An unseen force sends me flying back onto the bed.
Pain writhes in my wrists, burning like fire, and I cry out.
“Stop,” Azael commands with calm clarity.
Desperate to make the pain end, I force my eyes closed as tightly as I can, letting my body fall limp against the bed. I’m dehydrated and weak, and I know I couldn’t possibly fight him for long. But now I’m also humiliated, pathetically powerless, with my back pressed to the mattress and legs dangling off.
Then he has the nerve to say, “I’d rather not have to do this.”
“Fuck. You,” I hiss through gritted teeth. I want to shred him into pieces. I want to send him back to the beginning of time, before he ever existed, and return the particles of him to his maker—to make sure he’d never be created. “Let me up and speak to me like a human being, youhypocritical, lying asshole.”
The pressure against my wrists ends, and I jolt up into a sitting position. Before I have the time to think about doing anything else, Azael clicks his tongue.
“Stop trying to attack me like a feral animal, and I’ll stop having to protect myself.” His voice is flat and disinterested, as if I’m a fly buzzing in his ear to be swatted away. He doesn’t even bother to remove his hands from his pockets. As if I’m boring him.
I should have fucking listened to Semyaza.
Azael is a liar, a manipulator, and a murderer. I fumbled a perfect chance to serve his ass to Michael on a silver platter, and now I’ll have to bide my time in his vicinity until I get the chance to take him out myself.
Considering all I have left right now is either depression or bottomless fury, I already know that’s going to be nearly impossible.
“I didn’t like the son of a bitch, either, but you didn’t have to kill him,” I huff, shoving my hair back from its disheveled place.
Azael breathes out something similar to a laugh, taking a few steps across the room. I scowl at the space he closes between us, wishing he’d just stayed by the door, but he doesn’t care.
“I doubt you’ll listen, but I do have an explanation, Kaelene.”
“I don’t have much of a choicebut to listen, now do I? If you haven’t fucking noticed,” I wave my hand in a show of the room, “you’re holding me captive here.”
“Would you have preferred I let Michael kill you? You did seem quite content to allow it. One might even say you were baiting him to.”
“I’d rather die than live as your slave.”
His eyes smolder with insult. “You’re not myslave. If anything, you were Abaddon’s. He can’t reach you here.You’re welcome.”
“I’m welcome? Are you fucking kidding me?” I laugh, flabbergasted. “You took away my choice, you manipulative piece of shit. I was going to go to Elohim, where I could have figured it out.”
“You would have learned very quickly how impossible that is to do when you’re dead. If you’d stop being an impulsive brat for a few seconds, you’d see that I’m giving you the best option for your situation.”
Hatred seeps into my sarcasm, and I serve it up heavy-handed. “Yeah, because living out the rest of my eternal life in a dingy prison cell issothe best option.”
“I never said I’m keeping you in here forever. Once I’msure you won’t try to kill me or burn down the City of Adonai, you can live out there with the others.”
“Oh, yeah, sure. That’ll happen.” I roll my eyes. “Even if your word was worth the air you wasted on it, how the fuck can you claim to be ‘freeing me’ when you’re still keeping me from returning home? In what world is that considered free? You’re so goddamn hypocritical, it’s making my head spin.”
“The arrogance of youth,” he mutters, scowling. “Are you that dense? Why would I just let you go do as you please when you can’t be trusted not to open the Abyss?Yourlife is not worth thebillionswho would suffer if the locusts were released. You can’t protect yourself from influence, and even if you could, what happens when they put a gun to your precious friend’s head and demand you do it?”
He knows about Jackie. No, no, no. This isn’t good?—
“Yes, I know all about her. And before you say they wouldn’t do that, they would. One girl doesn’t come before their mission, just as one girl doesn’t come before mine.”
“No, Abaddon promised he’d keep her safe,” I blurt out, panicking. “He said someone would be taking her to Elohim.”
“Oh, they took her to Elohim, alright.”
My stomach drops. “What do you mean?”
Azael pauses for a moment, looking reflective, before he walks over to me. Despite my expression of disgust and horror, he stops a few feet in front of me, leaning against the wall. “Have you ever wondered what happens to any new nephilim that are born?”
