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Four decades since they’d been separated and, somehow, it was as if no time had passed at all.
Well, no, admitted Micah. That wasn’t quite true.
Lucifer’s boast that Cinder had sold her soul to him was true. Micah had hoped that it was just another one of his lies, but after Hilda, Aunt Bertha, and Ariel left them alone in Cinder’s hotel room, she confessed as much as she could that night.
She remembered being Phoenix, but she also remembered what it was like to be dragged to Hell by Lucifer. Though she hadn’t died died, Phoenix no longer existed. Instead of a vibrant, powerful witch rising up from the ashes, she had staggered out of them. By right of fire, she was Cinder, and Micah murmured that name as he held her close.
As for that fire… it might’ve been Lucifer’s dark gift to her once, a way to control her, but once the witches and the demoness broke past the remains of Lucifer’s curse, she had full control of her fire magic.
Micah wondered if she’d rather struggle with her flames than deal with the reality of her memories. Over the next few days, as he stayed as near as possible to his soulmate, letting her know she wasn’t alone, he was beginning to think that she might.
She’d been tagged by Lucifer. No denying that. But he wasn’t the reason she came back as Cinder. With her memories no longer hidden behind a block she’d built on her own, she still wasn’t Phoenix. The soulmate he knew was gone, but he didn’t care. He had Cinder, and he was more than ready to learn more about her.
So they went on dates. He wasn’t so sure if she knew what they were doing since Micah refused to leave the Twilight Sphere hotel, but in his own mild-mannered way, he was courting his mate all over again.
He never would’ve thought he’d be as overprotective as his eldest brother, but that was before he knew that Lucifer had a target on his soulmate’s back—and she must. Because of Cinder, Lucifer no longer had the angels’ talisman. Raze did, and he was getting ready to bring it to the dragon faction in the City of Souls. And if Micah finally got to claim Cinder as his, the faction-wide curse that Lucifer had forged in twilight so long ago would finally be broken when it came to the royal angels.
He refused to rush Cinder. She’d been through so much, and he never wanted her to think he only cared because she was the only thing keeping him and his brothers from regaining their full powers. He loved her once, and after watching her defy Lucifer, then bravely accept the other witches’ help, Micah was pretty sure he loved her now.
Forget everything else around him. Micah was determined to keep her safe. Whether it was from Lucifer, their own pasts, or his growing need, it didn’t matter. If that was all he could do for his witch, he would do it.
Right now? Keeping her safe meant keeping her close. Cinder and Crow had moved permanently into the room on the thirteenth floor; they would stay there until Micah found the nerve to invite her to live with him. He took her to dinner at the Twilight Bar and Grille, fed her some of Rhea’s fairy wine-laced sweet treats at the Twilight Sweets Bakery, even took her for a night out to Twilight Nights Club where he talked to Dakari—one of the dragon owners of the club—about Raze’s trip across the pond while watching Cinder sway to the music, Crow perched contentedly on her shoulder.
Dakari was a silent, intense beast of a male with dark hair, grey eyes, and a smolder that gave a clue to what kind of faction being he was. But even the dragon paled in comparison to the possessiveness and desire that poured off of Micah as he kept his gaze locked on his beautiful soulmate.
He couldn’t let anything happen to her. He’d only just got her back… Micah wouldn’t let Lucifer try to claim her soul for Hell again.
Once Raze claimed Becca, taking her half of their shared soul inside of him, Lucifer seemed to back off of the demoness. Same thing with Polly. Sam had been sure that Lucifer would want payback against the human thief that tricked him, but there’d been no sign of the Morningstar coming after her once Sam made her immortal.
Was it because his brothers insisted on keeping their mates close by? Probably. And if Micah used that as an excuse to stay by Cinder’s side whenever he could, neither one could say anything when they were just as devoted as Micah was.
She didn’t mind staying inside of the hotel. Before Micah found her—before Lucifer sent her to retrieve the talisman from Polly and Sam—she’d only been topside again for a few days, Earth time. Lucifer brought her back to do his bidding, and Micah brought her inside of the hotel’s wards before the lord of Hell could drag her back down below again.
Forty years was forty years. Maybe a millennia ago it wouldn’t have been such a big difference, but considering how the world seemed to move in leaps and bounds these days, nothing was what Cinder remembered.
When she was last alive, payphones existed. Computers stored information on floppy disks. Pictures were captured on film, then sent away to be processed. If you knew how to program a VCR, you were a god; if you blew one up, you might be one of the Fallen.
When Cinder attempted to use his smartphone the first time, lighting it ablaze when she couldn’t figure out how it worked, Micah realized that—once again—he was desperately in love with this woman. Not because she was his soulmate, and not because she was the only one meant for him, but because she was absolutely perfect in her own way.
If only he could tell her…
Somehow, Micah had fallen into the same old trap as last time. With Cinder struggling to adapt to the new age, plus dealing with a lifetime of memories that she’d blocked out due to Lucifer’s urging, he was just grateful that she chose to stay with him. He was worried that, if he pushed her, she’d retaliate by leaving.
It was easy to avoid his brothers when he was spending as much time as possible with his witch. But if there was one place he could always be found eventually, it was his personal apartment near the top of the hotel.
As soon as he sensed the familiar celestial aura approaching, he almost decided to go out onto the balcony, spread his wings, and just fly for a bit. If it wasn’t for the fact that he’d be leaving Cinder behind, he might have, but he couldn’t bear to be that far.
Their waning powers were messing with Micah. Up until the moment he opened his door, he could’ve sworn it was Raze out there. Probably because his older brother had had two more conversations with Micah about claiming Cinder while he was getting ready to head out with the key. Regardless, he was gearing up for the fourth when he found Sam waiting out in the hall.
“Sam?” He stepped aside, wordlessly inviting his brother into his apartment. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Surprised, bro?”
Very. “I thought it would be Raze.”
“Raze had his turn. Now it’s mine.”
Micah frowned. “Turn for what?”
