Mietek shook his head. “No. Evangeline.”
That could only mean… “They found her?”
“Yes. In the Shadow realm.”
My lips parted, my eyebrows lifting.
“Hellfire,” Kayla breathed. “Eve was in the Shadow realm? And she’salive?”
“Barely,” Mietek replied, a note of emotion glinting in his dark gaze. “Xai saved her.”
Pride, I realized.Relief.
They were both evidenced in his stare, which provided a nice break from Mietek’s typically stoic or angry disposition.
“I’m glad she’s okay,” I admitted.
“As am I,” he confided, his voice soft. “Azrael left Scion with the Dark Provenance for now. But we’re running out of time. We need you.”
That had to hurt to admit. It was also accompanied by a glint of fear in his dark eyes, one that I felt reverberate down to my very soul.
“What exactly do you know?” I asked.
He shook his head, his expression conveying his exhaustion. “Not anything beyond the obvious.”
That wasn’t very useful, but I didn’t comment on it, as it wouldn’t be helpful.
“Any insight on who opened the portal that allowed all those demons to access the homes between the realms?” I asked him instead.
“Whoever did it masked his or her energy signature, likely by using Kristina’s powers,” Mietek replied. “Bael provided a full report of what Kayla’s Royal Guards saw, but there wasn’t anything in there to pinpoint a culprit. However, it’s clearly related.”
“Yes,” I agreed, frowning. “Whoever attacked us knows we’re a threat to the endgame.” Because they wanted me dead, or at the very least, distracted.
And they’d succeeded.
“We need to talk to Gleason,” Kayla said, drawing my gaze back to her. Her thighs had released my hips, but her feet were planted on the mattress, keeping our bodies very much connected. Not that she seemed to be distracted by that. Instead, her eyes glowed with curiosity.
“The Nephilim?”
She nodded. “He was the last one we saw before the attack. Maybe someone followed us from his house.”
“If he knew something, he would have told Scion or Azrael already,” I said, glancing at Mietek. “Right?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I haven’t heard anything about a Nephilim named Gleason, but I’ve not been working with the Dark Provenance. Azrael and Scion would be better ones to talk to. However, as I said, Azrael is indisposed at the moment. And Scion is currently in the human realm.”
“Then we pick up where we left off and go from there,” Kayla said simply. “Afterward, maybe I can reach out to Yaz for a personal report.”
My brow furrowed as I glanced back down at her. “Who the fuck is Yaz?” And what did she mean by “personal report”?
“The head of my Royal Guard,” she explained, a smile appearing on her lips.
An amused smile.
A gorgeous smile.
One that momentarily distracted me from everything else in the world. I wasn’t even sure what we’d just been discussing.
Maybe I’m still delirious from nearly dying, I mused, staring down at her and returning her grin.Maybe nothing else in this world matters except for her.
