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“I love you more than life itself, my firecracker.”
All lies. Bash and Des may have the worst tempers, but they handled their anger innormalways.I am the God of War. I handle my problems by burning them to the ground.There was a reason they joked with Satan about me being the crew’s secret weapon. I hoped Diana could prove me wrong, because I couldn’t take any more betrayal.
“Are you sure that was the right thing to tell Desmond?” I had no clue Ares had seen me time-hop. My full attention centered on my destination, and I didn’t even hear him walk through my suite. “What if I never see you again, Zaz?”
“Ares saw you leave. The best course of action is to tell them as much of the truth as you can. You can time-hop and have a guardian angel who helps you with it. You didn’t tell them because you were advised not to. Tell them I didn’t tell you my name. Guardian angels can’t give their names.” He gathered me in his arms, resting his head on top of mine. I breathed in his rich, woodsy scent and thought of how I may never smell it again.
“But I know your name. Aren’t you my guardian angel?”
“No, honey. I fell from grace. I’m not allowed back into heaven or to serve in any heavenly roles, but still kept my powers.” He took his shirt off and his wings sprang from his back. “Falling from grace is why my wings are slowly turning black. Graced angels have white wings.” I stared at the intricate gray and black swirls marbling his feathered wings. They were so beautiful this way that I couldn’t imagine them being pure white.
“I’m assuming you can’t tell me why you fell from grace? Or why you continued to watch me afterward?”
“I fell ages before you came along, but I knew you were coming, so I vowed to guard you. I told you; you’re going to change the world. One day I’ll tell you how I fell, and how I knew about you, but not yet. Just know I don’t regret it. Good luck with those four–they’re a handful.”
He still didn’t give me details as to how he knew the guys, or why they had a falling out. They must have been friends at some point. He gave me his shirt so I could wipe the tears from my eyes. I didn’t want to leave him. Never seeing him again was a possibility I refused to entertain. Azazel kept me so grounded in all of this chaos.
“If Desmond is angry enough, he’ll go back on his promise not to use his powers on you. If he influences you with honesty, and you tell the whole truth, I won’t be mad. Remember everything I told you.” He kissed my cheek and left the gazebo, making his way to the trees at the edge of the park. I still held his tank in my hands. He had never left one of our rendezvous first, and somehow this felt so final, like we were parting ways for good.
I materialized into my bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, I peered at the woman in the glass: tears, puffy eyes, and a sullen expression that belonged in a Lifetime movie.That’s not me.I needed to get myself together.I’m Diana Rossi. I’m a badass, take-no-shit bitch from Brooklyn.My entire life was turned upside down and I survived it. I was still standing, and these four alphaholes were not going to push me around.
I hid Zaz’s shirt in the shower stall. It may be the only thing I had to remember him by if I was unable to time-hop to him again. I stepped into my bedroom and staggered to a stop when I found Desmond sitting on my bed. He was dressed in blue jeans and a white tee and black boots, like a ginger James Dean; the brooding expression sullying his handsome bearded face was the icing on the cake. The only difference was the beautiful, matte black horns curling from his head. His peridot eyes narrowed on me, alight with anger and disappointment. I took a few steps toward him, but halted in my tracks when I felt heat slithering against my wrists. Bright red neon cuffs sat against them like bracelets connected by a thin neon chain.
“So it’s like that?” I asked him. I knew they’d be furious, but the cuffs were unexpected.
“Yeah, it is. I believed you the last time you lied to me. You weren’t in the woods outside the house,” he accused me.
I didn’t respond. After searching my face for the answer, he frowned in disappointment. Getting off the bed, he walked over to me and placed his hand on the back of my neck to fade us to the dining room. The rest of the guys, including Malcontent, sat around the table. Desmond and I took our seats. They all kept their distance, choosing to sit away from me. So this would be another interrogation,cool. Desmond and Bash sat ramrod straight in their chairs, with their shoulders pushed back and hard looks on their faces. Bash’s jaw was clenched, his pupils large. Mal looked indifferent, but kept an eye on me. He had been trying to talk to me and be nicer since trying to murder me, but I usually ignored him. I had no clue what to do or how to act around him, even if he was telling the truth about not doing it willingly.
Ares sat with his elbows on the table, a murderous look on his face. His brows drew together, and a deep scowl replaced his usual easy smile. A harsh glow encased his entire body, but unlike previous glows, it wasn’t ethereal. It had a red tint and signified the anger I knew he felt. I had never seen my happy-go-lucky god this way. He wouldn’t even meet my eye.
“Explain everything, now. No lies,” Desmond demanded. The gold flecks in his irises sizzled with rage. If he wasn’t directing his anger at me, I would find it beautiful.
Seeing no reason to continue the charade, I let out a heavy sigh. “My first night staying here, I had what I thought was a dream. I was stranded in the woods, and a man helped me out by giving me food and shelter in his cabin. After everything that had happened that night–the abduction, finding out I was a witch,dying–I chalked it up to a stress related dream. I didn’t notice until a few days later that all the books on his wall were from the 40s, and he didn’t know who the Mets were.” I shifted in my seat, the hard wood uncomfortable. “Then I met him again, in what I thought was another dream, during the Civil War. He told me I was time traveling, and that he was my guardian angel.”
“How are you time-hopping?” Bash asked in amazement.
“At first I was hopping in my sleep, because it’s where my mind is the most relaxed, but now I have control over it and can do it while awake. I’ve been time-hopping and meeting with him every so often to check in.”
My eyes darted to each of them, and they all had varying looks of shock on their faces. They laser focused on me, and I felt sweat start to bead at my hairline. I clenched my fists to keep from swiping them along my forehead.
“Witches can’t time-hop, that’s something beyond their power,” Mal said cautiously.
“Guardian angels only come to a magical being whose life will reach a major cross road,” Bash mused aloud. “They only watch over people who will find themselves in mortal danger or are destined for a greater calling.”
“You’ve been meeting some guy on the sly?” Ares said in a low, rumbling voice, his accent thickening with every syllable. He clenched his fist as it lit on fire. “Who the fuck is he?!”
“It’s not like that at all. He’s myguardian angel, Ares. I don’t know his name, they’re not allowed to tell us,” I snapped. I could feel my temper getting away from me and I had to reign it in.
“Does he know about us?” Bash asked. “You’re fake-dead for a reason, Diana, you don’t know any better about our world or if he’s even an actual angel. You could have blown our cover!”
“That’s it!” I shouted as I flew out of my chair. The rage inside me went from zero to one hundred in the blink of an eye. “I’m done answering questions. You’re all being fucking ridiculous assholes, and I’m not going to sit here any longer and get reprimanded like a child.”
Bash grabbed my arm, shoving me back into the chair. He put his hands on the sides of my head and a sharp pain flickered through my skull. I pried his hands off, and it stopped.
“What are you doing?! That hurt!” I screamed.
“You blocked me from your mind? Did your guardian angel teach you that?” Bash scoffed in his arrogant, posh accent. Each word dripped like gasoline onto the fire of the rage that was roiling inside me. “What are you hiding from me?”
