Droplets of apple juice decorate his bottom lip as he takes another bite, flashing me a smile. He holds the apple out. “Want some?”
“Nothing is happening,” I point out, reaching for the apple.
“What did you expect? Thunderclaps? The gates to open with a dramatic slam?”
“Ha ha,” I drawl, piercing the crunchy apple with my teeth. It tastes delicious.
Oliver looks far too amused. It should rub me the wrong way, but I find myself giggling instead. I’m so damn stupid sometimes, thinking an apple is what’ll get me thrown out of Heaven.
“Admit that it was funny,” he says with a wink, and I chuck the apple at him.
“You’re a dork.”
Our heads snap to the side when Freya’s voice calls out, “What are you both still doing here?”
The smile Oliver and I share is secretive.
Nudging my shoulder with his, he sets off down the path, slinging his arm around Freya.
ChapterFour
AURELIA
“She returns,” Amenadiel says with a gravelly chuckle as he slinks out from the shadows. The cold night air licks at my pale skin and hardens my nipples hidden beneath the wavy strands of my blonde hair. I fight the instinct to rub my arms to ward off the cold. I know better than to show weakness in front of Amenadiel. He’d tear into me like a predator with its prey. Right now, he’s circling me, his eyes sliding down my body.
I pretend it doesn’t bother me. “What will it take?”
His face gives nothing away as he rounds me. “I need you to be more specific than that, Angel?”
“Don’t play games with me. You’re the one stuck here”—I dig my finger into my temple—“inside my mind, so I suggest you play by my rules and tell me how to escape Eden.”
“I don’t take well to threats.”
“What will it take?” I bite out.
A slow smile spreads across his lips, and he starts his slow steps around me again. “What makes you think I have the solution to your problem?”
“I know you do.”
“Let me guess, the visions have started?”
“Visions?”
“The apple,” he breathes in my ear, “the snake...” His whispered words slither down my back like the hiss of a coiled serpent’s tongue.
“What of them?”
He continues walking around my still form, his eyes darkening even more as shadows dance in their cold, soulless depths. “Hell is calling you to step into the night. Become one with the shadows.”
“How do I do that?” I ask carefully as his steps slow even more.
“Are you sure you want to lose yourself? Give up your light? Your soul?”
Am I sure? I can already feel my light fading, trickling out through the cracks in me. What happens when the last of it is gone? “I’m sure.”
Amenadiel sees right through me, smirking knowingly. With a shrug, he stops in front of me, his hands in his pockets, and looks at me through those dark eyes that see too much. “What will you offer me in return for helping you?”
“You already know what you want, so why don’t you tell me?”