She shook her head. “I should have stopped her. Opium was so unpredictable back then, and she’d gotten ahold of a really strong batch. If I’d been there, I could have warned her.”
“You were helping another charge.”
She scoffed. “I wasn’t helping him. I waswithhim. Guardians can appear to their charges as humans when they need a friend or even a random stranger to give them advice. Iappearedto Jonathan as someone to court.”
He scooted down the couch toward her. “Then, I’m sure that’s what he needed at the time.”
“I’m not, and neither is Gabriela. She yanked me out of that position so fast, my halo nearly slipped off. I was reassigned to holy water distribution, but I fell into the vat we were blessing and pulled two other angels in with me. You can’t fly with wet wings, so we were stuck there all night until someone on the next shift found us.”
“Sometimes it takes a while to find our calling.”
She arched a brow. “It happened three times. After the third, my boss was ready to send me to the repository to be a file clerk, but Michelle, my boss’s boss, took pity on me. She sent me here to bake cakes for the demons of New Orleans.”
“And this is where you’re meant to be.” He couldn’t say why or how he knew, but he felt it all the way to his bones.
She rose again. “I thought so. I’ve been here over a century, and I’ve perfected the recipe to subdue demon magic without harming the hellions. I visited the angelic realm around one hundred fifty years ago to tell Gabriela in person. She acted like it was nothing.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Like I was nothing.”
Pete stood and stepped toward her, lifting her lowered head with his finger beneath her chin. “You are not nothing. Your role in this realm is important, but your job isn’t your identity.”
She looked into his eyes, tears gathering on her lower lids before one rolled down her cheek. “Says the literal Easter Bunny.”
He smiled softly and wiped it away with his thumb. “Even with that very large piece of me missing from my mind, I’m still here. I think I’m still me. If I never remember my past, I’m okay with that.”
Hewasokay with it, anyway. Before Eostre appeared and warned him his life was on the line, he’d have been happy to stay put and spend the rest of his days with Destiny, whether she was “awry” or simply beautifully imperfect.
Now that he knew he was a pawn in a fae prophecy, of course he’d have to act. He couldn’t sit by while an entire realm fell apart, but right now, Destiny needed him more.
Another tear rolled down her face, and he wiped it away. His entire being ached at her sadness, and he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and take it all away. To make her happy. To make her his own.
“I like being here in New Orleans with you.” And that really was the gods’ honest truth.
“I like you being here too. I just…” She laughed and shook her head. “Would you listen to me? I didn’t mean to drag you into my pity party. I’m done now.”
“I don’t mind. Pity party, dance party, you can invite me to them all.” He brushed a lock of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. “I want to be here for you.”
Her gaze dipped to his mouth, and she slipped out her tongue, moistening her lips before smiling softly. “That’s kind of you.” She rested her fingertips lightly against his chest.
Her touch made his head spin, and desire unfurled inside him.She’s mine,his rabbit said in his mind, and goddess have mercy, did he ever need to make it so. He drifted closer, cupping her cheek in his hand, and her lips parted slightly as she lifted her gaze to meet his.
Heart thumping, he leaned in, his mouth scant centimeters from hers. He waited, giving her ample time to pull away, the anticipation of tasting this sweet angel’s lips tightening his core and making his stomach loop.
She didn’t pull away. In fact, she leaned in closer, sliding her arms around his waist and pressing her soft, velvety lips to his.
Every muscle in his body seemed to melt as he pulled her to his chest and kissed her. She tasted as sweet as he imagined, like vanilla and lavender. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the cakes she baked or because she was an angel, but it didn’t matter.
His rabbit leaped with joy, and he drank her in. Her soft curves pressing against him turned his head into a carousel, the sensation both exhilarating and nauseating at the same time, and as he dipped his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers, he gripped her shoulders to steady himself.
She broke the kiss, pulling back to look at him, and a dark vignette formed around his vision. “Pete? Are you okay?” She held his face in her hands, and his knees buckled beneath him.
He pitched forward, the vignette closing in, turning into a black tunnel as they tumbled onto the couch. He fell on top of her, and everything went dark.
CHAPTERELEVEN
Destiny leanedagainst the kitchen counter, warming her hands with a mug of coffee and watching the softest, silkiest bunny she’d ever seen sleep on the couch. Holy fluff. Crimson wasn’t kidding about the side effects of that spell.
After they’d fallen—and she’d realized the reason wasn’t because he wanted to hop down her bunny trail—she’d wiggled out from under him and taken off his shoes. She’d covered him with a blanket, which he had knocked to the floor, and now, he lay there in rabbit form, snuggled up like a little ball of cottony fluff.
