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Wrath. A fist constricted around her chest. His blue eyes filled with hurt and then bitterness haunted her.
Ramiel took her hand. “Haziel?”
“What?” No accompanying thrill followed his touch.
“Are you listening to me?”
“You’re sitting within arm’s reach of me.” And way too close. She pulled her hand away. “I cannot but hear you.”
“Indeed.” Ramiel took a deep, careful breath. “I have earned your anger.”
He had cursed her with this truthfulness, and she saw no reason to spare him. “Yes, you have.”
Anger flashed in his brilliant green eyes, and his face hardened.
She met his stare, daring him to get angry with her, challenging him to pull his archangel crap on her.
He sighed and his shoulders drooped. “I was jealous.”
“Eh?” That shook her out of her righteous anger.
“I was jealous.” He reached for her hand and then stopped. “The way matters have been between us for so many years, I had grown accustomed to you always by my side, always putting me before all others.”
“By matters, you mean me loving you?” Haziel couldn’t spend countless more millennia dancing around the truth and pretending what existed between them didn’t.
He cleared his throat. “Yes, that.”
“Then let me put your mind at rest, I no longer feel the same.”
Flinching, Ramiel stood and shoved his hands in his pockets. “You are angry, and you say things that will wound. I understand.”
“No, you don’t.” His condescension enraged her and made her head pound. “You made it so I could never lie to you. I am not spewing venom in my anger; I am speaking my truth.”
“Your truth at this moment,” Ramiel said. “Your truth as you believe it to be.”
His arrogance was beyond insufferable. He’d always been this way, but it had never made her want to punch his perfect face like it did now. “Are you implying that I don’t know my own feelings?”
“No.” He held up one hand as if to pacify her. “I do not doubt that at this moment you despise me and are furious with me.” Regret clouded his eyes. “And I have deserved all that and more. I knowingly put you at risk to get you away from the influence of that hell prince.”
“Wrath.” She took delight in speaking his name. “You mean Wrath.”
“Yes…Wrath.” He sneered. “It never occurred to me for a second when I paired you with him that you would not continue to see him as you always have. That you would not despise him.”
“You despised him.” Haziel didn’t see the point to this conversation, but Ramiel had effectively trapped her here with him, and she was done tiptoeing around his sensibilities. “I always liked Wrath. You were the one who despised him.”
Stilling, Ramiel frowned at her. “Always?”
“Yes, always. He was kind to me, in his gruff and forthright way.” She shrugged. “And yes, he had a temper, but he’s Wrath. It’s not like his seal was going to allow him to be any other way.”
“Kind to you.” Ramiel tapped his chin. “Yes, I suppose he has been. I should have seen that before now, but I suppose I saw only what I wanted to see.”
She didn’t need to respond to what was patently obvious. “I did what you asked me to. I went to hell with him, kept an eye on him, and for the most part kept him out of trouble.” Barring that fight with Ava.
“And you fell in love with him.” Ramiel cocked his head and studied her. “There is no use denying it, I can sense it in you.”
As if she could deny what was true, so she stared at him.
“I’ve been a fool.” Sighing, Ramiel dropped his chin to his chest. “A fool that only saw that he wanted a thing when it was lost to him.”
