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“Dawn!” I jolted out of my seat, relief she was alive, but anger flared in my stomach. She might be a traitor.
I’d had enough of angels being tortured and experimented on. Uri and the other angels inside the dungeon so battered and bruised, and now Dawn, drove me to the brink of doing something I might regret.
“Why does she look like that?” I directed my question at Asmodeus. “What have you done to her?” My voice came out louder than I had intended.
“Nothing she didn’t agree with,” he said as if he had done nothing wrong. He waved a hand to Mark, Paul, and Simon. “Am I not a fair king?”
“Yes, you are,” they said at the same time.
The vampires watched and said nothing, as expected.
“Fair?” Dawn smacked the bars. “I’m locked inside a birdcage. You call this fair?”
Asmodeus took a sip of his drink and hiked an eyebrow. “If you don’t listen, then there are consequences. Why don’t you tell Eva how you stole the divine sword from her while she was poisoned and paralyzed. Was that fair?”
There were always two sides to the story. Asmodeus would embellish to make Dawn look like a traitor, so I said nothing before making a judgment.
Dawn’s eyes grew wider, looking horrified. “Yes, it was I who took your sword, but they told me if I didn’t hand it over they would kill Snow. I had no choice.”
One of you will betray your friends, the fortune teller had said.
“Where’s Snow?” My feathers ruffled, rage making its way to the surface.
The divine sword came first before anyone’s life. Dawn had broken an oath. Could I trust her?
“I don’t know where she is.” Dawn closed her wings and dropped to her knees. “I swear on my life my intentions were good. Levia told me she was taken to be sold and some vampire bought her.”
I glared at Victus. He pinched his eyebrows to the center, surprised. He didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. Then I looked at Markane and Abacus. They said nothing.
But the two mice. Snow had to have sent them. So either the vampires didn’t want me to know, or one of them had bought her secretly and didn’t tell the other two.
“Did you intend to get me killed, Dawn?” My words came out harsh and cold but I didn’t care.
“No, of course not.”
“But you handed them my sword.” I shouldn’t be mad at her. I might have done the same if the roles were reversed.
My chest seared again and I took a moment to inhale a deep breath. What was the matter with me? My inside voice reasoned it was due to Dawn’s betrayal.
Dawn touched her forehead on the cage floor. “Then my life is yours. Do as you will. I acted with my heart instead of the laws that govern us. I’m not fit to serve under The Order of Angels.”
I sat down and released a long breath with my head lowered. I had no authority to tell anyone what to do. I was fighting a losing battle alone.
No Tank, Otis, Snow, Zander. Dawn was locked up. Utterly alone. So hopeless. My team would be on the list of teams that had failed and died.
I clutched at my chest again, feeling as if I had been tossed in flames. Hot. It was too hot in here.
“Evangeline,” Dawn said softly.
I peered up. The fight and strength I had burning in my soul diminished. She must have seen the despair on my face, for her expression softened with grief.
Dawn pushed back red strands away from her face. “You don’t have a team. You don’t have the divine sword. The only option left for you is to either join Asmodeus or die. Those were the options they gave me.”
“You had a third option, little sister,” Levia smirked. “To fight in the tournament.”
“Tournament,” Abacus’s voice rose. “I enjoy entertainment. Little bird is so much fun to watch.”
Fun to watch? I almost grabbed the dagger from my boot and flung it into his chest …. No, not his chest, but rather his eyes. Let’s see if he can watch then.
