“Are you happy?” Gabe smiled so wide his face looked like it would break.

“Incredibly.” Looking out over the world, she had never dreamed it could look so . . . fantastical. She kissed him, sighing at the perfect way they fit together.

“You’re not mad then?” Gabriel lifted a brow, his gleaming wings seeming to flutter with anxiety.

“You gave me a second chance.” Chuckling she shook her head. “No, you gave me a far better life. A life that will not be wasted.” The wind rustled through the feathers of her pearl-white wings sending a slight tickle through her. “Thank you.”

“You will start your training in a week. I feel both you and my son could use some time to acclimate to your new position, Guardian Cassandra.”

The words sounded divine. Her entire human life had been spent in hopes of protecting and creating better, more, for the kids she worked with.

“And to think, all I had to do was die.”

Gabe slipped his hand into hers. “I need you to promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“We’re not going to say that phrase ever again. As far as I’m concerned, you did not die. I did not hold you in my arms for a solid three minutes and know your soul was gone because I saw it leave.”

“How would you have us speak about it?”

“You simply went to sleep to cast off your human bonds.” He cleared his throat. “That is the only way I can bear to think of the situation. I will henceforth not remember that for three minutes, I did not have you in my life.”

Wrapping her hand in the neck of his shirt she tugged his head down and slanted her lips against his. Everything was different. When they kissed, she could sense his soul now. Her body buzzed with desire. His arms slipped around her body, and she felt safe. Protected. Loved.

“Thank you.”

“For failing you?”

“For loving me. It got me here.” She looped her arms around his neck. “It got me angel wings.”

“You did that, Cassandra Marks. Your kindness and love. I was merely the instrument that passed along the message.”

“Why did you never tell me certain humans could become angels?”

“If I’m honest? I didn’t know. Do not forget, you were my first charge. I wasn’t fully aware of the possibility. I might have changed my argument if I’d known. But your life, your human life, would have come first.”

They didn’t move or speak, merely stood there with her arms around his neck and his around her waist. The world was literally below them, and in a week, she would learn who she would be tasked with keeping safe. Nothing made much sense, even Gabriel’s reasoning for saving her soul to grant her angel wings—all because of her selflessness in the wake of death.

“Will you be my mentor?”

“Carlyle.” He frowned. “Apparently since I’m no longer a Guardian Angel, I don’t fit the bill.”

“Could you teach me to fight then? You never know when I might need to protect you.”

His laughter was boisterous and rang out across the clouds. “I can do that.”

Again, a blissful silence surrounded them, all that mattered was the way they looked into one another’s eyes. Everything from the past day swirled in her head. She remembered taking her last breath, but it seemed so long ago, like a thread unweaving from a blanket she could barely grab.

She had died and had woken up of a sort in a room with Archangels and Gabe. Very little of the meeting stood out, only the part where they told her she had wings, and with a thought, they had unfurled.

“What are you thinking about?” Gabe dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose.

“How I never imagined this is what would, or could, come after cancer. About the past twenty-four hours and how sleeping right after I received my wings was the best sleep I’ve had in almost six months.” She grinned at him. “What are you thinking about?”

“Angels, we don’t get married.”

“Okay . . .”

“Marry me anyway.”

“Yes.”

“Yes?” He smiled, lifting her up into the arm. “Really?”

“Really. Right now if we could.”

“No. I want a ceremony for you. We’ll do this the human way, right after your funeral—should you wish to attend.”

Another question. Another answer without hesitation. “I don’t. That part of me is gone. I do not want to be reminded. I want to look to the future, to the people I will help in a much grander fashion.”

“About that?” Carlyle appeared just behind Gabe.

“You and my father are serious asses about that.”

“Oh please, you do it too.” Carlyle smiled cordially at her, his eyes swirling with silver much the same way Gabe’s swirled with gold. “As I was saying, about guarding a human of your own. Would you like to know who?” He held out an envelope.

Cautiously, she took it. “Is this breaking the rules? Gabriel said I would find out next week.”

Both men laughed.

“My father is often disobeyed. Trust me, this is nothing.”

“Very well, then.” The flap was not sealed, and she pulled out a pearlized white card. “Diana Calvert.” Her eyes shot open. “But how?”

“When a Guarded—that was what you were—dies, we keep an eye on those closest to them for a few days. She was still listed as your emergency contact, and within seven hours of learning of your passing, decided she was going to pick up your work, even knowing she’d need help with the algorithm portion.”

“Oh my god.”

“And since that same work made you eligible for a Guardian Angel,” Carlyle began.

“It means she is too.” Gabe finished with a smirk on his lips. “I may have pulled a few strings this morning to convince Father to assign you to something that so closely represented your human life.”

“Thank you. Both of you.” Tears welled up in her eyes, but for the first time in months, they were from happiness. She looked at Gabe. “Ask me again.”

“Ask you what?”

“Ask me if I’m happy with my life as it is right this moment.”

“Well, are you?”

“Absolutely.”