Page 29 of Infernal

Gabriel nodded, but the doomed look never left his face.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I muttered, taking the look personal.

“It’s not that. I’m trying to understand his methods here.” His eyes were distant, as though trying to put the pieces together in his mind. “Why bother with something so trivial?”

“What do you mean?”

“Impersonating Trace, turning Peter, holing up at All Saints. None of this makes sense.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” answered Dominic, nursing his drink from the sofa. “He wanted to get her alone, and he needed to get close enough to her to touch her in order to do that. He wouldn’t be able to do that if he had admitted who he was.”

Gabriel’s eyebrows furrowed with unease. “Then he has control over Trace’s abilities?”

I nodded that he did. “He ported us out of there as soon as he had a chance.”

“Where did he take you?”

“Trace’s family cabin up north.”

“Which means he also has access to Trace’s memories.” Gabriel’s expression pinched as he thought about the repercussions of that. “Everything he knew about the Order—hierarchy, weapons, techniques, practices, Scripture—Lucifer now knows.”

“Well, this just got interesting,” said Dominic as he swiveled the dark liquid around in his glass and then polished it off.

“Interesting is not the word I would use.” Gabriel turned his weighty eyes to me. “And now he’s set his sights on you, and he has the perfect weapon to disarm you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, my head already spinning faster than a tornado.

“Your feelings for Romeo,” answered Dominic, his tone flat.

My knees weakened as the gravity of it all settled in. The floor felt as though it were shifting below me, conspiring to knock me on my ass again. I quickly shuffled over to the sofa and slid down into the spot beside Dominic. I needed him to quell my rising anxiety. Frankly, I didn’t have the energy to try to fight it off on my own.

“You cannot trust anything he says to you,” warned Gabriel, as though it were that simple. As though that weren’t going to be a huge problem for me. “He’ll find a way to use it against you.”

“He told me Trace was still alive...that he was still in there with him.”

“He’s lying, Jemma.” There was no hesitation in his voice, no pause for thought.

“You don’t know that!”

“And so it begins,” muttered Dominic as Gabriel ran a hand down the length of his face.

“Look, I don’t care what either of you say. I believe him.”

“No, angel, youwantto believe him,” corrected Dominic, and I quickly shot him a vengeful look.

“Jemma, he knows you won’t go after him if you think Trace is still alive,” added Gabriel, obviously agreeing with his brother. “I hate to say this, but you’re walking right into his trap.”

“And what exactly is the alternative, Gabriel?” As far as I was concerned, there were no alternatives. I needed to believe him, because if I didn’t, that meant that Trace was gone, and I couldn’t even stomach that thought.

“Why are you so sure Lucifer’s worried about me coming after him anyway?” I continued, deciding I didn’t want to have the other conversation anymore. “I’m not exactly his biggest threat. I mean, if I were him, I’d be more worried about the Order, or even Tessa for that matter.” No doubt she’d slice first and ask questions later.

Dominic unfurled his arm along the back of the sofa and picked up a strand of my hair. “Unless he knows something we don’t know,” he said, twisting my hair around his finger as he looked at it, completely intrigued.

“Well, that’s not hard being that we don’t know anything about anything,” I griped and sank in closer to him without even meaning to. In my defense, it was hardly my fault. His closeness felt like the sun to my frozen bones, and it was damn near impossible to stay away from something so soothing when everything inside of me ached with pain.

“You can say that again,” said a familiar male voice from the entrance.

My eyes darted up to meet the intruder behind the voice and all the blood drained from my face.

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