Page 34 of His Angel

“Are you saying he needs saving from me?”

“Maybe.”

Animosity pulses, blame practically resonating from her and clawing at me. “Leandra, what are you saying?”

“That I want him safe. He’s important to us, Everly. Important to me.”

“And he’s important to me, too.”

“I’m sure he is.” Her voice softens, but her eyes don’t lose their hard glint. “But he’s our blood.”

“He’s notyourblood,” I snap, looking her in the eye. She feels something for him, something I’m not sure I like.

Leandra's gaze locks onto mine, frosty and firm. “I care deeply for Isaia,” she says. “And I’m worried about him. This thing he got himself tangled in with you…he’s risking his life, and I want to make sure he’s risking it for something that’s worth the fight.”

“Oh, my God,” I exclaim. “Are you saying I’m not worth it?”

“I don’t know you well enough. No one does. All I know, all any of us knows, is that you’re the girl who knocked into him at the park, the waitress at Ember and Bean, the woman he risked everything for by declaring war with one of New York’s most powerful families, putting my entire family’s lives at risk. Other than that, I don’t know you at all.”

Her words, each one meticulously chosen and surgically precise, spear through me. I swallow hard, attempting to clear the knot in my throat that each word has tightened a little more firmly. “And you don’t trust me because of that?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Everly. It’s that I don’t trust him when he’s with you.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means I’m not convinced you’re good for him,” she retorts. “Isaia’s already a loose cannon on a good day, but with you, he’s unpredictable. And that scares me. He’s acting with his heart instead of his head, and while that might be admirable in a romantic sense, it’s dangerous in reality. Inourreality.”

I slide off the stool, my first instinct to run from the conflict that seemingly came out of nowhere. But the rational part of me needs to figure out where all this is coming from, so I stay, squaring my shoulders.

“I don’t know what you want from me.”

“I don’t want anything from you.” Leandra lifts her cup, taking a sip of tea, calm and composed, steam curling around her poised frame. “All I want is for Isaia to be safe. And the end of this war has only two outcomes.”

Leaning forward, my elbows press into the counter. “Which are?”

Her gaze lifts, green eyes settling on mine, and her voice dips—not sharp, not angry, but trembling with something raw, a quiet fear that hums beneath every word. “Either he wins, and he gets you.” She sets the cup down, fingers lingering on the rim, steadying herself as if the thought alone shakes her. “Or he loses, and we all lose him.”

The fear isn’t loud. It’s a shiver, a crack in her polish, like she’s picturing a void she can’t face. It’s not aimed at me; it’s for him, woven into the way her breath catches, the faint tightening of her jaw. She cares—deeply, fiercely—like losing him would carve out a piece of her world.

There’s no way I can ignore her feelings for him. It’s loud and clear in every word she speaks, and I should probably feel all warm and fuzzy inside over the fact that he has someone who feels so deeply for him, but by God, the jealousy that hardens within me is an emotion so intense it's almost physical.

“I love him,” I state simply. “I love him more than I ever thought possible. What I feel for him is so fierce, so deep, it’s consuming. It’s…it’s fucking cataclysmic, and I would march into the very heart of this war if it meant keeping him safe.”

“Maybe it’s something you should consider. Marching.”

“Enough!” Isaia storms in, his presence a thunder, cutting her off. “That’s…enough.”

He moves to stand beside me, finding my waist, pulling me close, fingers pressing into my skin, possessive and steady, his eyes locking on hers with a silent weight.

She tenses, her breath catching, but his grip on me tightens, his choice clear, unspoken.

Alexius steps up. “What’s going on here?”

Isaia steps in like a wall between Leandra and me, facing her. “Your wife and I need to talk.”

Chapter10

ISAIA

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