Page 62 of Grave Revelations

Azazel

Raphael’s visit had been a blessing and an unintended boon. The battalion of demon spawn preparing to converge would send the most noble humans to their knees in prayer. If Rebecca hoped to survive it, she must release her seraph side and gain full use of her magic.

Azazel stared expectantly at his outstretched hand, then at Rebecca’s narrowed gaze.

She crossed her arm over her chest. “Why are you keeping secrets from me?”

Nothing is hidden if you seek to find it.

She rolled her eyes, tucking her arms more tightly against her chest. “I have been lied to long enough. I want the truth. What isn’t Jophiel telling me?”

“My mind is open to you. It is yours to explore, but you must want it,” he explained. “Stop fearing what you will find.”

Rebecca scowled up at him. His beautiful, stubborn other half was digging her preverbal heels in. His lips twitched, and his soul pulsed. For the first time since accepting his new role, he nearly smiled.

Light, I would keep nothing from you.

Some of her stubborn resolve cracked before he said, “You’ll need to change before we go.”

Apparently, it was the wrong thing to say. Rebecca slouched into the couch, a very un-Rebecca-like thing to do. It was something Allie would have done. Did she know just how much the last life had changed her?

And how much of it was because of him?

Azazel dropped his hand. “Ask your questions.”

“I don’t know what to ask.”

“Light, I have existed for thousands of years. The limit to your knowledge of me is unfathomable.”

“What would it mean if I unlocked my seraph side… for us?”

Straight to it then. “Your question is a complicated one. First, it would be better to explain ‘us’ in more detail.”

She nodded, her thoughts spinning together several theories about what it might mean to be his other half. Abruptly, they veered in a new direction, and before the words tumbled out of her mouth, he knew what she would ask next.

“Have you had other lovers?”Damn. Why did I say that? What’s wrong with me?she thought immediately afterward.

He chuckled both at the question and at her unspoken argument with herself. “No.”

Her face was a mask of indifference, but the string of affirmations she was chanting boosted his ego.

“What other questions do you have?”

Rebecca bit her lip, soft pink skin slid between her teeth as she considered her next question. And he watched that lip, imagining all the ways he would suck and bite it if it was between his teeth.

Her cheeks flamed, and he was sure she’d heard those thoughts.

“Why don’t you have fire magic?” The question sobered him, redirecting his thoughts from the obscene.

“I gave it up.”

Nonsensical answers,she thought before asking, “Why?”

“In exchange for the lives of the men in your line.”

What? What does it mean? Men? Why not women?Her brows furrowed, scrunching over piercing blue eyes with a starburst pattern around the iris that matched his new eyes.

On the outside, he was frozen, a mask of calm. On the inside, he stumbled as if the realization had been a physical blow. How had it now dawned on him until now? The pattern in her eyes was a warning for him. A warning of the fate that awaited him.

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