Page 70 of Angel's Vengeance

“Oh yes, I knew.That night before the experiments began, one of the mystics responsible for the enchantments on the angel’s cell informed me you’d been spending a lot of time there, far more than necessary to just clean and feed the fool.So, I decided to pay you a visit.Do you remember what we talked about?”

“Please.You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I believe I recall the exchange exactly.I asked why you had taken such a keen interest in our prisoner, and you said you were simply curious.But when I told you that I had grown tired of his treatments and was thinking about changing course, that was when your behavior went from quiet and unassuming to quite concerned.I’d never seen you act in such a way before.So imagine my surprise when I had already retreated halfway down the hall and you came running out after me with an idea you just thought of that might help our progress.”Sparks of delight flashed in Cyro’s face as his mouth split into a vile smile.“It wasyouwho then mentioned rhodium experimentation.What it might do to him, how it would meld with my magic and possibly create an ally of an enemy.Youwere the one to suggest physically altering his makeup, rather than relying on the corrosive metal defenses my mystics had been exhausting.Rhodium had not been a metal on my radar until you rattled off its properties, already well researched, I might add, and why they would change the game for the battle against the angels.”

Everyyouwas a fresh jagged slice across Rhode’s heart, but when he scanned Neela’s face for any sign of dissent, there was none.An answering thunder began to build in his ears, doing its level best to block out the pain trying to choke him.

“I was going toleaveyou!”she roared at Cyro, heedless of how close the knife got to her.Then she searched out Rhode’s face again.“I had a plan, yes, but my plan was to finally escapewithyou.I was going to take you with me to the mortal lands.I was going to get us both out and save you!But then he found me in my room the night before I was planning to leave, and I panicked, Rhode.I panicked.What if I got caught with you?What would he do to you in retribution for my crime?So I came up with the most awful thing I could think of to revert Cyro’s attention.I knew that whatever diversion I thought of had to play to the asshole’s own brand of mental and physical warfare.Only then would he forget all about me so I could go back to being the invisible charmer I always was and take you with me when I left.I needed to first get him out of my hair, and that awful idea was the only thing I thought he’d believe.”

She looked away, as if to find solace in the snow.“I got the idea from a video game.But it was never supposed to happen.It was too complex and far too outlandish compared to anything he’d tried before.I-I never expected him to call my bluff.”Something like remorse softened her features, but Rhode was shaking too hard to make sense of it.“The next morning, I ran to your cell, prepared to get us both out of there, but the experiments had already begun, and I couldn’t do anything to stop them or save you.”

Rhode’s bicep twitched as the bowstring slipped a notch and bit into the valley of his knuckles even harder.Beside him, Chrome had been stunned into silence, just like the others.Iron’s mace slowed its rotation until it hung limply by his side.

Without him meaning to, Rhode’s armor melted away, as if her very words were the only things corrosive enough to peel back the shell of the very thing she’d created.

For the first time in his life, the truth evaded him.

His head jerked from side to side in disbelief, and he had to lean on his brain to make his body move in ways his mouth could not.Fuck, his throat hurt, the damn thing tensing beneath the emotion that had surged up.

She’d ...known?

In the distance, the faint tinkling melody of an ice cream truck rolling up to the crowd broke through the cloud of confusion in his mind.It was indistinct, almost an echo, but it was loud enough to catch the immortal ears of everyone there, including Cyro.

Recognition curled the demon ruler’s lip before Rhode could understand what was happening.“Neela couldn’t save you.Didn’twantto save you.Your fate was inevitable, just like the fate of all mortals.”

Cyro let go of Neela’s hair but kept the knife at her throat.In the span of a blink, the demon ruler conjured an electric orb of green magic in his hand and aimed it at the ice cream truck.

Look at me.Please look at me, Rhode.

But he didn’t.Eyes that had burned white-hot a moment ago had deadened to the point of despair.Even against the bite of Cyro’s knife, Neela tried to cast her soul out to him in some way, to convince him that she was telling the truth.However, instead of her mate absorbing the veracity of her words, they just pinged around the frozen tree trunks until they slammed back into her with the echoes of her mistakes.

She had so much to say, so much to explain, but there was no time.She’d foolishly used up that commodity and instantly regretted every opportunity she’d had to tie him to the bed and force him to hear what her heart needed him to know.

Instead, her fucking sire had known and managed to manipulate her yet again.

Neela refused to look at Cyro and tried to find a way to reach Rhode, but when his armor shimmered away, taking the light with it, only darkened disappointment remained across his cold features.Rage had turned to resignation, and his ferocity seemed to peter out along with their shared spark.Questions replaced concerns as her heart shattered into a thousand pieces.

Then the soft jangling call of an ice cream truck hit her ear, and even though it was a good distance away, a new fear took over.An ice cream truck meant lines of kids and parents.Huddled groups of souls en masse.

Easy pickings.

The pressure holding the knife at her throat lessened ever so slightly, and her stomach sank into her heels.Cyro had just connected the same dots she had.

He finally freed her hair, and the blood rushing back to her scalp nearly caused her to pass out.Green light flared over her shoulder, and an orb of magic sat poised in Cyro’s palm, aimed at his target.

Shit.He’s going to kill those families.He’s going to?—

Her boot nudged something stuck in the snow.When she looked down, the magic’s green hue illuminated Rhode’s arrow, the one he’d used to sever the rope around her neck from earlier.The one still infused, albeit dimly, with his angel fire.

The plan punched into her before she had time to analyze it or look for confirmation in all the discerning eyes that now pointedly evaded hers.

Cyro wound his arm back, and the sheen from the relic’s smooth surface beneath his sleeve winked its presence under the magic’s green glow.The thing was still cuffed around his wrist and peeked out like a forgotten mass-market paperback in a sea of hardcovers.

The arrow was in her hand an instant later.She gripped that thing, pulled down Cyro’s wrist, yanked the relic free of his arm, and struck—herself.

The arrowhead sliced cleanly across her forearm, but both she and Cyro roared with the power that poured out of her.The bright light of her soul bond’s healing magic forced them to the ground while she gritted her teeth against it, but it was Rhode’s fire that had found its mark.Flames leaped from the arrow and connected with Cyro’s pant leg.Then combustion did what combustion did.The demon ruler cried out as fire found skin, right as the pulsing energy of Neela’s light shot him and his magic into the snowy sky.

Somewhere, someone said her name.Or some version of it.She couldn’t be sure because a vibrating wail mingled with the sounds of Cyro’s screams.Hands were on her, lifting her, checking her arm, her neck, the back of her head, but she didn’t track any of them.She was too focused on the portal above that Cyro had somehow managed to open.A deafening whine and a pop followed, and then the bastard was swallowed up by the night sky.

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