Read Online Sword's Blessing by Kaitlin R. Branch - Free Book Online Page A

gaping, sucking nothingness. Worse than a simple loss. Loss would have meant she could grieve and move on. Loss meant she could work on forgetting his face. Loss meant she didn’t throw away the blessings of her sword. Loss meant he was gone.
    This was looking at his face and knowing he wasn’t there. This was him saying the wrong name when he looked at her. This was the same hand holding hers, the same eyes looking on her face, but lacking the recognition of everything they had been through. It was love. It was familiarity, but something… something wasn’t right! It wasn’t all of him.
    The door slammed, and Giselle started, realizing Samantha and Eli had exited the car. She glanced at Armand. He smiled, and her heart seized. How could she had longed for his loss, or categorized it as better than this. She was divine. She was an Angel! If anyone should have faith in love it should be her. “Armand…”
    “Hey, it’s okay.” He squeezed her hand and nodded, then slipped out of the car. Giselle pressed her hand to her lips, keeping herself from crying out. She’d practically wished for him to die. How could she?
    The door on her side opened, and Armand held out his hand. “Come on, Ada. Let’s take a walk.”
    At first, she couldn’t bring herself to take his hand, not because she didn’t want it, but because she wanted it badly. He waited so sweetly though, that soon it seemed a greater insult not to accept his hand than to touch him when she had recently thought of his death. He pulled her up, shut the door, and finally slid his hand around her waist. She couldn’t speak, still caught up in guilt.
    “Penny for your thoughts?” He touched his forehead to her hair, nuzzling as he had done for years. Her heart surged with mixed anguish and joy. He was so close and yet so far away.
    “I–” She choked, cleared her throat, and tried again. “I just–” She tamped down tears and looked away. This was too much. What if she’d lost him forever? “I don’t know who you are.”
    “It’s okay.” Armand smiled. “I don’t either.”
    “How can you be calm about it?” Giselle asked. “You don’t remember anything and yet you don’t worry? You don’t fear?”
    “Now, I didn’t say that.”
    Armand pulled her closer as they ambled down the frontage road. Cars zipped by without pause or thought, and Giselle almost wished to dive into one. She couldn’t see an end to this discomfort, this awkwardness. Unconsciously, she leaned into him, shivering.
    He rubbed his hand along her arm. “I worry about you. You’re still having trouble with the cold, and it must be ninety degrees. I worry about that look on your face like you’ve witnessed the world end. I fear you’ll regret staying with me.” He kicked a stone. “I fear you’ll leave.”
    “You don’t even know my name.” She blinked away tears. “It isn’t Ada any more.”
    “Isn’t it?” He paused, reached over and wiped her cheek. “When did we get new names?”
    “When Gabriel blessed us,” she said. “After we died.”
    He thought for a moment, then nodded and drew her close, arms wrapping around her back and just under the base of her wings. “I see. I suppose, technically, you are still Giselle, since you still have the wings.”
    “I suppose.”
    “But I’m Manas.” He brushed back a curl, smiling. “Is it a terrible a name?”
    “No!” Giselle grabbed for his hand, shivering. “I just…I just remember vividly…”
    He tilted his head, and finally nodded. “Was it cold, then?”
    “I…I think one of my toes fell off.” She bowed her head. “We’d been running for so long when the Damned came for us.”
    “But they didn’t get us. We escaped?”
    “Yes.” She clung to him. He smelled similar to how he always had. Myrrh and olives. Suddenly she recalled what Samantha had suggested. She swallowed. No. He didn’t know her. Not really. She started to explain their ascension again, describe it to see if he