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I shrugged, pretending I wasn’t flattered. “Being underestimated is all part of my schtick, angel. People make mistakes when they think you’re powerless to fight them.”
Fable’s eyes gleamed with pride. “You’re right. It’s all part of that Lady charm I can’t get enough of.”
Sensing the sultry dip in his tone, I steered my eyes away and ignored the warmth flooding my hips—a telltale sign I might be tempted to give the angel another go if I let him stay on his seduction path. “So, how can I control this Heaven’s Light or whatever?”
Taking a few steps my direction, the amber of Fable’s eyes brightened and the color swirled like liquid. “You just need to find a trigger.”
“A trigger?”
The air shuddered, and instead of Fable in front of me, Nova was sitting there on the grass, holding his stomach. I was a smart girl. I sensed the power in the air, but I couldn’t tell if it was Fable or Nova who brought me here. Not when the sky thundered, threatening the usual storm. An illusion? It took my brain a second to catch up, but the sight of Nova stole any confusion and replaced it with the creeping sensation of dread.
Nova’s familiar emerald eyes were flooded with pain. When my gaze dropped, I noticed the hand he kept locked over his abdomen was covered in blood. It was a far cry from our usual stroll through illusion world, and it startled me enough to put me on guard. The moonlight peeked through the clouds. Several beats of flashing light illuminated the injured demon as a clap of thunder rolled through the air, revealing a pool of blood soaking into the earth around the fallen angel.
“Lady…” Nova took in a sharp, gasping breath. “I’m so sorry I’ve failed you. I…couldn’t reach you.”
Head finally catching up, I moved into action and dropped to a knee beside him. “What happened?”
“She’s nearby. Go. Don’t…” he gritted out through the pain, eyes searching the area before he touched my arm with a blood-coated hand, marking it with nothing but liquid red. “You’re our only hope. You’re the only one who can bring balance back to the world. I’m…already too tainted. I can’t be saved.”
“What the fuck do you mean you can’t be saved? How did this happen?” I demanded, heart hitting my chest wall with enough force to break through it. I’d never acknowledge it was probably fear coating my throat, making it difficult to speak. “Where are you right now? Is this an illusion or…?”
The demon let loose a shuddering sigh and touched my face, lips tilted in self-deprecation. “It’s…”
But before he could finish, Nova’s skin blackened and lifted away from his body, carried on the wind the second they came away. Right in front of me, the man I refused to say I loved eroded to ash and fire. My pulse raced and I lifted my gaze to find a familiar woman standing there, her smile as wicked as it was in my fear dream.
“You can’t save him. He’s already gone. And now it’s your turn.”
The feeling from the night we fought Dr. Sick and Madam Mayhem was back. It grew from my core, then it burst out of me violently, ready to burn the world to the ground. Everything was washed in bright white light and Nova’s body collapsed—the last person I could rely on reduced to ash.
When the white died away, Fable was back, standing with his soft violet-colored wings out and his thickly corded arms crossed over his door-wide chest. “That’s your trigger.”
What the actual fuck.
I didn’t think about it, just dashed over, bat swung back, and thencrack!The angel took a direct hit. He landed on the ground with a cough, holding his side where blood was already soaking into his shirt. All I saw was red, stomach acid in my throat, heart suffering the image of Nova disappearing as ash on the wind, and I couldn’t get my head under control. I pinned the angel to the ground with my stare like death’s reaper in those seconds following before I regained control.
Even I couldn’t fathom my actions or why it’d gotten to me so much. Before Nova, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Maybe the idea of losing another person—the only one I really had left—got to me. Whether or not I wanted to acknowledge it, I was part human at the end of the day and a slave to my emotions like the rest of these bastards.
“Has anyone told you that you angels are more demon than some of the bastards I’ve fought? What’s your aim here, asshole? What kind of sick joke are you playing right now?” I demanded singularly, aching to beat the shit out of him to make my position on this incident clear.
Youdon’tfuck with Lady.
Fable grunted, eyes flicking down to his wound, before he got to his feet. He no longer bled, the spots of red where he’d taken the bash no longer growing. In the seconds it took him to tower over me, his always amused demeanor was gone. The air he put out was more ominous than Madam Mayhem or any other demon I’d fought.
Nothing got to me, but for some reason, the usually calm and playful angel morphing into something dangerous lurking in the dark hit me in a way nothing ever had. My senses went into overdrive taking in every strained muscle, every violent swipe of his eyes, every agitated shift of his powerful body.
The angel had only ever been welcoming since the first day we met, so the change was intense to say the least. It was an entirely new and violent sensation the angel put out; one I’d never admit terrified me the same way Lucifer had in my fear dream.
Fable cranked his head from left to right and I tensed, prepared to fight him if I had to. But then the angel smiled as if I hadn’t taken a whack at him.
“You’re right. That was a shitty thing to do. I’d like to say there wasn’t any other way, but that was the quickest. All I did was drag out your fears, sort of like Lucifer did that first night. Except, these often mix with memories, and by your reaction, I touched on some nasty ones.” His amber-ignited eyes danced across my face. “If it helps, I haven’t a clue what you saw. Unlike Lucifer, I don’t take joy in someone else’s pain or fear. But lay as many bashes on me as it takes to satisfy your rage, sweetheart. I’ll take every single one of them. It’s the least I can do for putting you in this state.”
I swallowed my vicious reply, realizing belatedly how much emotion was already on display and not a fan of giving any more of it away. “I’d be careful, asshole. Next time I might not be satisfied with violence and blood. Next time I might just find a reason to put you into the ground.”
Before I had time to register the movement, the angel was in front of me, his head cocked to one side. “And if I said I’d do whatever it took to be under you again, even six feet under the dirt, what then, Lady?”
I wasn’t ready for our little moment to take a sexual path, and it showed on my face. “What the fuck do you mean?”
“Say I’ve got another idea for how to return balance to things, would you listen?”
