Finding Heathcliff

Fifty-Five

They left the cave early the following morning and it took the angels only a couple of hours to reach the surface of the promontory despite having to carry more people-- Izar decided to join them and Rigel's parents insisted on returning home.

The group reached the outskirts of Vega shortly after sunset the following day, and Michael and Azrael, glowing eerily under the moonlight, used angel magic to disguise themselves as fallen angels, deciding on making themselves visible to human eyes like the others.

Evangeline, Ramiel and Camael spread their arms and three pairs of doves, so similar and yet so different from Azrael's, swooped in from the nearby copse of trees, each finding their angel without a mistake. The birds were off again just as unexpectedly, but Astrid didn't have time to question anyone about how had they found them and where they had been sent to because they heard footsteps from the direction of Rigel's house, and Jophiel rounded the corner a few second later.

"Here you are! So much has happened. Regulus, the regent's men tried to burn your house down. We fought them and repaired the cottage as well as we could, but some of your books..." he spoke fast until he approached the group enough to spot Michael in their midst.

"I thought you never come into this country, Michael," Jophiel said, smiling at him.

"And I thought we would never meet again, friend, because you decided, I've heard, not to claim your wings back."

The two men embraced, then Jophiel turned back to Rigel's father.

"As I said, we did our best to restore your house, but we couldn't replace your books. Come, let me show you."

Jophiel led the group around the house towards the entrance of the cottage. To Astrid, in the faint light cast by the almost full moon, the house looked just as before. Even inside, in the warm flicker of the oil lamps which Regulus lighted when they entered, nothing seemed out of place, apart from the strong scent of charred wood, until they reached Regulus' bookshelves. There, the curtain which used to hide them from view, and more than half of the books were missing. The sight brought tears to her eyes, but Regulus only shrugged.

"It could have been much worse, I'm sure. I hope none of your people got hurt, Jophiel. Thank you."

Andromeda, who had been quiet until that moment, on seeing it was really only the books the fallen angels hadn't repaired, remembered her duties of the lady of the house and started planning where she would make all of them sleep.

"I'll take some of them with me, Andromeda," Jophiel said, placing one hand on her shoulder. "There are many things we must discuss before they move on."

In the end, it was only Rigel with Astrid and Azrael who remained to sleep in Regulus' cottage; the others followed Jophiel to his house.

"Didn't you want to go with the others to hear the news?" Astrid asked when she reached her room, the same one she had been assigned before, after her bath. The only difference was that this time, her sharing the bedroom with Azrael seemed so natural to Rigel's parents that they never questioned it. And it made Astrid happy, people's accepting them as a couple, as if they had been destined to be together. That was exactly how she felt, she thought, walking across the small bedroom towards Azrael, who sat on the bed.

He reached out for her and pulled her between his legs as she approached, wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, and pressed his face to her chest, among the damp folds of her clean shirt.

"No, they can tell me tomorrow. I'll have to fly over later, only to hear when Michael wants to leave in the morning, but I'm not going anywhere before you fall asleep."