They didn’t know Wrath was my Chosen. Knowing that it wouldn’t do them any good, I’d kept it from them. They didn’t need to learn that I wouldn’t survive the battle against him and the other horsemen. They might try to keep him alive to save me, and that couldnothappen.
The horsemen had to be destroyed, even if it destroyed me in the process. And it would destroy me. Even if we never completed the Chosen bond, I wouldn’t survive the loss of Wrath. This knowledge would only upset my friends, and since I planned to enjoy the rest of my days, I was not going to deal with things like emotions.
“Bad dream?” a voice murmured from the darkness.
At first, I believed it was Wrath, that hehadfound me, but then recognition clicked in, and I searched the night for Caim. I discovered the fallen angel leaning against a tree. With his ebony hair, eyes, and wings, he blended into the shadows, but when he shifted, the dim light caught the rainbow colors in his eyes and wings.
I caught sight of the two silver spikes jutting from the top of his wings, but I couldn’t see the spikes at the bottom. There was a time when I hated the fallen angel as much as Wrath, but whereas I would always despise Wrath, Caim had grown on me.
He was annoying and was once the enemy, but he was firmly on our side now, and he would do anything for his niece, and my queen, River. Still, I was not in the mood to deal with the fallen angel.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I said. “I’ll take over the watch.”
“I’m good here. Like you, I don’t require much sleep. Besides, this is the only quiet I get.”
Usually, he was the one disrupting the quiet with one asinine comment or another. “It is much more peaceful at night,” I said.
Caim tilted his head to study me, and I tried not to bristle under his scrutiny. If I reacted too harshly to him, he would suspect something. While there were times when Caim acted a little insane, he was far from stupid.
“Then we shall enjoy the silence together,” he said, and his eyes drifted back toward the camp.
I turned to survey the demons and humans with us, but the Chosen couples drew my attention. Hawk and Aisling slept near a rock together and were wrapped in blankets. Corson and Wren lay at the edge of the camp, near where I’d slept. Corson held her against him as they slept peacefully in their sleeping bag. Magnus and Amalia were closer to the fire and in each other’s arms.
Thatwas what a Chosen was supposed to be. You were supposed to love them and cherish them and hold them through the night; they were not supposed to be your greatest enemy. They werenotsupposed to be someone you were destined to kill.
But then, Wren had despised demons in the beginning, and Magnus had disliked the jinn, but they had all worked it out. In his sleep, the demon of illusions, a demon I’d often considered beating into bloody oblivion, smiled as he pulled Amalia closer.
However, having one of the horsemen as a Chosen was a lot different than a human who hated demons and a jinn. The horsemen had to die.
“Where’s Raphael?” I asked.
“On the other side of the encampment keeping watch. Lix is fifty feet that way.” He pointed to the right. “And Shax is a hundred feet that way.” His arms crossed over each other as he also pointed to the left.
I rolled my eyes at the gesture and the grin on his face, but sometimes, he was also a teeny tiny bit amusing.
It would be better if I moved away from Caim and we spread out, but I found myself staying near the fallen angel. If anyone understood loss and regret, it was the angel tossed from Heaven for trying to stop a fight between his siblings. It was the angel who then turned his back on his fellow fallen to help a king he didn’t follow and a niece he didn’t know. It was the angel who lost everything, sacrificed it all, and continued to fight for what he believed was right.
No, I had despised Caim in the beginning, but now, I possessed an infinite amount of respect for the angel with the black wings and a heart of gold. A heart the rest of the angels, fallen or not, didn’t possess.
“The hounds are also on the prowl,” he said.
“Good.”
Leaning against a tree, I removed my new sword from its scabbard. I’d taken the sword from a demon I slaughtered; it was a good weapon, but it wasn’t the same as the sword Wrath now possessed.
That sword had seen me through centuries of battles and destroyed countless enemies. It fit my hand like a glove, it was a part of me, and when I saw Wrath again, I would get it back from him and use it to take his head.
Chapter Three
Wrath
I pushedmyself up from the rock I slept on and glanced around the pitch-black cavern. Lifting my hand, I willed fire to rise from my fingertips. It encircled my wrists and cast shadows across the gray walls surrounding me.
The throbbing in my cock drew my attention to my erection. I contemplated easing myself, but that had proven to be a useless endeavor since I first encountered Bale. It gave me only a brief release that was swiftly replaced with frustration when I found myself still yearning for more.
I’d tried using a tree nymph to ease me; the second she touched me, revulsion curdled in my stomach. I tried pretending the nymph was Bale, but my traitorous dick knew the truth. That incident had only made me angrier and more frustrated. Using my hand for relief was awful, but it was my only option as I wouldn’t try with another again.
There was only one demon who would satisfy me, and she was still resisting me in our dreams. And what exquisite dreams they were. I could still smell the fiery aroma of Hell and the more subtle scent of fresh air and woods embodying her.
