I love you.
When I lift her off her feet and move toward my bed.
I love you.
Charlie lies back on a blanket of white. Her blond hair creates a halo around wide, blue eyes, pink mouth, cream skin—
Open arms.
A lump builds in my throat when I lower myself onto her, parting her thighs. And for a moment, I’m not sure I can do this. It never seems right. The timing is always off. But when Charlie takes my face in her hands and meets my gaze, every uncertain thought fades away.
“If I had a soul,” I say. “I’d give it to you.”
Charlie pulls me closer so that our lips almost touch. She lays a hand on my face, and her eyes swim with affection. “You may not have my soul, Dante. But you will always have my heart.”
And then it’s over.
My life as I knew it is over.
Her shirt slides off easily over her head, and my entire body burns in anticipation of feeling her in this new way. With trembling hands, I undo the button on her jeans and guide them off, stopping to kiss the tops of her knees, the insides of her ankle. Charlie leans up and pulls off my shirt, and in slow, gentle movements—in between kisses in new, sensual places—the rest of our clothes fall to the floor.
Charlie slips beneath the white blanket. I join her, my breath coming deep and quick.
I pause over her, staring down at this girl I met months ago with her wide smile and crystal laugh. And her heart. I press my lips to her chest and lay a kiss where I feel it thrumming.
“I’ll love you forever,” I hear her whisper.
And even though I’ve said it a hundred times. A thousand. I say it again.
“I love you, angel. Forever.”
With my heart overflowing, and a tear slipping down Charlie’s cheek—
We are together.
19 
Forever
When I wake up, it’s midday. The sun is slipping through the curtains, casting a soft glow over Charlie’s bare skin.
As I watch her sleep, curled into the blankets, love seeps from every pore in my body. I hesitate for a moment, taking in the sight of her, safe and blissful, before placing my lips against her shoulder. She makes a small sound and rustles beneath the sheets.
My heart feels as if it’s outside my body as it remembers last night. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s nowhere near my first time being with a girl, but it’s the first time I’ve been more concerned about the person I was with than how things felt for me. Even now, I can’t help worrying about how she’ll feel this morning. I may have lost the horn my father gave me, but it’s okay because now Charlie and I are connected in this incredible way. I only hope she doesn’t regret that connection.
“I need pancakes,” I hear Charlie mumble.
I laugh too loud, relieved she seems normal. Laying my arm across her slight frame, I curl my body around hers and breathe in. I can smell the orange scent of her shampoo on the pillow beneath my head.
It’s enough to drive me mad with lust all over again.
“Was I not clear about the pancakes?” she says.
Chuckling, I kiss her once, twice on the ear, then move to find her something to eat. As I start to get up, she grabs my hand.
Her eyes connect with mine, and an easy smile glides across her face. “I’m okay.”
“I wasn’t worried,” I say. She raises a single eyebrow, and I know she doesn’t believe me. She shouldn’t. “You really are all right?”
“Me and you, Dante.” She leans back on the pillow. “Just like you said.”
“You wanted bacon, correct?” I say, tugging on my jeans.
“Dante.”
“A crispy, heaping pile of it. Check. I’ve got my phone if you need me.” I head toward the door, ready to harass whoever I need to in order to feed my woman. But I can’t help pausing before I leave the room. “I meant what I said last night, Charlie. Forever.”
“Forever,” I hear her echo quietly. And then right as I walking through the doorway, she asks. “Dante, do you like the way I look now? I mean, better?”
I step back into the room and make sure she meets my gaze. “You are breathtaking, Charlie. You are stunning now, you know that. But you were stunning before, too. Not everybody could see it, but sometimes that can make a girl so much more appealing. The beauty who doesn’t know she’s beautiful. The girl everyone seems to ignore, but to the right person she’s like this…like this beam of light. You were a beam of light, Charlie,” I say. “I’m just sorry it took me so long to see it.”
Charlie smiles so big, my heart aches. I hate myself for not telling her this sooner.
“I’m out of Skittles,” she says, grinning. “Go and fetch me some, prince.”
And so I do.
The door clicks shut behind me. I head toward the elevator, then to the lobby. Though my heart seems to be back in the room with Charlie, I can’t stop the concern that creeps in as I move farther away from her. Not just about what happened between us last night, and the question she just asked, but because of what’s out there, lurking.
Those people, the sirens, they could be hunting us at this very moment. Before, Salem and Easton’s goal was to have Charlie kill herself and call it an accident. Now what? Will they do the job themselves? What about Gage and Lyra? Maybe they know about this Big Something that Blue says Big Guy is testing me for. Perhaps they even know why He wants Aspen so badly. Why else would they have lurked around Aspen, influencing her to sin? They wanted me to fail my assignment. And what about the siren who tried running me off the road? That was all kinds of jacked up.
Dwelling on all this reminds me that I need to check in with Max. See if he’s found anything out. For the past few days, all I’ve done is lose myself in Aspen, embracing her lifestyle instead of helping her. But now I’ve got to be on my game, and I need all the help I can get.
Digging my phone out of my pocket, I find a quiet corner and call Max’s number. As it’s ringing, I wonder what it would be like if I lost my phone and someone came across it. They’d have themselves a nice speed-dial list of demons and angels.
I’m smiling to myself, remembering just how amusing I am, when Max picks up.
“Bro,” he says, and it sounds like it took everything he had to speak that one single word. I want to ask him if he’s all right, but know it’s business first.
“The collectors have recruited humans to work for them,” I blurt.
Max doesn’t say anything.
“Max?”
“You’re kidding.” His voice perks up. “Are you for real? How do you know?”
I explain everything to him and he oh, snaps and oh, shits several times.
“Okay, I’m going to call Val,” Max says. “We’ve got to get to you guys.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m calling her now.” I pause a beat. “Hey, have you been keeping an eye on her like I asked?”
“Like an eagle, dude. Like a freaking bald-assed eagle.”
“So have you learned anything?” I ask. “Like something she’s hiding?”
“Oh, that,” he says. “No, not really.” I realize Max just basically admitted to stalking his own fiancée. “Oh, wait. I heard her saying something on the phone the other day. Something about stoles, whatever that means.”
“Stoles?” I say, confused. Then I remember something. “Do you mean scrolls?”
“Oh, yeah. Scrolls.” Max clears his throat. “Twin scrolls. It was something about one being in heaven’s possession and the other being in hell. Apparently no one can read what they say. I think, like, Lucille and Big Guy can read them, but that’s it. So the rest of us are in the dark about what the H is going on. Which is awesome.”