Page 46 of Beautiful Madness

I was amazed, and I wasshattered. I would never be able to rest. I would always fight—in this life andthe next. And I wasn’t sure a person should ever be aware of such a thing.

“You are a purpose,” Nicoletold me, understanding my grief. “You can’t be otherwise.”

My birth mother was right. Iwas a killing machine. But I would allow myself my sorrow.

Lucas sighed and for a briefmoment, he closed his eyes. He began to waver, and I swore I saw a shadowy handmade of smoke and feathers slide from the darkness of a vast sky and wraparound him.

He met my stare. “This isn’tthe end for you, Kait Silver,” he said. “And it is not the end for us. I’ll bewaiting.” Then he hesitated. “You broke off a piece of me and it will stayforever inside you. It is my right to retaliate.”

And despite his promise, Ibelieved he meant to try again to take my blade after all.

Nicole tensed behind me, poisedto say something, or do something, when Lucas struck.

But he didn’t take my blade. Heyanked me to him and slammed his mouth against mine, and something deep insideme tore loose and hurled itself through me and into his mouth.

Into him.

I could have pushed him away. Icould have, but I didn’t. He was the one who pulled away.

His lips twitched and I thoughthe’s going to smile, and it’s going to be as fucking amazing as his kiss,but then that feathered, shadowy hand squeezed around him and after abreathless hesitation, it jerked him, faster than my eyes could follow, into thatstrange, terrifying sky.

He was gone.

For now.

And whatever he’d taken from mewent with him.

ChapterTwenty-Four

I hurtled through the air andthen slammed against the ground so hard it shattered every part of me.

Only my mind worked, and justbarely. Abruptly, sound assaulted my ears, and I saw the sun, so bright itbrought stinging tears from my eyes, and I knew I was alive.

“Whoa, Kait,” Remy yelled,trying to hold me down. “Settle down, girl. Settle down.”

Sam leaned over and got in myface. “You’re okay. You’re fine. We’re here, and you’re…alive.” He shot aglance at Remy. “Somehow.”

“Fuck if I know,” Remy said.

“Was it real?” I asked, myvoice sending shards of glass through my throat. “Did the angel take me?”

“He took you,” Sam answered.Then, “You shifted, didn’t you?”

“Yeah she shifted,” Remy toldhim. “She’s naked. Unless an angel ripped her clothes off, and I can’t say I’dbe surprised. That asshole didn’t look like any angel I’ve ever imagined.”

“You couldseehim?” Istruggled to sit up, and Remy grabbed one arm and Sam the other, and theyyanked me up.

“Hard to miss that freak,” Remymuttered.

“And you shifted.” Sam peeredat me, and there was a sort of mad glee in his eyes that was somehow completelyfamiliar to me. Our shapeshifters recognized each other.

Still, he wanted to hear me sayit. “Yeah,” I told him. “Into a crow.”

“Fuck me.” He sat back on hishaunches and rubbed his hand over his face, slightly overcome with emotion.“Animals, then. The things we can do…”

Remy frowned. “A crow? The fuckare you talking about?”

Sam didn’t answer but waited tosee if I would. And even as my body reknitted from my horrific fall, I feltsomething besides pain. Iunderstoodsomething. Maybe it was myproximity to another shapeshifter, or maybe it was simply that my body was myown and everything I was from that moment on could never hide from me again.Whatever the reason, I knew myself. All of myself.