Page 88 of Guarded
He trailed off and my eyes narrowed. “Wait, walk back a bit. Whatexactlyhas Noah been asked to do?”
The heat was rising in the room again, but for a different reason this time. From how Nox was glowering, it wasn’t just from me either.
Micah sighed. “Atlas, the second, asked Noah to contain Lyle. As Juniper were hosting, they couldn’t spare enough members to hold him.”
Nox’s brows drew together. “But Noah can? Hold him alone, I mean?”
Micah shot him a significant look. “I think Noah has been holding back on us as to how powerful he is.”
The knowledge stunned Nox, but not me. I already knew my mate was one of a kind. “What does ‘holding him’ entail?”
“Lyle’s been confined to his room. Noah is guarding him.”
My heart picked up pace. I didn’t like the sound of this. “Alone?”
“For the most part.” Guilt flashed over Micah’s face. “I swear, I didn’t know. I didn’t realise what exactly he was going through until last night. Every time I asked after him, Juniper said he was fine.”
Micah’s words were creating tiny fault lines in my skin. Cracks that expanded with each new thing he told me.
“After seeing Lyle and experiencing some of what Noah’s been going through…” Micah’s voice thickened and he paused, shaking his head. “I’m so sorry, Jeremiah. I failed Noah this week.”
“You didn’t know,” Nox said, tucking Micah under his arm. “It’s not your fault.”
“Yes, it is.”
Two pairs of eyes cut to me. One pair full of shame, the other, murder.
Nox gave a low growl. “Careful, Jeremiah.”
“He’s right,” Micah said heavily, putting a hand on Nox’s knee to keep him seated. “Noah is part of the Seraphim. He’s my responsibility. It was on me to check upon Noah myself, rather than relying on what others told me.”
My gaze was unforgiving. “Did you know he was anxious about going?”
To his credit, Micah didn’t look away. “He didn’t say anything, but…yes. I knew it’d be hard for him. I tried to dissuade him from attending, Jeremiah, I really did.”
“Why would Noah go out of his way to help someone if he knew he’d be treated like shit?”
“If I had to hazard a guess, Noah’s intervention is more likely due to guilt than anything else.”
I frowned. “Guilt?”
“For leaving the unit.” Micah shook his head sadly. “It’s no small thing to walk away from the angels you’ve trained and fought alongside for centuries.”
My gut twisted. While I was loyal to my demonic friends, it was a relationship born of necessity. None of us had chosen to be there. There were no noble notions or sense of duty, just a base need to survive.
Despite all of that, I couldn’t imagine walking away from any of them. Not permanently. They were my family. The only one I’d ever truly known.
For Noah to have willingly chosen to do so…
“It must’ve been awful,” I said eventually, studying my hands. “Whatever it was that happened to lead him to that decision.”
“And that’s a story for Noah, and Noah alone to tell you,” Micah said.
I agreed. Noah was the one I wanted to hear it from.
“You should’ve tried harder to get him to stay behind.” I glared down at my knuckles as I cracked them repeatedly. “You should never have allowed him to be put in this position in the firstplace.”
I added another item to my list. One he’d probably protest about, but I didn’t give a fuck. He was my mate, and I was going to make it happen.
