Page 27 of Touched By Darkness

I only just manage to duck out of the way.

“Like that?”

“What the hell?” I blurt, staring behind me at the curtains that are currently burning up.

With a click of his fingers, the fire extinguishes.

“You want to singe his ass?”

Dragging my eyes away from his ruined curtains, I swallow thickly. “I want to do something that’ll capture his attention.”

“Just strip naked. Why complicate matters?”

My eyes roll, and he chuckles again.

I can’t help but smile.

“You know what your nephew is like. If I let him have his wicked way with me without pissing him off first, he’ll lose interest afterward. I have a feeling you don’t want that to happen, hmm?”

Amenadiel ignores my jibe. “I’ll teach you how to channel fire magic, but I need you to know that it’s not just a case of conjuring a flame with your mind. You have to welcome the darkness and become one with it. You have to feed on and draw energy from the chaos you create. Are you sure you’re ready for that? Once you start welcoming the darkness inside you, it’ll catch ahold of you. It’ll seep into your veins and fill your heart like ink dripping from a pen, until you bleed evil. Whatever little good you have left inside of you will fizzle out like a candle in the dark.”

“I thought you said my light is gone.”

“It is,” he confirms. “But you have a long way to go until you’re one with Hell.”

“What do I need to do?”

His smile takes on a cruel edge. “We need to pay a visit to the human world.” The chair creaks as he stands up and gestures to the door. “After you, Angel.”

I reluctantly walk out and proceed down the hallway toward the front of the house. The cool night air seeps in through an open window to our left. It’s not raining tonight, and the stars are out in their full glory, twinkling brightly overhead.

Amenadiel lets his wings erupt as we step outside, causing a shift in the air so powerful that my hair lifts off my shoulders.

For a moment, I struggle to breathe, in awe at the sheer beauty of his wingspan. I should be used to it by now since I’ve seen Daemon’s wings plenty of times, but it still makes me pause.

He sees the look on my face and gestures for me to descend the front steps. “Don’t look at me like that, little angel, unless you want me to hurt you.”

“I’m not looking at you. Just your wings.”

“Semantics,” he drawls, his long coat moving in the wind. “Are you ready for this?”

“Probably not,” I admit.

“Definitely not.” He shoots up into the sky before I can gasp with outrage.

Insufferable prick.

I need him to teach me how to work fire magic,I remind myself. I can’t do it on my own, and I need to learn fast unless I want to look like a weakling in front of Daemon and the others.

I take flight, reveling in the cool breeze on my heated skin. My wings shift the air with ease as we soar off into the night with Amenadiel in the lead.

How the fuck did my life come to this? I’m now living and flying with Amenadiel, of all people. The man who caused me to break my wrist and who wanted to kill me to piss off his nephew. It doesn’t matter how many times the thought enters my head; I still can’t wrap my head around it.

I never will.

Amenadiel glances back at me, his powerful wings gliding through the air. “We’re about to cross the border to the human lands. Are you ready?”

“You tell me,” I quip, and he chuckles, then dives, shouting, “Definitely not.”

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