“I know.”
“No matter where we go,” he continued. “No matter what happens as the years pass, I promise.”
He sat up, held her cheeks with both hands and watched her smile spread.
“I love you.”
“I came back to you,” he said. “I remember. It was a choice, and I chose you.”
Ava’s jaw dropped when she realized what he was talking about. “Was it beautiful?”
“Very.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t. I told you,” he said, rubbing his thumb over her trembling lip. “I’d abandon heaven if you weren’t there.”
“How can I repay that?” she said. “There’s nothing—”
“There is no debt. Love is not a debt. It’s a promise. And I promised you once that I’d be back. Don’t you remember?”
“In the cistern,” she said. “Before—”
“I promised.” He smiled when he pinched her chin. “You only had to call me, canım. You may not have noticed this, but sometimes your mate is forgetful.”
She laughed and laughed, and that too was a balm on his soul. Because though Malachi had left her, he hadn’t known to miss her in heaven. Not until she called.
Ava pressed a delicate kiss to his lips. “I’m glad you’re back,” she said against his mouth.
“I don’t plan on leaving again.” He rolled so she was under him. “And now I have a powerful singer as my mate.”
She arched her back and ran her hands over his shoulders, along his biceps, and over the spells on his forearms until she could wrap her fingers around his wrists. “And I have a magnificent scribe who has claimed me.”
He flexed his hips against hers and hummed in satisfaction when she moaned.
“You do.”
“Make me yours again.”
He leaned down, bracing an arm near her shoulder as he took her mouth.
“Always.”
Chapter Twenty
SHE WATCHED HIM AS HE left for the Library. He’d woken before dawn to go and tattoo the mating vow on his chest. And though he would only be walking through the city center, he was strapping silver daggers to his body, taking every precaution before he left her.
“You’re staring,” he whispered. “You should go back to sleep.”
“I’m not tired. And you’re too beautiful not to stare at.”
He smiled. It might have been just a little smug. But then, they’d both been voracious the night before. Ava guessed it was only the magic making her restless.
“Damien will be here in a minute,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “How do you feel?”
“I don’t feel weaker or anything like that.”
He tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “With Grigori in the city, I don’t want you going anywhere alone. Normally we would have performed our mating away from everything. Taken time apart to give our bond time to mature so we would both be at full strength. We probably should have done it at my grandparents’ house when we were there.”
“We weren’t ready then.”
“No.”
She took a deep breath and traced the line of a tattoo that peeked over his collar. “Do you really remember everything?”
“Yes. Including how stubborn you’ve always been. You pulled a gun on me once,” he said with a grin.
“I thought you were a nefarious kidnapper. Bent on seducing me and stealing me away.”
“That sounds like an excellent plan.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
He grabbed her hand and kissed it. “Until we can, I want you to be careful.”
“The spells Vasu told me, they were pretty effective.”
“Hmm.”
She’d written down what they had sounded like to her, but he hadn’t recognized the words. She’s told him the instant effect—both the excruciating mental pain and the paralysis they’d caused—and he’d been impressed.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that the Fallen and Forgiven might have very different magic.”
Ava frowned. “Isn’t it all basically the same thing?”
Malachi shrugged. “Yes? I don’t really know, to be honest. The Old Language is the angelic tongue, but you have to remember we only have what our ancestors were taught. We’re talking about thousands of years of oral and written tradition following that. Irin magic has changed over time. I’m sure of it. It could be the spells Vasu taught you are words that have been forgotten. Or were never given to us at all.”
“Well, I’m not forgetting them. If I can use those against Grigori—”
“I still want you to be careful. The Grigori advantage has always been numbers. In Vienna, that threat is mitigated because of the larger Irin population. At the same time, it’s a city of bureaucrats and politicians, not active soldiers.”
“I’ll be careful.”
He pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “Thank you, canım. That puts my mind at ease. I’m going to the ritual room with Rhys, but we’ll be back as soon as I’m done.”
She spread her hand over his heart. “So it’s going here, huh?”
He nodded.
“Do I need to write it down for you?”
He shook his head. “I remember every word.”
“Good.”