Page 142 of Enchanted

He winced, rubbing a hand over his head. “I mean, not the whole night. I couldn’t sleep and wanted to be closer to you. I was in a meeting with the Seraphim for a few hours.”

“Which means you got there at…?”

“Um, around 3 a.m.”

“Rami,” I groaned, shaking my head. “You must be exhausted. You should’ve come in.”

“Nah. Didn’t want to disturb Quill.” He took my hand and we started walking down the pavement, basking in the early morning sun. “Besides, I don’t need much sleep. I once stayed up for seven days straight. Barely felt anything.”

“Perks of being an angel,” I said wryly. “Is that why I don’t feel tired today?”

By all rights, I should have been shattered. I didn’t know what time I’d finally drifted off, but it had been long after Quill. He’d jerked awake many times before his body gave in and let him rest.

“I guess so,” Rami said thoughtfully. “My stamina will be affecting you now. But you should ask Sam—he’ll be able to tell you more about it.”

“Why him in particular?”

“Because he’s human. Found out about angels in a pretty fucked-up way, too. Out of everyone, he’ll understand what you’re going through.”

“Huh. Did he know I was your mate when he met me?”

Rami nodded. “They all did. Couldn’t exactly hide it when I arrived home covered in your blood.”

I guessed we were going there. “What happened the day you met me, Rami?”

His lips thinned as he stared down the street. “I can tell you, or if you’d like, I can show you.”

“How?”

I could feel his anxiety through the bond. His fear that whatever he was going to say next was going to change my feelings towards him.

“Hey,” I said softly. “You can tell me anything, Rami.”

His eyes were bleak as they met mine. “I don’t want you to hate me.”

“Nothing you say will make that happen. I can’t promise not to be angry, upset, or even pissed off, but I’ll never hate you. It’s not possible.”

The anxiety lessened. It didn’t vanish, but my words seemed to have gone a long way in reassuring him. “After we met, I compelled you into forgetting it. I can lift it now, if you like. Then you’ll remember it.”

My throat bobbed a few times. “You messed with my mind?”

“Yes.” Shame flooded the bond. “It was for your own good, Ethan. I hated doing it, but I didn’t have a choice.”

“Okay.” I decided to reserve judgement until I had the memory back. “To be clear, I don’t want you doing that ever again, regardless of the reason.”

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to. Which, to be clear, I don’t. You can’t be compelled once you’ve been marked. It’s part of the reason why I did it in the first place.”

“But you can lift it?”

“I think so.” He frowned. “Even if I can’t, someone back at the compound will be able to. If not, I can always call Ferry.”

The name rang a bell in the back of my mind. It was too unique a name for it to be a different man from the one I once knew. “Ferry? As in, Leo’s partner, Ferry?”

“One and the same,” Rami said. “It’s how I know them all. Do you want to know about that first, or how we met?”

I rubbed at my forehead. “Let’s start with Ferry and the others, because I feel like there’s a lot of shit I’m missing.”

As Rami filled me in on everything, my mind spun. He told me about how Dimitri used to be the second in the Seraphim. How he’d fallen in love with Dagon centuries ago, but they couldn’t be together.