Free Eternally Yours by Anastasia Dangerfield

straight as a board.  It pays off because he finally puts his hands on my back and a current explodes where he touches, traveling through my entire body. My back arches involuntarily. Oh gods, I’m on fire! My back feels like hot coals are sizzling on it. My skin splits apart and I scream in pain. I see something white and fluffy out of the corner of my eyes, but it takes a minute to register that tho se are wings. Not black wings.
    “Grab onto me how I told you to! Hurry!”  he orders.
    I fumble to grab onto him, because it's hard to turn around in the air. I try to at least three times and I put all my strength into it, but my wings keep catching the air, keeping me from it. He helps me by twisting my waist over so that I end up facing him. The second I grab him for dear life, he parachutes his wings up. We violently thrust up in the opposite direction that we were just falling, and I'm so jolted and confused, that I miss the fear showing in his eyes. I look down and the ground is only a few yards away. We're going to die! And I just got my wings! He's flapping his wings as fast as he can, looking around frantically. Every muscle in his body is straining, I can feel them strung taught below my touch. Defeated, he cusses and flips us over. Now he is on the bottom looking up at me with sad eyes. That's when we hit the ground.
    *~*~*~
    When I come to, we are lying there in a tangled mess, and I furiously try to catch my breath. I’m lying on top of him, and his chest is slowly rising, causing me to rise and fall with it. Miraculously, we are both alive and I’m not sure how it’s possible. I am so thankful for Shadow’s heroic stunt that my eyes tear up. He valiantly took the brunt of the fall, so that I wouldn't get hurt. I use all my strength to lean up and check on him. He has his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth gritted. I lean up on my arms to look him over for injuries but I don’t see anything wrong. No broken bones, no serious cuts. “Shadow? What’s wrong?”
    He groans. “My wings are a little roughed up, but I’m okay. Just-”, he groans again, “--hurts.”
    I roll off of him and squat next to him with shaky legs. I gently urge him onto his stomach so I can inspect his wings. There are black feathers scattered where he was lying and in a lot of places all around us. He’s bleeding in a few places too. His wings are in pretty bad shape, some of the feathers are mangled and there is a lot of blood. So much that I can't tell where exactly it's coming from. I feel extremely guilty, because if I would have been better at this, he wouldn’t be hurt right now.
    “I’m so sorry, Shadow,” my voice hitches.
    “What the hell...for?” he rasps. He looks deliberately at my new wings and beams that stunning smile. This amazing demon is happy for me despite his poor wings and all of his pain. His selflessness amazes me.
    “Look who has their wings.” His fingers graze my wing lightly and I can feel it as if it was my arm, yet it’s much more sensual. It feels like a lovers caress. I can’t help but sigh at the pure pleasure I get from his touch. My eyes are heavy but I try to stay focused on the fact that I have wings, and not how much I want to kiss him.
    Him and his really appealing lips.
    Soft-looking lips.
    His tongue slips out to wet them, making them even more tempting. Delectable boy.
    I lean forward.
    He leans forward.
    And my wings start flapping and thrust me backward onto my butt.
    His laugh echoes around us, bouncing off the rocks around the waterfall base.
    “I guess we should work on getting a feel for your wings. Your mind controls them, mostly. After some practice you'll understand what I mean. Until then your wings are going to do all sorts of crazy things on their own.” 
    I hate that my wings picked such an inopportune moment to think for themselves. I'm so mad that I could rip them out right now. Why couldn't they have thrust me forward instead of backward?
    “Okay, so what