“Or a lie,” Kobal replied and stepped toward Caim.
I grasped his arm, halting him before he could go any closer. The hounds released another low rumble and bared their fangs. “Wait,” I said.
“We can’t trust him,” Corson said.
“The angels are nothing more than flying rats!” Lix declared from across the way.
“Iam part flying rat,” I reminded Lix.
Lix ducked his head and hunched his shoulders. “We like you,” he muttered before pulling the top off his flask and taking a swig.
I turned my attention back to Caim, whose gaze remained on me. “How did Lucifer open the gate from Earth into Hell?”
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“Lie,” Bale hissed.
Caim didn’t look at Bale as he replied. “It’s not a lie. My brother is the only one who knows what he did to open the gateway. He would never tell us. There is power in the mystery, and Lucifer won’t give up an ounce of power.”
“Can I close it?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I do know my brother wants you for himself, badly. It leads me to believe you are capable of many things.”
“Why are you willing to help us? Aren’t all the fallen angels not evil, but ah… looking to rule or enslave humans and demons?”
Caim lifted his wings from the ground and closed them behind him once more. “Not all of us, or at least notme. What Lucifer plans is madness. He refuses to see that he could destroy everything if he continues on this path.”
“So this is a save-your-own-ass type of situation?” Hawk asked.
Caim snorted. “Is there any other kind?”
“Yes, there is,” I said. “There is protecting the ones you love and there is a greater good.”
“I have never been like the rest of my fallen brethren, but that is a woe-filled tale best kept for another day,” Caim said. “However, your tender heart will not survive my brother. Perhaps you should let some of your humanity go and face the truth; you must be vicious to live through this.”
“I faced that truth a long time ago,” I retorted. “But I will not give up what makes meme. I will defend and protect my loved ones no matter what it takes. I willnotbecome like you.”
“The sad thing is, you remind me of myself before the fall. So idealistic, so certain you can make it all better, so determined to do so, but nothing can ever beallbetter again. The fall taught me that.”
“Is the fall what severed the angels’ bond to life?” I asked, desperate to know the answer and to keep it from happening to me.
“Ah, child, that was a mixture of steps taken that never should have been taken. Once taken they could never be reversed,” Caim replied with a flick of his fingers.
“What steps?” I demanded.
The casual way Caim assessed me reminded me of a bird. I had no idea how he had shifted into a raven, but it was clear the bird was a part of him, even in his angel-form. “You fear it happening to you,” he murmured.
Kobal took another step toward him. My hand tightened on his arm. There was no way I was going to keep him held back if he decided to go for Caim, but I had so many questions, and Ineededanswers. I doubted all of what Caim revealed would be the truth, but ifeven a fraction of it was, then I had to hear it.
“Kobal, don’t,” I pleaded.
Flames flickered to life around his fingers and rose to his wrists as he froze before me. The hounds stayed low to the ground as they crept closer to Caim. I took an unsteady step forward, not realizing how weak I was until my legs nearly gave out. I locked my knees into place and defiantly held Caim’s gaze.
“I think it could happen to me,” I admitted to Caim.
“You do not wish to be like your father Lucifer.”
“He’s not my father,” I grated. “I’ve had the misfortune of meeting my father in this place, and he’s dead now.”
