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My brows drew together at the strange feeling of familiarity whispering at the back of my mind, like we’d been here before, in this exact pose, and the taste of it was branded onto my soul. I raised my eyes to meet his as he towered over me, a wall of contained power and leashed aggression.
The intensity in his gaze nearly did me in. There was an ache in the depths of his eyes, a profound, painful yearning. His lips parted soundlessly, his hot breath just a touch faster than before, then he seemed to rein in whatever had wanted to wrestle for control.
He grasped my right hand, and with his other, he pressed the hilt of the dagger into my palm, then closed my fingers around it, all while holding my gaze with unnerving force. The air pulsed between us.
Slowly, he raised my hand holding the dagger and brought the blade up to lie against his throat.
My heart skipped a beat. Or a dozen.
When it resumed pumping blood, it was with a deafening drumroll that pounded in my skull and reverberated in my bones.
I knew this.
I’d felt this before.
I knew this.
The certainty of it tasted woolly in my mouth. My temples ached. Dizzy, I gaped at Aziel as he leaned just a little bit forward, enough to make the sharp edge of the dagger bite into his skin, threatening to draw blood.
His eyes were storms of silver holding me spellbound, his energy wrapping around me, familiar, so fucking familiar. “Now,” he murmured into the broiling heat between us, “can we talk?”
I sucked in a breath, the memory assaulting me on the heels of his question. Me, pressed up against the wall by Mysterious Stranger. That dagger, shoved against his throat, with his hand covering mine that was wrapped around the hilt.
And those words. Those exact same words.
As if this angel before me had plucked them straight from my head.
Horror surged through me, and in a move more instinct than intent, I shoved Aziel away from me with both physical and magical force. A split second of surprise registered on his face before he staggered back, hurled a few paces toward the opposite wall.
“What is this?” I whispered harshly, my heart clenched in panic, my hands shaking. “What kind of game is this?”
Aziel slowly straightened, his expression equal parts wary and…triumphant?
That rat bastard.
The horror twisting coldly inside me morphed into indignation and anger. “What the fuck are you playing at?”
He raised one hand in a placating gesture. “Chaya?—”
“You have no right,” I snapped, righteous rage boiling over at the violation he’d just dared. “You’re supposed to train me, not go rifling through my head! You might be a seraph, but that doesn’t mean you can sneak through someone’s shields and role-play with the memories you find.”
I whirled around and stormed toward the cave’s exit, my heart drumming so loud I almost didn’t hear his steps when he came after me.
I pivoted with a snarl and pointed a finger at him, which made him stop in his tracks.
“Stay the fuck away from me,” I gritted out, the air whirring under the heat of my power. Inside me, a toxic mix of fear and wrath and breathless bewilderment coiled tight and hot, erasing all thought. “I don’t want your help, and I don’t want to see you again.”
And with that, I turned on my heel and practically fled out of the cave, taking flight as soon as the sky opened above me.
CHAPTER 5
Azazel
I watched Zoe storm away from me as if she was fleeing from some unnamed horror, and each strike of her boots on the stone echoed loudly and damningly in my heart. My fingers twitched at my sides.
Never, in the tedious slog that was my existence before she’d stumbled into my life, had standing still and watching someone leave taken that much restraint.
I’d had her.
