On Wings of Chaos (Revenant Wyrd Book 5) by Travis Simmons Page A

the warmth of the medallion, the thrum of power within it like a second heartbeat.
     
     

“I don’t want you to go,” Maeven said, following Jovian into his small green room and closing the door behind them. Jovian knew this had been building up since the meeting the day before.
    “There’s several reasons I have to go, one of which is my angelic blood, which will eventually override my human desires.”
    “Resist it.”
    “It’s not that easy! I can’t just turn off that part of me,” Jovian said. “The human side isn’t as strong as the angel side.”
    “Then I’m going with you.”
    “No, you can’t.”
    “You don’t have a say in this,” Maeven told him. “I’m going.”
    “You’ll get yourself killed!” Jovian said, turning to him.
    “And you won’t?” Maeven asked, stepping closer. “This was a close call, Jove!” he traced his fingers down the scar on Jovian’s face. “Next time you might not be so lucky.”
    “And what are you going to do if you’re there? Protect me?”
    “Yes.”
    “Against angels?” Jovian fired back.
    “And you’re what? Going to fight Arael? Goddess, Jove . . . Arael. That’s what you are going toward. He wanted to see your family dead, and you’re walking right into his hands!”
    “ I don’t have a choice! ” Jovian countered. “And you’re needed here. I won’t allow you to go with me.”
    “Then I won’t go with you, I’ll follow.”
    “I’ll find some way to keep you here.”
    Maeven ground his teeth, the muscles in his jaw tensing and releasing with the action.
    “What are you going to do against an army of angels? They’re more powerful than humans.” Jovian shrugged, trying to defuse the situation.
    Maeven sat on the edge of Jovian’s feather bed, the breath huffing out of him in defeat.
    “And you need to be here, to keep our friends safe, to do what you can to help,” Jovian told him, kneeling before him and clasping Maeven’s face in his hands.
    Maeven closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against Jovian’s. “I don’t want to lose you.”
    “You won’t,” Jovian whispered to him. Deep in his heart, however, he wasn’t sure if that was true or not.
    Maeven leaned toward him, closing the distance between their mouths. Jovian felt his heart hitch into his throat with the pounding of his blood. As their lips brushed together, the night outside their window was lit in a fury of red fire, and the keep rocked on its foundations.
    Jovian fell backwards, sliding across the floor, barely stopping before he tumbled into the burning coals of the fireplace.
    There was a moment of deathly silence, a ringing in his ears that he couldn’t shake. Jovian sat dazed, the warmth of the fire at his back and Maeven crouching before him, his hands on Jovian’s shoulders. He shook Jovian, and his mouth was moving like he was shouting, but Jovian couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in his ears.
    Through the window to his right he saw a green glow coming from outside, a large brightness, like that of the twilight sun coming to roost in the courtyard of the keep. To his left, just out of the range of his sight, the shadow he now knew was Wyrders’ Bane slid over the wall and out the door.

    Devenstar turned away from the cold expanse of the plains on the other side of the wall, and looked across the courtyard to the keep above. He’d only been stationed on the wall now for an hour, and despite the fire crackling in a brazier nearby, he longed for the warmth of his own room. He looked up high to the right tower, letting his mind wander. But as often happened when he let his mind wander, his thoughts turned to Cianna.
    He wondered which one of the illuminated windows in the right tower was her bedroom, and if she was in there right now. Devenstar hadn’t seen Cianna since they parted when they first arrived at the keep, and he didn’t like that. He had felt a growing bond with her through their travels, and he was sure she was just