Page 9 of Conflicted

The door handle rattled. My head snapped around in alarm, sending another rivulet of pain through me. “Micah, are you okay? Why’s the door locked?”

Cursing myself for not waiting until I’d heard Rami walk away, I briskly moved for the door. Flicking the lock, I smoothed all evidence of pain from my face and flung it open. “What? Can’t a guy have a few minutes of privacy?”

Rami folded his arms over his wide chest. “You’ve never needed it before.”

“Times change,” I said shortly. I tried to step forwards, but Rami was blocking the doorway. “Don’t we have a meeting to get to?”

“In a minute.” He was scowling at me now. My heart sank. I could count on one hand the number of times Rami had looked at me without a grin on his face. None of them had ended well for me. “You’ve been acting weird ever since the battle. First you disappear for a couple of days, then you come back behaving oddly. What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Everything is fine.”

“Bullshit. What are you hiding from us?”

I stiffened my spine. “Are you questioning your superior?”

Rami rolled his deep brown eyes. “Fuck off, Micah. We aren’t on the battlefield right now.”

“I’m still the leader of the unit.” Steel lined my words, something I rarely bothered with. “You can’t question me like this.”

Rami’s nostrils flared, his impressive frame seeming to grow larger. “See, you might think that’s helping, but it’sactually doing the opposite. You only pull the ‘I’m in charge’ card when you’re trying to cover something up. Usually, something you’d be better off sharing with the rest of us.”

I ground my teeth. I couldn’t tell him everything, but I’d have to give him a splinter of truth if I wanted him to back off. People often misunderstood Rami, taking his easy-going persona to mean he was laid-back and relaxed. In reality, he was more stubborn than the rest of us put together. His temper, while difficult to rouse, had earned its rightful place in legend.

“Fine. I’m just…I’m trying to process everything. Losing Dimitri means we have to replace him. We haven’t done that since the twins joined us.”

There, that wasn’t a lie. I was anxious about finding Dimitri’s replacement. Turnover wasn’t something we really saw in the Seraphim. I said the twins were our latest recruits, but seeing as that had happened before the birth of Christ, even they couldn’t be thought of asnew.

“That’s fair. He’s left some pretty big shoes to fill.”

I swallowed. “He has.”

Rami’s face softened. “And you’ll feel his loss more keenly than the rest of us.”

I looked at the floor. “Yes. He was my second for centuries.”

His big hand touched my arm and squeezed. Thank God he hadn’t gone for my shoulder. I didn’t think I would’ve been able to hide a wince if he had. “He was more than that for you, Micah.”

My sharp gaze flew up. “No, Rami. He wasn’t.”

Whatever Rami saw on my face had him holding his hands up in defeat. “Okay, play it your way, boss. But remember, we all have eyes. We see things.”

Only the things I couldn’t stop them seeing. I might’ve failed at hiding my true feelings for Dimitri, but at least the frequent punishments I received on their behalf remained concealed. “Everyone ready?”

“Yep.” Rami stepped back, finally letting me exit my room. “The unit’s assembled in the grand room and the candidates are waiting in the foyer.”

“Excellent. Let’s get this show on the road.”

Ihadn’t expected finding Dimitri’s replacement to be this challenging.

I mean, I’d thought I’d find it difficult in the sense that it would finally cement the loss. That replacing him would be the final nail in the coffin of his leaving.

What I hadn’t expected was that we’d find the candidates so…lacking.

“This can’t be it,” Ezekiel said in disbelief as the fifteenth angel scurried from the room, one of their wings still alight. “How are these the best angels Heaven has to offer outside of the units?”

“It’s a good thing they have us,” Breann said, tossing her braid over her shoulder. “They’d be fucked if this were the best of the rest.”

Everyone murmured in agreement. Seven of the eight remaining Seraphim were sat behind a long table. Benji, the one delivering the tests, was in the centre of the room dusting his hands off. The small, thoughtful furrow between his brows had deepened with every failed candidate.

---