The Angels in Heaven Above

Chapter 38 - Adra

It was a short letter.

Too short.

Adra frowned when she read the words, the implicit, yet clear, demand in them without much care.

Adra,

I'll be waiting for you at our uncle's house for the Spring Isiméria. We'll talk then.

Love,

Kia.

It was like pulling the lever of her anxiety. Adra fought to take a deep breath and calm down when she felt the usual tingles in her nape. She read the letter one more time, then left it aside on her desk with one more deep breath.

Lena was somewhere with their friends and Adra considered joining them for a second before shaking her head. She wouldn't be able to focus on anything that wasn't that letter tonight.

If only Damian was here, the thought passed through her mind like a sudden flood and Adra frowned again. Since they'd kissed for the first time months ago, thoughts like that one had been more usual than ever. Ust like the irresistible desire to hug him every time Adra felt the pain of grief wrapped its claws around her chest and throat.

She asked herself if he felt the same. If Damian even knew what it was like to need someone to breathe properly. If he knew his arms around her made her feel like she was finally free for the first time in her life. If each breath of his in her face made Adra feel like a thousand electric shocks were drawn in its lines on her skin.

Biting her lip hard, she forced herself to go back to the present and to the problem she had at that specific moment. Kia's letter was the last one in a series of others. It was dated the month before, which meant she had probably discovered what Adra had been doing and definitely wasn't happy with it.

The thought alone made Adra shiver.

She knew she would have to face Kia sometime. Knew her mother would be livid with her if she had broken free from her stupor caused by grief and saw her only daughter running towards the very person who had stolen everything away from their family.

— Hell, she's going to beat my ass up so hard. — She mumbled to the wall, laughing almost hysterically with everything she had boiling up inside of her.

But another letter was also taking Adra's attention away. And that one was a lot more troubling because it was addressed to her dad:

Dear Carino,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I would also like to add I am sorry for the event of weeks ago, but I reinstate our deal continues the same way besides that. Don't disappoint me, don't disappoint us.

Yours sincerely,

HMTY, the cypress, the owl, and the apple.

Adra couldn't find the meaning behind that letter. What deal was that? What Carino could do to not disappoint the sender? What that acronym and that identification meant?

She should've been staring at the wall while trying to make sense of this for quite some time because when she finally woke up from her own thoughts, there was an impatient knock on the door of her room.

Cautious, Adra opened the door just to find Damian standing in front of her, a whiskey bottle in his hand. She bit her lip when the sight of him stole her breath away.

Damian, with messy black hair glistening with moisture and his brownish lips arched in a smile full of sin, was one of the most beautiful sights Adra had ever admired. A few seconds of silence stretched as the air between them crackled and heated, the demon's black eyes scanning Adra like a lover's caress.