Page 16 of Angel's Vengeance

Iron slid the bottle of scotch across the farmhouse table until the glass bumped up against Rhode’s knuckles, offering a nudge that could mean any number of things—none of which Rhode overly cared about at that moment.“You know, for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t have blamed you if you decked him.”

Rhode didn’t lift his gaze to those mismatched eyes.Couldn’t take the censure or the comfort.It was bad enough the bastard refused to leave him alone while the others wisely went to contain the raging, far more urgent fire that was Chrome’s temper.Instead of uselessly pining for solitude, however, Rhode focused on the swirling letters of the bottle’s label.The loops and dips were so nonsensical, so meaninglessly elaborate that, for a brief moment, it felt kind of good to get lost in the silliness of the mundane.

Getting lost in anything was a far better alternative than obsessing over his current situation.

“Also, for what it’s worth, I don’t blame you for keeping things to yourself.”

Rhode snorted.“I’m a liar.”

“You’re a spy.Those are different.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It sure as shit does.Otherwise, Tung and Titan wouldn’t have left to oversee damage control and make sure Chrome didn’t vaporize half of Aurora because he’s having a bad day.”

“He’s right to hate me.”

Iron shrugged.“Maybe.”

Rhode leaned forward but still refused to meet his stare.“Maybe?Try absolutely.You don’t know what?—”

“Happened to you?Yeah, you’re right.And honestly, it’s none of my fucking business.You know why?Because the only thing I care about is getting off this rock.Let me tell you, there have been nights when the right choice didn’t seem so right and the wrong choice happened to sport a bit more luster around its edges, you feel me?”

Rhode risked the glance then, and boy, did he wish he hadn’t.Of all the sentinels who’d served at the mercy of the celestial mages’ will and for the good of the Empyrean, Iron was the most lethal for a reason.

A reason that even Rhode, with his own haunts chasing him nightly, knew better than to scratch at.If he ever wondered about curiosity’s dire effects, well, he needn’t look any further than the shitstorm that had just erupted a few hours ago, did he?As well as what the temptations of a dark mind can fall victim to when the urge to carve out one’s curiosity becomes a very vivid, very real nightmare.

But then the sentinel’s mismatched eyes offered up something deeper than simple pity or anger.Rhode hadn’t the word for it exactly, but if he had to put a name to it, the closest he could come up with was calculating compassion.

It was as equally unnerving as it was intriguing, so he grabbed the scotch and gave his hands something to do that didn’t involve arming himself.

Spell broken, Iron sat back in the chair, forcing the old oak legs to groan against his shift in wait.“Chrome will get over it, but he’s not the one we need to talk about.”

“Chrome gets over nothing.He forgets nothing.”

“I’m not concerned about where his head’s at.He’ll do what he has to when the time comes, as he always has.The past is a dangerous place to live in, and while most of us would give our left nut to sublet that part of our lives out to anyone foolish enough to take on that lease, it doesn’t change what still needs doing and what we need to move forward with.”Iron gestured toward Rhode, or more specifically, the vacant space behind his shoulders where his wings would occupy if he had them out.“Like how your new wings and powers might work to our advantage if we can get Neela on board.”

Rhode’s head shot up, his stomach already souring at the mention of the charmer’s name.“What does she have to do with any of this?”

“Like it or not, she’s not only the key to unlocking your full use of celestial angel fire but we now have someone with front-fucking-door access to Cyro himself.Hate her all you want, but the woman knows where the asshole’s at, what he’s planning, and, bonus for us, wants nothing to do with him.”Then those two-toned eyes flashed varying shades of topaz as angel fire swirled beneath his features.“If you can convince Neela to get on board, then we can infiltrate his hideaway, grab the relic, and use it to find our way back to the Empyrean while destroying whatever abomination of an army he’s cooking up.We can end this finally.No more souls lost, no more toiling away with mortal bullshit.”Iron leaned closer until the heat of his words nearly choked off Rhode’s objections.“The others, they have their soul bonds.I don’t know what decisions they’ll make when the time comes, but I’m not willing to forgo the opportunity to at least give them that choice.”

“Why?Why me?”Rhode asked, hating how the desperation squeaked through uninvited.“You have no idea what’s changed, no idea what you’re asking me to?—”

“As I said, I don’t care.Bronze tried to get another relic once, and he couldn’t deliver.By the time you told him about the relic’s other half and its power being nearby in the lycan lands, he’d already mated with Clara, and whatever juice had been in that shard of the Empyrean’s gates had been used up.But from what Neela said, Cyro’s still got the other half of the relic and hasn’t spent its power yet.”Then Iron did something Rhode had never seen the angel do in the eons he’d known him.Iron’s thick hand reached across the table and grabbed Rhode’s wrist.One squeeze.That was it.One firm impression that could never put into words all that Iron was asking of him.“We’ve got one shot.Talk to Neela.Convince her to ride with Team Angel for a bit.Then it’s game over, one way or the other.”

Game over.

How many times had the very same concept drifted into Rhode’s semi-conscious mind over the years?Sometimes about what was being done to him, sometimes about things at large.It was always an untouchable ideology.A nice thought that often danced through other delusions that would visit him.Words and sounds and feelings that hung around even when they had no reason to.

Kind of like a broken seraph among suped-up sentinels.

And then there was Neela.A golden-haired embodiment of all he’d lost and hated, the proverbial push off the cliff to the jagged rocks below, even if the hands doing the pushing weren’t hers.

A death knell wrapped in silks and sensuality and ...something else.

“She knows me,” he murmured, recalling how she’d used his celestial name when they first met.

Iron sat back.“How?”

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