Page 68 of Conflicted

Oh fuck.

I looked around for my second. Ezekiel’s body lay a few feet away, his throat missing. I reached out with my power, relieved when it told me he was only temporarily dead.

Great. Just fucking great. Did Nox not realise that Ezekiel had been trying to get a rise out of him? That he’d killed me just to see how Nox would react?

Well we all knew the answer to that now. He’d reactedpoorly.And, from the power radiating off him, he was going to continue reacting poorly for the foreseeable future.

Part of me wanted to tear a strip off him for losing control. For those paying attention, Nox might as well have planted a flag in me that declared me his property.

A much bigger part of me was…touched. No one had ever defended me before. Well, my unit had. Some of them were trying to do that right now. But that was because I was their leader. They were honour-bound to defend me. To fight for me.

But no one had ever fought for me outside of that.

No one except Nox.

A few feet away, Ezekiel let out a small groan as his vocal cords regrew. Knowing I needed to put a stop to this before he reincarnated, I pulled my power in tight.

When I had it all in my grip, I released it in an explosion.

Light as bright as day illuminated the street before rolling away. Everyone, demon and angel alike, was knocked from their feet. They weren’t hurt, just temporarily dazed.

“Enough.” My command was firm as I stood, glaring at them all. “Seraphim, stand down.”

Theo and Nate snarled, while Rami glared at Quill. My temper licked at me, and my voice dropped an octave. “That’s anorder,Seraphim. Fall in.”

I didn’t pull rank often, but when I did, they knew I meant business. They quietly got to their feet, shuffling over to stand behind me in formation.

Jeremiah helped Nox to his feet. Nox shoved him away, taking a step towards me.

I shook my head sharply. Now really wasn’t the fucking moment. I didn’t have time to be Micah right now.

I had to be the leader my unit needed.

Nox halted, his amber eyes almost black. His hands curled into fists, and I held my breath. Was he going to fight me? Fight for me? For us?

Was that something I wanted?

Before any of that could be answered, Nox’s attention was diverted by Ezekiel stumbling to his feet.

Nox’s lips curled back in a snarl. I thought he’d hated me before, but he’d never looked at me the way he was at Ezekiel.

“No.” I threw a shield up between the two of them, mypower lighting up the shock on Nox’s face. His eyes slid to mine, his brow furrowed.

“Please,” I whispered, all too aware of the attention on us from every direction. “Please, Nox. Just go.”

His spine stiffened. He didn’t answer me.

Just opened his wings and launched into the sky.

The rest of the demons followed, shooting after him like wraiths, leaving me behind with my unit.

Ezekiel’s glare pinned me in place. “I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”

An hour later, the Seraphim were gathered around the conference table. Fresh from showers, none of us carried any trace of what we’d seen that night.

There was no erasing it from our eyes though. From the stiff way we held ourselves. What had happened today would linger for centuries.

It always did.

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