Chapter 1466: The First Flight of Three

Melissa opened her mouth but nothing came out.

She tried again and managed only the beginning of an offended sound before the sheer stupidity of the question killed the response. What exactly was she supposed to say?

"No, Phei, I have somehow never previously been carried several thousand feet above the earth by my husband after he casually awakened a second divine bloodline and grew one wing made of heavenly gold and another that looks capable of eating morning itself."

Phei’s grin deepened: "That’s what I thought."

Melissa finally recovered enough to glare. "I hate when you’re pleased with yourself."

"No, you don’t."

"I strongly dislike how often you’re correct while being pleased with yourself."

"Much more believable."

He adjusted her more securely in his arms, one powerful hand rested beneath her knees while the other supported her back.

Behind him, the two colossal wings flapped once—

The heavens themselves answered.

A vast breath of wind rolled outward from them, spreading across the sky in a great unseen wave and parting distant mist without disturbing Melissa at all. The black wing angled slightly behind her, shielding her from the sharper morning current, while its golden twin remained broad beneath the sunlight. The movement carried enough might that the terrifying height below suddenly seemed smaller, less because the island had changed and more because Phei looked entirely too natural standing above it.

"Flying it is, then," he declared.

Melissa stared at him. "You cheated."

"I prefer the term persuaded."

"You asked me a question after already abducting me into the sky."

"Romantically abducting."

"That does not make it better."

"It does to me."

She should have continued arguing; she genuinely intended to.

But Phei looked down at her with that infuriating combination of satisfaction, affection and barely concealed excitement, and the irritation she had been carefully maintaining began to crumble.

He looked too happy, too full of life after everything he had been through the past years.

Morning gold shone across his face while the impossible wings behind him framed a body carrying enough power to astonish ancient beings, yet when his gaze moved from Melissa toward her belly, the celestial majesty in him softened so completely that something warm twisted inside her chest.

Phei looked at their child.

His smile changed as the arrogance faded into something younger and more vulnerable, a quiet excitement that belonged less to the Genesis Angel and more to a nineteen-year-old man about to accompany the woman he loved to see how their baby was doing.

"This," Phei said, his voice dropping into something warmer, "will be the first time I take my child and her mother for a ride— I must let you know, I kept this as our special first! You and out child are the first to fly with me— with my angel wings!"

Melissa’s heart betrayed her immediately.

The hand not gripping Phei’s shirt slipped naturally toward her belly.

He watched the movement.

Then, because Phei had never possessed the wisdom to leave a tender moment untouched once he could make it worse in a way that somehow made her love him more, he continued.

"And for the record— I must repeat this— Mels, my love, you’re the first woman I’ve ever taken flying with my Angel wings."

Melissa stared at him as Phei gave one solemn nod, looking for all of two seconds like he expected history to record this great honor.

Then he sighed with deep satisfaction: "What a wonderful husband I am."

Melissa laughed before she could stop herself.

The sound escaped into the open sky, bright and helpless, and she smacked his chest again with considerably less force than before. Phei’s smile widened immediately, delighted at having broken through the annoyance she had been pretending to maintain.

"You’re unbelievable."

"I know."

"Arrogant."

"I’ve been told it’s one of my better qualities."

"By yourself, presumably."

"I am an excellent judge of character."

Melissa rolled her eyes and finally surrendered, curling herself more comfortably against him. If she was going to be flown to the hospital in broad daylight by her absurdly powerful Dragon-Angel husband, then dignity had already lost enough battles for one morning.

She might as well enjoy the ride.

Her fingers remained hooked in the front of his shirt while her other hand rested protectively over her belly. Phei’s gaze followed the movement once more, and his hold around her tightened fractionally.

The black wing shifted farther inward behind Melissa, becoming a colossal curtain between her and the harsher wind. Despite the dreadful presence within its feathers, she felt nothing threatening from it. Whatever End slept there knew her as something Phei cherished and remained as harmless around her as darkness beneath a blanket.

The golden wing remained open to the morning.

Sunlight travelled across its feathers in great molten waves, turning the air around them amber and white while tiny glimmers of radiance scattered from its edges and vanished into the sky.

Together the two wings framed Phei as a contradiction the universe had somehow decided to keep rather than resolve.

Life and End!

Sacredness and corruption!

Beginning and Nothingness!

A golden promise that broken things could be restored and a black warning that some things might one day be ended so completely there would be nothing left to restore.

Yet the hands holding Melissa remained impossibly gentle.

That, more than anything, was Phei.

He could carry forces capable of making heaven look small and still adjust his grip because he worried the woman in his arms might be uncomfortable.

Phei looked down at her one last time. "Ready?"

Melissa released a slow breath and glanced toward Hell’s Paradise Island spread beneath them.

The morning had transformed the island into a vast living painting.

Hell’s Paradise Lake glittered under the sun, distant rivers cut silver paths through forests still carrying traces of the World Essence woven into them, and Infinity Chaos rose behind Phei like a monument from some impossible future. The height remained terrifying enough that Melissa’s stomach objected strongly when she looked too long.

She returned her gaze to her husband.

If there was one man she trusted with her life, her child’s life and what remained of her nerves, it was unfortunately this ridiculous creature.

"Fine," she said, gathering what dignity she had left. "Fly us there, husband."

Phei’s smile sharpened.

"Hold on tight, wife."

Melissa immediately narrowed her eyes. "Phei, if you deliberately make this unnecessarily fast just because you said that—"

The wings moved.

Melissa’s warning became a gasp.

The sky broke around them.

Phei surged forward through the morning in a vast streak of sacred gold and devouring night, carrying Melissa securely against his chest while the upper reaches of Infinity Chaos vanished behind them. Wind roared across the heavens, yet barely touched her beneath the protection of his wings and the unseen power wrapped around her body. Hell’s Paradise Island raced below in brilliant greens, blues, silver and lingering threads of gold, mountains and forests sliding beneath them while morning sunlight flashed across rivers like molten metal.

Melissa clutched him tightly for the first several seconds.

Then fear gave way to something else.

She looked down where the island stretched beneath them farther than she could properly take in, sunlight rolled across forest, towers, lake and distant mountains while golden World Essence occasionally shimmered wherever the dawn caught it at the proper angle. From this height Paradise looked endless, vast enough to become its own world beneath them.

Melissa suddenly laughed; she looked up and discovered the smug bastard already grinning down at her. She shook her head and tucked herself closer to his chest while one hand remained over their baby.

Their first flight together.

All three of them.

Phei turned toward the distant hospital and carried his wife and unborn child across the golden morning.