“Of course not. I’m giving you living quarters. I had the foresight to steal your luggage when I brought you here, so youshould even feel fairly at home.”
“You mean you’ve had my clothes this whole fucking time, and you’ve made me wearthis?”I use my free hand to motion to the ill-fitting scrubs that I’m wearing under my cloak. “Not to mention I had to bathe myself in a sink with a singular bar of Irish Spring soap!”
“You’ll have to forgive my inhospitality,” he huffs. “You were desperate to kill me and required isolation. If you want to go back to acting like a savage animal, I can continue to treat you like one.”
“If you knock me unconscious or lock me upone more time,I will be the bane of your immortal existence for the rest of my own.”
“I don’t make idle threats.” His eyes darken, shadowed by his lowered brow, but I don’t back down.
“And you think I do? I’m very fucking serious, Azael.”
Poor Ramiel keeps looking at us, back and forth, like a kid caught between their parents’ argument.
Azael spares him a brief glance before pinning his glare back at me. “If you insist on not being forcibly transported, will you civilly follow me to your quarters? Or will I have to drag you down to the dungeons instead? Either way, you will not be leaving Adonai.”
I raise an eyebrow, but I don’t budge. His persistence in being this domineering asshole is really getting old. He can’t expect me to be okay with him talking to me like a dog—actually, I’m pretty sure he was nicer to Wendigo than he is to me.
With the swipe of his hand, a black doorway appears in the wall. Or a… portal?
“Decide,” he growls. “Now.”
“We’re really going to have to work on your attitude.”
“Inconvenience me however you want, just do ittomorrow. Even angels need sleep.”
I roll my eyes as I step past him. “Pretty sure you’re the devil, not an angel.”
The black hole morphs into the entryway to a bedroom, making me pause in wonder. The room actually seems very normal, if not a bitVictorian?—
“Who says I’m not both?”
I’m shoved through the portal—which briefly feels like I’m being torn apart by acid—and trip into my new bedroom.
EPILOGUE
I’m lying on my stomach, my head resting in my hands, in the middle of a staring contest with Ramiel. He’s found himself a little perch on the posters of my bed, watching me from above.
“So what can you tell me about this place?” I finally ask.
He doesn’t respond.
“Ramiel, I adore you, but we could be a lot better friends if you actually talked to me. Is it that you don’t like to break character or something? You do realize I know you’re not a bird, right?” He seems to lower his head at that. Maybe that’s his version of bird sigh? I could be getting somewhere. “Is existing as a bird that much better than being humanoid?”
Surprisingly, he looks at me and nods his little head.
I blink, processing, then release a slow breath. “I suppose I understand. If I could fly around and not worry about worldly troubles, I’d probably do that, too. But isn’t there some part of you that feels obligated to be involved? You still work with the angels for a reason, don’t you?”
He nods again.
“Okay, well, if you’re already hanging around, then why not talk to us, too? I know you’re more than just an animated celestial telephone, Ramiel.”
A brief pause, and then?—
“Did. Once.” The words come out a bit robotic, and I can hardly understand him, but I don’t want to discourage him from trying. “Fire... Pain… Never again.”
My heart lurches, my eyes immediately softening. I forgot that he was punished, too. I can’t imagine the little bird did anything to deserve that kind of misery.
“I get that, too, but that doesn’t leave much of a life for you. You can’t protect yourself entirely from pain without blocking out all the good emotions. There is no sunlight without shadows, you know?”
