Page 79 of Inflamed By an Incubus

The part of her that refused to trust him whispered that he was playing her again. Manipulating her just as Archer had been.

She shook her head.

She had no intention of returning to Archangel, but she also wouldn’t betray them. She might have ended up there because Archer had manipulated her into joining them, but they had been good to her. They had given her a home. A purpose. She could turn her back on them, but she couldn’t set them up for a potential fall, and her gut said Fenix was asking her to do just that.

“I need you to help me get into Archangel.” Fenix took a step towards her, his tone as hard as his expression.

Demanding.

He wasn’t asking her to help him—he was ordering her.

That got her back up and she glared at him again, the calm he had made her feel gone in an instant as she tried to see in his eyes what he was planning. Whatever it was, it involved using her. He was no better than Archer.

She shook her head again. “No. I won’t help you.”

“You have to help us. You can get me inside. I need to know what they’re up to, Evelyn. I saw those crates in Hell and I know Archangel have been mapping that realm. They want to close the portals. That’s the only reason I can think of for them needing to know where they all are.” He took another hard step towards her, his face darkening as gold and cerulean danced in his eyes. “They have a sorceress capable of cursing entire species and they’re learning all the portal locations. It doesn’t take a genius to see they’re planning something and it’s something big… something that will affect us all. This is our world too. It doesn’t only belong to the humans.”

She stood her ground, even as part of her wavered, was swayed by his words. Her mind filled with the crates she had seen and the reports she had read, and the feeling that had been growing inside her over the last few months.

She struggled to put that feeling into words, fought to find her voice as Fenix stared her down.

He took her silence as a refusal.

Disappeared and reappeared right in her face, so close to her that his chest brushed hers as he breathed hard and glared down into her eyes, his gold and blue fire that captivated her.

“These are your people too!” he barked and she flinched. “If Archangel curses everyone and makes it so we’ll die if we remain in this world, then you’ll die too!”

Evelyn opened her mouth, unsure whether she was going to deny she was an immortal or admit that she felt Archangel were doing something bad too, something that would affect everyone.

Even her.

She didn’t get a chance to see which one left her lips.

A shiver chased down her spine, a flare of heat that struck her to her soul, and she whirled on the spot to face the other direction.

And froze as her eyes collided with the golden ones of a beautiful redhead and a feeling hit her.

Home.

Chapter 24

Evelyn reeled as the sensation of being home swept through her, as heat chased in its wake and she stared at the redhead who had stepped away from the elf to move a step towards her, a lost look on her face that Evelyn felt sure was mirrored on hers.

She couldn’t stop herself from moving a step towards the newcomer too, was powerless to resist the urge to be closer to her. An incredible sense of connection bloomed inside her, as if she shared a bond with this woman, and it was startling.

Unsettling.

Right.

The woman stared at her, her rosy lips parting as her scarlet eyebrows rose high on her forehead.

She murmured, “Phoenix. You’re a phoenix.”

Tears lined the woman’s lashes.

Lined Evelyn’s too as a sense of sorrow and pain engulfed her, swirling among the warmth and the feeling of being home, as if she bore a terrible grief she hadn’t known about until this moment.

Fire flickered in the woman’s golden eyes.

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