Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate

Author:Lauren Kate
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Wasn’t?” A cold wind crept over the meadow.

“He has given me an ultimatum.”

The blood drained from Arriane’s cheeks, and with it went the brilliant colors in the meadow. The

blue sky dimmed, the grass lost its verve. Even Tess’s hair seemed pale. Arriane had known this

moment was coming—had known it ever since the start—but still it took her breath away.

Tess bore the black starburst tattoo on the back of her neck, the one Lucifer branded on his

innermost circle of demons.

“He knows. And now he wants me back.” There was ice in Tess’s voice, ice that seemed to creep

across Arriane’s soul.

“But you just got here!” Arriane felt like running to her love, falling at Tess’s feet and weeping, but

she just stared down at her hands. “I don’t want you to leave. I hate it when you go away.”

“Arriane—” Tess took a step toward her, but Arriane flinched, enraged.

“It’s not his business to say what we can and can’t do! What kind of monster boasts so incessantly

about free will and yet won’t let you be free to follow your own heart?”

“I don’t have a choice about this.”

“Yes, you do,” Arriane said. “You just won’t make it.”

When Tess didn’t answer, Arriane’s chest heaved with the initial wave of a tsunami-sized sob. She

felt so ashamed. She turned and ran across the pasture. She ran along the streambed and up the soft

slope of grass at the western edge of the farm. She trampled through her mistress’s herb garden,

unable to see the thyme through her tears. She could hear Tess running after her, her soft footsteps

catching up. But Arriane did not stop until she’d reached the door of the old barn where tomorrow

morning she would rise just before dawn to do the milking.

She threw herself against the rough wood wall of the barn and let the sobs come.

Tess hugged Arriane from behind, her red braid swinging over Arriane’s shoulder. She laid her head

between Arriane’s shoulder blades and they stood like that, both of them crying, for a quiet moment.

When Arriane turned around, leaning her back against the sun-warm wall of the barn, Tess took her

hand. Her fingers were long and pale and slender; Arriane’s were tiny, the nails chewed to the quick.

Arriane drew Tess through the open rusty-hinged door inside the barn, where they would be safe from

the eyes of the other milkmaids, who would be gathering for supper soon.

They stood among hay and horses, a few cows lying curled together in a corner. The scents of the

animals were everywhere: the horses’ musk, the chickens’ downy sweetness, the dried sweat of the

cows’ hides.

“There is a way for us to be together,” Tess said to Arriane in a low voice.

“How? You would defy him?”

“No, Arriane.” The demon shook her head. “I took my oath. I am bound to Lucifer.”

When Tess turned her head to gaze out the barn’s door and across the endless meadow, Arriane

glimpsed the dark starburst tattoo that marred her lovely skin. It was the sole blemish that could

adhere to angels’ bodies. Except for their wing scars, every other ink mark or wound or scar in time

would fade away.

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