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started to fall gently as cars sped by, his presence unnoticed by the cosmos around him. As his spirit intertwined tightly with mine, I could sense the sadness that lapped at his heels. Loss, the death of a loved one, a distinct notion that life was no longer worth living. The picture unclear, but the hurt tangled deep down within his soul. I yearned to heal the brokenness that he was swimming within. Closing my eyes, I prayed fervently for his soul.
    Before I had time to spread my wings in secret and to remain unseen to those around me, he stood up, looking out across the river, darkness hovering around him. Closing his eyes, he allowed one foot to tumble off the edge. Before I could stop myself, I sprang forth from my hiding place, coming to life, no longer a piece of the backdrop. Instead I was a girl, her wings no longer hidden beneath her skin, holding his hands tightly within mine. I was flying in midair only inches away from his stunned face, his eyes piercing mine like sharp daggers. Instantly I knew I had made the wrong decision, I had broken the very vow that I had so recently spoken. I had allowed my Shomer to see me, to view me as a whole instead of a premonition, to see me as an angel, not as a human. I had allowed him to envision me as a real individual instead of remaining within the shadows of his life.
    “Who are you?”
    The wind whipped my hair wildly around my tormented face, the pieces of my once-perfectly-placed bun now in tangled knots. Speaking to our Shomer was forbidden, but I had brought myself this far. Moving forth surely wouldn’t allow me to be in any more trouble than I already was with the Guardian council and Baron Griland himself, yet I hesitated to tumble forth into a conversation with him.
    I grasped him tightly in my arms, my wings gently gliding through the wind and rain, lowering him down to the scaffolding of the bridge below the paved street…away from the peering eyes of any onlookers. His back fell against a steel lattice piece, his eyes watching my every move as I took a seat next to him, disgusted with myself, my wings disappearing into the confines of my being. Evan had every right to fear me, to proceed to jump out of anguish, but instead, he sat motionless beside me. Our feet were dangling nearly 100 feet above the cold, murky water below, sending the chill of fear coursing through my body. First encounter, first try, and I had blown my cover. And I knew what the sentence was for having seen a living angel. Death. Evan had longed for death, and I had been sent to save him from its grips. Yet instead, I had handed him the passing of life by my own two hands. His breath would be stolen. The very breath I should have protected for a lifetime.
     
     

Chapter Eight
     
    Praise
     
     
     
    Rain fell in sheets, the wind howling through the dark night of death. Cars raced across the bridge above us, yet the two of us sat in silence for what seemed like hours. Words were lost, a life would be taken, and dread masked its ugliness across the folds of my heart. I had failed, and I was suddenly overtaken with guilt for the path before me…the path that now lay before Evan.
    My hair hung in wet threads, cold raindrops falling from the tip of my nose. I felt his hand on top of mine, the warmth radiating beneath my cold, wet skin. His focus was on my silhouette, his heartbeat still beating in rhythm with my own.
    “Thank you,” he said swiftly above the silence.
    My eyes met his, locking effortlessly as my glance slowly fell to our hands now intertwined on the steel edge of the bridge. The voice in my throat refused to give way, leaving the words I needed, wanted to say…unsaid. Instead, I focused on his eyes of dark chestnut brown, fading into the life that fell behind his windows to the world. The city lights danced within his irises as feelings of protection wound themselves around my heart.
    “Can you…speak?” His eyes never left mine as he spoke.
    I blinked repeatedly to