Page 108 of Devoted

Nox’s scowl didn’t shift. “I know you will. Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I wouldn’t want to wait behind if it were Sam,” I said. “I get it now, how hard it must be for you to watch Micah walk into these situations, knowing you have to let him.” I summoned my power before speaking again. I didn’t know if it had been my conversation with Sam, or just being around him, but I was baring my soul easier than ever before. “I know I’vegiven you a lot of shit, but you’re a good person, Nox. Better than me, I’m starting to realise.”

Before he could respond, I closed my eyes and unleashed my power.

When I opened them, I was standing outside the giant courtroom doors.

Micah’s spine was stiff. “Everything okay?”

“Yes.” I knew what he was secretly asking. “Nox is pissed, but he understands.”

“I know,” he murmured, tapping his chest. “I can feel him, even from here. But it’s nice to hear it from you too.”

I rubbed that aching hole in my heart, the one I hadn’t known existed until I’d met Sam, until the night I knew he was my mate. From then on, the absence of the mating bond had felt like an open wound. “Ready for this?”

“Hard to say when we don’t know whatthisis.”

By unspoken agreement, we shoved the massive doors open together. Shining light spilled from the chamber, its familiar warmth washing over me. It no longer felt like coming home though.

It felt like a warning. A reminder of the power and control Gloria wielded.

She might have been just another arch, but her position on the council meant she answered only to the Almighty.

And we were fully on her shit list.

The memory of the last time I’d been here had my skin tightening over my bones. Then, it had been the life of my leader on the line. A gamble that might have cost me not only my immortality, but all those I called family.

I’d known that walking in. Now, I had no idea what price might be demanded.

Judging by the smug, serene expression on Gloria’s face, I wasn’t going to like it. She sat, as always, on her seat in thecentre. Angels fanned out on either side, silent witnesses to what was to unfold.

Who knew, maybe this time they would intercede? After all, we’d been the ones to leave here triumphant. Not that you’d know it looking at the council. Every last one of them was sneering at us, looking down their noses as though we were beneath them.

I knew why. It wasn’t just because we’d bested them. It wasn’t because we’d used their own laws against them.

It was because Micah had mated with a demon.

Shame flooded me at my own prejudices. Had I really been better than Gloria with how I’d treated Nox?

I swallowed it down. I would be better. The best version of myself that I could be.

Sam didn’t deserve anything less.

The dais that had been destroyed during our last visit had been repaired. There was no sign of the scene that’d played out, as if it had never happened.

“Micah, Ezekiel, how lovely it is to see you.” Gloria’s saccharine voice grated like nails on a chalkboard. “And alone. How marvellous to see you can actually follow orders.”

My temper rankled but I kept my face impassive. My role here was to support Micah, not antagonise Gloria.

If I spent a few seconds picturing how her head might look skewered on the end of my sword, that was nobody’s business.

“We came as summoned,” Micah said, his manner matching Gloria’s. To look at him now, you’d have no idea he was face-to-face with the being who’d tried to execute his mate. “Our loyalty is, as always, to the Lord Almighty.”

God, not Gloria. Her smile dipped slightly at that.

“That is what we want to hear.” That was a lie, based on how the other archs behind the dais were scowling. “Perhaps you canexplain how the extra occupants who have been living within the compound boundaries align with your supposed loyalty.”

Really? This was about the regents? I had to refrain from rolling my eyes. Gloria knew as well as I did that we’d offered them sanctuary from her. Not only that, but we’d followed the required procedures.

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