Page 124 of Angel Betrayed

“You knew the way this would end.” But there was sympathy in Mateo’s voice. Sadness.

Sam flinched. “I thought I could protect her.” His arrogance. His shame. He’d actually thought he could change the future.

“No…what will be, that’s what always comes.” Mateo dropped Az onto the ground. “She was marked for death. I knew it from the first moment I took her blood. She didn’t belong in this world.”

Without her, he didn’t, either.

Sam grabbed Az. Hefted him over his shoulder. His brother, his burden. Then he began to walk into the night. One foot in front of the other.

He kept walking, walking, and he knew that he was already dead.

Seline opened her eyes to a world of white. Since the last thing she remembered was a fire so hot it scorched her breath, she hadn’t quite expected…this.

“I was wondering when you’d wake up.” The woman’s voice was familiar.

Seline glanced to the left.

Delia smiled at her. “Hello there.”

Seline jumped up. She’d been placed in some kind of bed. Some kind of really fancy white bed. The whole place was fancy. With big, white columns, and wow, was that a golden floor? She paced quickly away from the bed, aware that her heart was racing far too fast. “Where am I?” The first question on her lips, but…this place…a twist in her gut told her just where she was.

Hair fluttered over Seline’s shoulder. She shoved it back. But…it wasn’t hair. Something softer. Smoother.

Delia inclined her head. “Welcome home.”

Seline threw her hand back over her shoulder. She touched—wings. Actual, real, soft-as-down wings. “No.” This can’t be happening.

“I said you were special.” Now Delia walked around her and studied Seline with an appraising eye. “It doesn’t usually happen this way. Angels are born here, not on earth, and your, ah, your blood line wasn’t exactly pure.”

Had the woman just called her a mutt? Seline glared at her. “Where’s Sam?”

“Sammael is where he should be.”

Yeah, that was a big, giant answer of nothing.

“Do not worry.” Delia’s voice was so carefully modulated. No emotion slipped in at all. “It will take some time to adjust, but soon you won’t miss your old life at all.” A faint shrug of her shoulders sent her wings sliding into the air. “It’s possible you won’t even remember it.”

There were sure parts she’d like to forget. Getting her throat ripped out by the hound. Rogziel. The bitter years she’d spent with him. But there were other parts…

Riding on a motorcycle with Sam, the wind blowing back her hair as she held him tight.

Listening to the low rumble of his voice…Feeling his heartbeat beneath her ear as they lay in bed together.

No, no, there were parts she did not want to forget. Sam. “I didn’t ask for this.” The words shook.

Delia blinked. “No, this is your reward.”

Her gaze flew around the room. There had to be a way out.

“Your mother loved a demon. She turned her back on her duty for him. That was a crime.” Delia’s footsteps tapped lightly over the floor. “But not one she had to die for. Fall, yes, but not die.”

Seline stared at her. “My father didn’t kill her, did he?” A lifetime of hate had hardened her heart. Yet Sam had made her doubt. “It was Rogziel.” Her voice was more certain than she felt.

“From what I can tell, killing your parents was the first time Rogziel crossed the line and acted on his own.”

Fury had her gut tightening. “And so what? You—” She waved her hands to indicate the fancy room, and all the angels that were probably behind the walls. “You gave him a free pass because it was just an incubus and a Fallen who suffered?”

Finally, some emotion showed on Delia’s face. “No.”

---