Page 133 of Angel Betrayed

“I guess someone is pissing off the boss upstairs,” Sam announced in his mocking drawl. “Because that bolt sure wasn’t aimed at me.”

Eyes wide, Uriel backed away. “One day, Sammael, you will be punished.”

The right side of Sam’s mouth hitched into a sad smile as he stared at Seline. “I already have been. I lost the only thing that made this life worth living.”

But he hadn’t lost her. She was standing right there.

“I can stay with you,” she told him. She didn’t care what Uriel might do. Sam was before her. He mattered. Her hands stroked the hound. Its fur was almost soft, once you got past the matting.

Sam’s lips parted, as if he’d speak, but then he shook his head.

“Sam, I can stay.” She knew it. Other angels had fallen. He’d fallen. She could do it, too. “We can be together.” He’d said he loved her. They could have forever.

His jaw clenched, and after a moment, he gritted out, “You don’t know what it’s like. The pain…I won’t ask you to suffer for me. I can’t. Never for me, understand? Never.”

“She’s already died for you once,” Uriel threw in, even as his wings flapped and he began to rise into the air. “What’s a little trip to hell between lovers?”

“No!” Sam snarled. “She won’t suffer anymore!”

Seline felt a pull then, like an energy was wrapping around her and lifting her into the sky. She fought, desperate to stay with Sam, but she couldn’t break free of that strange pull.

“Don’t fall for me!” he shouted up to her, his face stark. “Dammit, I’ll find another way! I can get redemption! I can come to you! Don’t fall for me!”

“He’ll never get redemption.” Uriel’s soft voice seemed to whisper right in her ear, even though he was over five feet away from her. “Some sins can’t be forgiven.”

Tears stung her eyes. She kept rising up, pulled by a force she couldn’t stop. Sam.

His burning black gaze followed her. “I will find a way, Seline! Don’t fall, promise me! Don’t!”

Then she rose too high, and she couldn’t see him—or hear him—any longer.

“He’s going to hell.”

Seline glanced up at Delia’s voice. The angel walked toward her, her steps soft on the gleaming marble floor.

“Sam met with Uriel again,” Delia told her. “Only this time, Sam didn’t cage him.”

Probably because Uriel hadn’t gotten caging close. She figured the big boss had learned from his mistake.

A soft sigh eased from Delia’s lips. “Sam wants to earn redemption.” Delia’s head tilted as she stared at Seline. “For you. He wants to come back home, and it’s all because of you, isn’t it?”

Seline didn’t speak. Hell. She didn’t want Sam in hell.

“Uriel stripped the skin from his back,” Delia whispered this news. “It was the first step in Sammael’s punishment.”

Her breath rushed out as horror filled her. “Why?”

“Because that’s where the wings once were, so the skin is more sensitive to pleasure or to pain. Uriel wanted Sam to feel maximum pain.”

Her stomach tightened. “No,” she bit out. Maximum pain. “Why did Uriel want to hurt him that way?”

“They’re old enemies.” Delia’s head tilted a little to the right. “And Uriel didn’t exactly enjoy the fact that Sam was able to trap him. Now everyone knows that the great Punisher came close to dying by a Fallen’s hand.”

“So he took his pound of flesh.” No, Sammael had sacrificed that flesh, for her. Seline swallowed and tried to choke down the lump in her throat. “What’s hell like?”

“You’ll see, soon enough.”

Was that a threat? She hadn’t expected one from Delia. Maybe I should have.

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