Angel's Devotion by Aimee Robinson

Author:Aimee Robinson [Robinson, Aimee]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: AMR Publishing LLC

The bookstore’s warm bronze door handle kissed Bridget’s slightly chilled palm. The weight of the old oak door tugged comfortably against her shoulder as she opened it and slid inside her other sanctuary, though she hadn’t been able to visit this one for some time. It was a slight she was eager to correct. All around her, worn leather, crinkled plastic-wrapped dust covers, and weathered paper greeted her, calling to her like long-lost friends.

The bookstore in Aurora had once been Bridget’s refuge. The owner, Amanda, had a particular fondness for high fantasy epics and, oddly enough, papier-mâché. She’d always made the most enchanting book displays, crafting stool-sized cupcakes for Bake Like a Bookworm month, then a life-sized anaconda that snaked around the entire front of the store the following month for Snakes, Eels, and Banana Peels to highlight the newest children’s books on colors and shapes. Bridget still remembered leaping over the snake’s tail, nearly clipping it in the process on her way to score her next fantasy romance.

Her feet led her to that hallowed section now, and each bracing step tingled with another familiar thrill. God, why—why?—had she not done this sooner?

Because you needed someone to show you the value of experiences.

A few patrons mulled about, but as it was near closing time, the stacks were pretty sparse. Bridget managed a few kind half-smiles and was surprised at the ease with which that casual anonymity returned to her. Likewise, the handful of customers she’d greeted returned her mediocre gesture with a mimicked one of their own, as if they didn’t want to interact with people any more than she did. She had to smile at that and wondered whether Amanda would do well to sell customized sweatshirts emblazoned with an explanation for her customers’ common penchant for pages over people.

Unless you want to talk about books, no comment.

She’d buy it in a heartbeat, one in every color.

Bridget reached the back of the store, where the fantasy section was separated from the main stacks by a three-step riser. She took the three-in-one great leap like she used to, and even during that small taste of flight, she couldn’t stop the images that had accosted her all day from flaring brightly in her mind.

Fire. Wings. Phoenixes. Angels. Metal. Great shifting beasts. A warrior’s kisses. More fire and wings . . .

Through the window, the sharp oranges of daylight had firmly dissolved into the burgeoning tendrils of the creeping night. The sun had just set, and she used those final rays of light, mixed with the garish fluorescence of the bookstore’s overhead lighting, to resume her hunt. Her eyes danced over the book displays and titles, searching for something, anything, on⁠—

The man turned the corner before she even noticed him.

“Oh!” Her hands flew to her chest. She pressed the great leaping thing behind her ribs as if doing so would keep it from falling out.

“My bad. It was totally my fault.”

That voice. Smooth, butter-coated, gleeful arrogance. She glanced up at the man before her—and glanced up some more.

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