without an answer came barging in.
"Hey, Gwen, Lilith," Thor said nodding to each of us as he walked in, his wings clumsily banging against the door.
"Hey Thor," we both replied.
Thor grinned over to me and I finally noticed that his arm was finally out of its sling. "Lilith, I've brought you a little present."
I frowned as Thor stepped aside and looked over to the doorway where Enrique appeared, grinning coolly at me, dressed in his sleek leather Guardian commander gear, ruffling his wings before stepping inside.
"Gwen, Lilith," Enrique greeted to each of us as he came over and kissed me tenderly on the cheek and sat down at the table beside me.
"Enrique, what a surprise," I said shooting Thor a dark glare as he chuckled under his breath and went to Gwen's side. "What are you doing here?"
Thor whispered something into Gwen's ear that suddenly made the two of them leave the room, granting Enrique and I privacy-privacy that I didn't want. I almost protested to their leaving, but was interrupted by Enrique.
"I was hoping," he said stroking my feathers, "we could spend the day together, just the two of us."
I mentally groaned. "Wow," I said forcing a smile. "Um, that would be great, but don't you have Guardian stuff to do?"
He shrugged and picked up my Shadow-blade and twirled it around in his hand, playing with it. "Not really, I've taken a break from training all the new recruits." He shuddered. "Falcon had a hard job."
I gritted my teeth at the bare mentioning of Falcon's name; a painful reminder of my great fault.
"But," Enrique said with a cheerful tone. "I thought things were kinda down, so I decided we could do something to improve that." He laced his fingers through mine. "It's been a while since we've done anything with each other." His eyes darkened. "I don't want us to grow apart."
I glanced over my shoulder to the hall where I imagined Thor and Gwen eavesdropping.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt anything."
Enrique's face brightened. "What do you want to do? We can do anything you want, we could even go flying."
"Sure," I said quickly making up my mind; anything to get me out of the house and into the air that I had missed so badly. "Let's fly."
My shoulder joints screamed with pleasure as I took to the wind, closing my eyes as I fell through the sky and darted up and through the clouds, breathing in the air of the free sky. With soft gusts and air roaring past my ears, it welcomed me with winds of joy.
"Mm," I sighed.
"Are you enjoying yourself?" Enrique asked as he soared up beside me, the tips of his sterling wings batting lightly against mine.
"Yes, I've missed the air," I said trying to hide the fact that I'd forgotten he was even there I'd been so lost in myself.
He grinned and bumped his wing against mine. "Try and catch me." Instantly, he dived down and out of sight with a strong flap of his wings. I could help, but let out a whoop of laughter as I took off after him. Chase, a game I had missed so dearly.
We'd spent hours in the air, chasing, diving, soaring, gliding; we'd happily wasted the day away in the sky, claiming the freedom and happiness that I'd forgotten we had so much of.
With our wings becoming tired and our shoulder joints cramping up, we came down to rest in a tall tree on the outskirts of the city. I landed softly, Enrique stuffing his wings against his back as he came down to side beside me on the thick tree branch.
"Hmm!" Enrique groaned. "That's feels better as he said with a grunt.
I sat with my knees up against my chest, watching as the sky burned to a bright tangerine orange, fading down over the hills. It was beautiful.
"So beautiful," Enrique sighed sitting with one leg dangling loosely in the air.
I nodded in agreement, picking down at the bark with my fingernails. "Yes, the sunsets are always nice from up here."
Enrique smirked as he turned to me. "Oh-yes, the sunsets are beautiful too, but I wasn't talking about them."
I felt myself blush as continued to stare at the shimmering sky.
"You know...Lilith-"
"So, you're training the new guardians?" I quickly interjected before he could go on. Enrique blinked, staring at me wordlessly before he nodded and briefly answering.
"Yes."
"You said it was a hard job? Is it?"
He shrugged with a sigh rummaging his fingers through his croppy black hair. "Their young, stupid, reckless and just wanna go out there and kill something." He shook his head with a dark shadowy scowl. "They have no idea what their getting into." His eyes looked off, but his face stayed sulky and sour with a helpless soft coat.
I reached out to his arm that was warm under my fingertips. He flinched and looked to me, his face softening.
"It'll be okay," I encouraged. "You're a good leader. Everyone knows that."
He reached for my chin and traced my jaw with his knuckle. "It's actually kind of funny that even though their stupid and reckless, their ambition reminds me of you."
I snorted. "That's nice."
"But there are many other things that remind me of you. The beauty of the sunset, the joyful rolling winds." His golden eyes sparkled, "A soul so carefree and perfect in every way."
I groaned and ducked away from his hovering hand. He frowned.
"What?"
"Enrique," I sighed. "I'm a warrior not a princess. I wasn't brought up like that and...I can't pretend to be." I looked up at him, expecting to see pain or disappointment, but he stared evenly at me.
"I know that, Lilith." He grinned. "You prefer a blade over makeup, or demon hunting gear rather than a dress, I get that-I know that, and I'll never expect more."
I couldn't help, but smile and let Enrique guide my head to his shoulder where I closed my eyes and felt the last remaining rays of the sun disappear into the coming darkness.
We both flew over Avon, balancing on the upward gusts, the evening dawning, sending waves of exhaustion coursing through me. Then suddenly out from nowhere, below me, it was only a second. I saw a flicker of movement. I instantly circled, watching for the dark shadow. Ahead of me, Enrique looped back around. "What's wrong?"
I peered down at the streets, watching with a peeled eye and uncertainty growing in my gut. "Nothing, I thought I saw...something."
"Did you wanna take a closer look to make sure?" Enrique suggested lightly.
I nodded and without a word dove down into the air and landed on the streets soundlessly like an owl, glaring through the darkness. I tucked my wings in against my side extra carefully as I padded lightly on the balls of my toes, scouring the empty streets, my gut twitching at every sound. Beside me, Enrique wandered around almost boredly.
Shh!
I whirled around and whipped out my blade from my waist and tore after the moving shadow, leaping into the air and landing on it. The hooded figure squeaked with surprise as I shoved my blade against its throat, whipping back its hood, revealing its face.
I frowned suddenly recognizing the head full of thick tousled sandy blonde hair and big round green eyes. "Thor?"
Thor looked up to me with a sheepish smile, choking out a staggered, "Hey, Lilith."