Page 22 of Angel's Vengeance

His celestial senses roared within the cage of his body, shouting warning signs of a danger he could neither see nor hear.

Then she took a step closer, and, damn coward that he was, he couldn’t help but retreat a step farther.

“Have you ever cared for anything so deeply before, something where you know you’re the only being alive who could help the other in some way?”

Memories of his final mission with Chrome rose unbidden from the recesses of his mind.The night before the Sealing, his insistence on hunting down the cause of their intelligence breach, one that had resulted in his entire legion of seraphim scouts returning from Cyro’s camp in pieces.

Send me, brother.I will not fail you.

How many times had he turned that final phrase over in his thoughts, when other far more pressing matters pounded on his mental door for attention?Chief among them breathing, screaming, crying.Bleeding.

It was the last time he had truly called Chrome by the name of brother, despite the angel’s status as a sentinel and role as intelligence master.

They had been as one back then.Two sides of the same mind.Tyrus, as Chrome was known in the Empyrean, and Axtar.The officer and the spy.

But like any ancient civilization whose great enlightenment had stunned the world, only to fall barren to time and consequence, demise was imminent and guaranteed.Always.And sometimes, it needed to be so.

“Have you?”Neela asked again when his silence stretched on too long.“Cared for anyone like that?”

Yes.

“No.”

Neela narrowed her eyes.“What about your brothers?Don’t you care for?—”

“They arenotmy brothers,” he seethed, pushing forward on his hips.“They are sentinels, guardians of the Empyrean.I am a seraph.We are not the same.”

“And what about the soul bond?Why was that the first bit of magic I’ve ever been able to wield?”

“It’s a connection in name only, one that solely has celestial significance,” he remarked, dismissing her with a wave of his hand.“Nothing more.Outside of me accessing the power of angel fire as a result of that connection, it means nothing.”

Neela put her hands on her generous hips, and Rhode had to lift his chin to remember what truly governed his anger in the moment.

“What am I, then?Some kind of celestial battery?”

Then he sneered at her.“You’re a demon.”

The barb landed before he had a chance to adjust his aim.He’d only meant to warn her off, to frighten her enough so that she’d stop scratching at his wounds, for god’s sake.The shock-turned-retribution on her face was, unfortunately, one he was well familiar with—and one he was in no way prepared for.

“If I’m such a demon, why did I bother keeping you alive at all?”

Stunned, Rhode shook his head, convinced he hadn’t heard her right.“What are you talking about?”

But holy hell, was there a metric ton of immovable resolution carved into those captivating features.And like an explosion, he couldn’t look away.Self-preservation had gone out the window.All he could do was brace himself for the slice of the blade careening toward him.

“That’s right.The thing I was caring for in Cyro’s grotto?It was you,Axtar.”

The thunder in his ears ricocheted down his limbs until every muscle vibrated with an uncontrollable rage that was equal parts shock and petrification.

No.It’s not possible.

Brittle cracking broke through the silence, followed by heavy thuds of something wet, weighty, and abundant.Above, a giant and regrettably barren tree branch from a nearby oak snapped off the trunk a good ninety feet in the air.Coated in ice and burdened by dense snow, the branch plummeted to the forest floor—right above Neela.

Chapter11

It was an unnerving feeling to have your voice be the sole thing to fill the silence one moment and, the next moment, have it choked off by the elements around you.Thick, heavy snow bounded down on Neela’s shoulders and head, but it was nothing compared to the weight of Rhode’s body as he threw her to the ground.Uncoordinated hands grasped for each other, but only his succeeded in finding their mark.Flat on her back, head pounding and eyes blinking overtime to shake the snow from her vision, she could see the enormous iced-over tree branch hurtling toward them.

“Rhode!Move!”Neela tried to squirm her way out from under him, but the bastard likely weighed more than the maple she’d been marveling over earlier.

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