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"Be careful," Roland was always saying when she would sneak off to be with Tess And Arriane was Never once did they get caught Never once did the angels suspect Arriane’s secret romance with one of Lucifer’s closest demons She had been careful about so much--except the destiny of her heart

She simply had never expected Tessriel to make her choose

But now it had cooodbye had to be forever

Arriane couldn’t breathe Tears streaasped and blindly flew on, not knohere she’d go

Would she ever see her love again?

A sharp pain seeony riddled its way into the fissures of her bones What was happening? Then a dark premonition sapped at her soul, and Arriane cried out in fear

She clutched her heart, but this wasn’t

Tess

In the ht across the mountains of northern Italy, Arriane swooped around to reverse directions in the sky Her wings shuddered and her heart stalled and the only thing she kneas that she had to get back to the dairy far through her brain…

Until she was absolutely certain …

So unspeakable

THREE

LOVE TAKES WING

The barn was eht besides a cold sliver of Tuscan s They cast a soft, opalescent glow on the ani: The horses whinnied and the chickens clucked restlessly in their pens; the cows lay in the musky hay, their udders swollen with , too

Arriane grew frantic--where was Tess? She paced the barn, searching for clues, finding only the evidence of their fight The toppled milk pails The scuffed patch of muddy hay where they had tussled If she closed her eyes, she could still see Tess the way she wanted to, sht flush in her cheeks

Arriane’s breath made clouds before her face She watched them vanish into the frosty air She wanted to screa

The pre her steps around the stables before she’d storry words they had spat at each other, regretting everything she’d ever said or done to Tess that did not come from a place of utter love

There

She froze as her wing tip dragged across a mound of damp hay

What was that?

Arriane dropped to her knees Her wings glohite, illu the terrified animals, which were backed into the corners of their stalls

There was blood on the hay--a shiny, red pool

"Tessriel!"

Arriane soared upward, scanning the ground madly for another trace of her love’s blood She flew in a panicked circle, scouring every inch of the barn, darting like a skylark this way and that, finding nothing

Until she let her wings carry her outside, to the far side of the barn

There, just beyond the open doorway, she spied a srass Sheover it She wanted to touch it, but--

No She stopped herself

Stretching away fro several inches long, leading in the direction of the North Star

Tess was on the move But what had happened to her?

Arriane fle to the ground, seeking sns At various points she would see spots of blood on blades of tall grass, but then she would lose the trail again At one point, having crossed a creek bed, the trail disappeared co all was lost

But then, near a weepingtree, she picked up her lover’s path again

Blood streamed for twenty yards--the trail widened and had splashed far, as if a fresh wound had been inflicted Was an ene her as she fled? Arriane sped up, desperate to come between Tess and whatever evil would dare har could have hunted down a fully es, Arriane could see Lucifer, the layers of cataracts on his eyes, his tre with rank black hairs

But would Lucifer have come here, to wrestle Tess back to Hell? Arriane had never seen her love face to face with her h visions of it haunted her If she discovered Lucifer in the act of har Tess, Arriane didn’t knohat she would do She could barely fly through the rage that was building inside

Love like this was fatal, even for an angel

"Tessriel!" she bellowed again into the endless fields of green But she heard nothing

In the west, storm clouds formed a dirty screen across the sky Arriane hoped that Tess hadn’t traveled in that direction Everything about the rain--its scent, its effect on the terrain, its purifying quality--would throw Arriane off the trail

But

So the heart of the teo

Arriane flattened her wings She focused on picking up velocity Turbulence shook her Her body rocked froht, up and down, until she was soaked and shivering and spitting rain