It made no sense.
Instead, I ended up in a headlock, choking on air, facing Oliver while the rest of the group attacked Aspen’s barrier.
We all knew this was coming. I practically gave Lilith and Aspen a calling card for my arrival. I just hadn’t expected my nightmare to be real.
Had the female in my nightmares set me up? Was she Lilith, taunting me with reality, urging me to act?
I should’ve known better.
But even if I had… it wouldn’t have changed anything. I still would’ve come. I still would’ve tried to help him. Now I just needed a plan.
Oliver’s inched closer. “Let her go, princeling, or I’ll shove this knife into your stomach.”
Aspen stole one of my daggers and held it to my cheek. “Stay back, Nephilim, unless you want to add to our pretty princess’s scars.”
“You fucking spill a drop of her blood, and I’ll destroy you.” Ronen didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t erupt in fury. He spoke with certainty, his words a cold, lethal promise. He seemed calm, while his shadows slammed against the barrier. The force shook the room. Plaster rained down from the ceiling. Rune paced back in front of the flames, snarling and snapping her jaws.
“Interesting tricks, shadow-wielder. Your powers must not register as angelic to the Ember Metal. What does that make you? Too dark? A demon? Did Lilith give you her blood too?” Aspen taunted. “Maybe you belong here with us.”
Was that why they worked? Because they were too dark? It made a twisted kind of sense. Ember Metal suppressed angelic power, but Ronen’s weren’t typical. He was a Dark Seraphim. Could the metal not distinguish what he was?
Oliver moved closer while Aspen was distracted.
“Nu uh,” Aspen chided, flicking his gaze back to Oliver and digging the knife in. I hissed, and Ronen surrounded the barrier in shadow. Alexei, MJ, Rune, and Ronen all vanished into the dark. They pressed in, and the dome shifted slightly, the grip on my neck loosening enough for me to breathe.
“Aspen,” I rasped. “You don’t want to do this.”
“Sorry, sweetheart. I gave you a chance, and you didn’t listen. You should probably give your friends some parting words to remember you by. The queen’s waiting for us down the hall.”
Fuck that.
I pulled at my Infernus, demanding anything it could give. Most of their whispers were silent, except hallucination and seduction. I called to my hallucination melody, thought about fear, and slammed into Aspen’s mind.
I thought it’d be hard. I expected thick, unyielding barriers. But instead, I pierced his mind effortlessly—yet my hallucination didn’t take. The emptiness swallowed my attempt. I tried to weave images into his head and recreate the scene so I could manipulate him, butthe void consumed that too. His mind was hollow, and it hungered for anything, devouring everything. My powers didn’t work.
Desperate, I reached for his wrists, wrapping my hands around them—bolts of searing heat shot through my body. I screamed, nearly letting go, when I felt just a hint of his emotions. It was hardly anything, but it was something. If only I could reach him. If we could get Aspen on our side, just long enough to betray Lilith and take her feather, maybe we’d have a chance. Maybe we could end her.
“Remember my fear, Nephilim,” Aspen groaned, his arm tightening around my neck.
Black specks blurred Oliver. The pain of the runes dulled with my weakening hands, Aspen’s emotions slowly becoming numbed again.
Oliver looked like he was about to ram his knife into Aspen.
“Don’t,” I wheezed. I wouldn’t let Oliver hurt him. But more than that, we needed to get to Lilith and her feather, and this was the only way. I could be the Trojan horse. “Let me go.”
Oliver stared at me like I was out of my mind. But so far, this was the best plan I could come up with.
“Trust me,” I breathed, my hands falling from Aspen’s runes, my eyes closing.
The last sound I heard was an eruption of rage that felt like it could tear the world apart.
Chapter
Forty-Nine
RONEN
“How does he have Seraphim flames?” MJ snapped, fisting her empty hands. She tried to throw her daggers at the pet, but he had erected his dome, encasing Oliver and Lucille, and they dissolved on contact. No ash, no nothing—just melted and gone the second they hit.
