Page 78 of Wings of Strife
“No. I came alone, like you asked. What’s going on?”
Hayliel and I exchange a glance, and despite the earlier outburst or the embarrassment from a few short moments ago, she must see that I haven’t managed to fortify my walls yet.
She turns toward him, drawing her shoulders back. “We actually have a request, and we’re hoping you’ll help us without asking too many questions.”
He looks almost stupefied. If this moment wasn’t important as hell, I’d be laughing my ass off at the sight.
“That’s not cryptic or anything.” His gaze jumps between us, assessing. “I’ll help you with whatever you need, but I can’t promise that I won’t need more information. Does that work?”
I sigh. It’s not ideal, but we expected this would be his response. Besides, nothing says he needs to know all the details, at least not before we can get him to the cave and have hisintentions checked. I want to smack myself. Why the hell didn’t we think of that before? That’s the only way I’ll truly trust him at this point.
Hayliel waits for my nod before she agrees, but the clever minx adds a little loophole. “We can agree to that. Though we may not always answer your questions. We’ve been burned before,” she adds when he seems hurt that we wouldn’t trust him.
The entire exchange baffles me. First, that he’s willing to help without even knowing the full story. And second, that he’d be shocked that we—or I—don’t trust him. Has he been living in a fantasy world all these years? He’s never once done anything to make me trust him. Not in a long, long fucking time.
Feeling annoyed, I blurt out, “We need that contact you have for rune stitched clothing.”
He turns wide eyes on me. “Fuck. The rune weaver? What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Raphael?”
An angry retort rests on my tongue, but Hayliel places her soothing hand on my arm, stopping me.
“By the Archangels, everyone in this damn family sure likes to blame Raph.”
“That’s not what I—”
“His only misstep is that he’s associating with me. We need the special clothes for protection because a whole host of shit is about to rain down on us and we’re trying to stop it.”
I take her hand from my arm and pull it to my cheek. “For the record, getting close to you is the furthest thing from a mistake, sunshine.” I didn’t think I could love this woman even more, but here I go. To my brother, I say, “She’s right about one thing, though. Bad things are coming. Hell, they’ve already happened, and we’re just trying to stop it before it’s too late. Can you put me in touch with this rune weaver or not?”
Instead of answering, Raduriel closes the door. Hayliel and I stiffen, unsure why he’s acting strange. Honestly, as sad as itis to admit, I wouldn’t even be surprised if my shitty brother attacked us right here.
He doesn’t, which only causes curiosity to flow through me like the tide.
“I’m going to ask you both a question, one that I probably shouldn’t given it’ll ruin my career if it gets out, but first I need you both to promise that if the answer is no, you won’t breathe a word of it to anyone. Can you do that?”
“Of course,” Hayliel says, then both sets of eyes turn to me where I hesitate. I give in after a moment, agreeing to his terms.
My usually controlled and perfect brother runs a hand through his hair, messing up the strands. “The bad things that are coming. Does it have anything to do with demons?”
Shit. Fuck. Is this a trap? I wouldn’t put it past Raduriel, not if his job is on the line. But even as I think those words, I realize that’s not quite right. He’s putting his career in jeopardy just by talking to us about it. It’s so wildly out of character for him that I can’t wrap my mind around it.
I think we can trust him, at least with the demon part, Hayliel says through our mental connection.
I stand up straighter and prepare to do the one thing I never thought I’d do again. Put my faith in my older brother.
“Yes.”
Raduriel curses and begins to pace. He’s frazzled, and my earlier comfort at seeing him so bent out of shape vanishes. If he knows about the demonic happenings here, things are bad.
“Wait,” Hayliel says, confused. “How doyouknow about it? I thought you had an office job?”
Her question makes me realize I never really told her much about my family or what they do. The less I talked about my brother or parents, the better. But looking back, maybe that wasn’t the best choice.
“I work closely with the governor and city commissioner, which usually consists of pompous, self-righteous pricks gathering to complain.”
I snort a laugh, which has Rad smiling briefly before it falls.
“Lately, though, things are a lot more serious. I just returned from a sequestered meeting with all the city’s higher ups to discuss the rise in demon attacks, whispers of a Fallen rebellion, and a note from the Archangels.”
