“No crying,” he said. “I can still zap you, you know.”

Her eyes stung, but he did make her laugh. “Not unless you want your feathered ass kicked.”

He chuckled as Dru ran her hands through his hair, loving the way it felt like silk through her fingers, the way it still stood up in wild spikes…and especially the way the action made him smile. She could see his heart in his eyes. And deep in her chest, where she could feel his heart keep time with hers, she could sense the rare and beautiful spark that had been missing before…his soul.

“I love you,” she said. “I think I loved you even when I was walking around Terra Noctem all the time, hoping I’d catch you doing something wrong so I could tell you off.”

“I guess I’ll have to misbehave to keep you interested then,” he said. He wrapped his other wing around her and pulled her close. “Should be easy enough, since I’ve agreed to keep on hunting demons…just not as a reluctant employee. I’ll stay on as an equal to the angels. A brother again, after all this time.” He smirked. “An irritating, electrically charged brother, but a brother just the same. I’m never going to be perfect, Dru. But I will be yours, if you’ll have me. Not just because we’re bonded, and you feel like you have to. Because you want to.”

“I just want you,” she said. “Now come here. I’ve missed you, there are no dead people here, and my brother can’t throw us out.”

“Hmm. I may not be perfect,” Meresin murmured, “but this is.”

And he pulled Dru close for what would always be, to her, Heaven itself—his kiss.