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“Nothing serious,” he shrugged, adjusting the sleeves of his shirt. “Just her soul.”
22
MURKY WATERS
SARIEL
“Absolutely not,” I snarled.
“So, youdon’twant to be with her in the afterlife?” he asked, eyes narrowed. “You’re not the romantic type? No ‘together forever, not even death can keep us apart?’”
I glared. “That’s not the point, and you know it. Aria’s soul can go somewhere it’ll be at peace, where she can finally get rest and be safe. I wouldnevertry to stop her from going there. I don’t care about me and my feelings about not being with her in the afterlife. I care about what she deserves, which is something better than living out her days in her own personal Hell.”
Aria’s gaze burned into the side of my head, but I was in a stare-off with the ruler of Hell, and I wouldn’t back down until he forced me to.
“In case you’re unsure whatthatis,” a new voice said, “it’slove. I’m not sure you remember what that emotion is like yourself, Lucifer, but it can make a person just as volatile and unpredictable as anger and despair.”
Lucifer didn’t flinch at the newcomer’s appearance, but he did sigh. Deeply.
“Michael,” he greeted.
“Lucifer,” the newcomer, Michael, circled past us, then came to stand next to Lucifer.
Michael, as in…Aria started down the bond, only to trail off when a pair of wings opened behind him.
We’d seen Neo’s wings only once, but even then, he’d moved too quickly for us to appreciate them. They didn’t compare to Michael’s.
They were massive, towering over him, and their bottoms dragged on the floor as he flexed them. I wasn’t sure “white” was what I’d use to describe them; the color was brighter and cleaner than what we considered white on Earth. In fact, it was whiter than what anyone would consider white, period.
I realized it was time to dispel whatever stereotypes I’d developed over the years about angels and other beings I’d never met since Neo’s hot-and-cold attitude and tortured past made him an anomaly to me as an angel. I thought he was the one set apart, and yet here stood the Archangel Michael, scarier than any other motherfucker I’d met since Aria and I had run from the Ambrose Estate.
Where Lucifer was blond, blue-eyed, and, quite frankly, what I imagined an angel would look like, Michael was dark, thick, curly hair hung to his shoulders, framing an angular face that was more terrifying than attractive, his fathomless eyes were framed by long lashes and thick brows, all of his features black. He had sharp cheekbones, a strong jaw, a crooked nose, and cheeks that were dusted with barely visible freckles.
He stood to Lucifer’s left, clad in a pair of dark cargos and a dark wool vest that must’ve been low in the back for his wings. He was bulkier than Lucifer; where Lucifer looked like the token CEO, Michael looked like his bodyguard.
“Is there a reason you’re in Hell?” Lucifer asked, pushing his plate to the center of the table.
Michael lifted a brow at Aria and me. “I sensed a disturbance in His plans,” he answered simply.
Lucifer’s expression hardened. His half-smile froze on his face, and his left eye twitched subtly.
“So, you’re here onHiscommand,” he commented.
Michael shrugged. “I’m here because I don’t trust anyone else with this.”
He then tilted his head in Aria’s direction.
“With me?” she asked incredulously.
“What does that mean exactly?” I squinted. “What isthis?”
“You, your existence, and the fact that trouble finds you everywhere,” Michael answered, his dark eyes settling on me.
There was an intensity about the archangel that I hadn’t felt with Lucifer or Neo. It made my skin feel too tight for my bones, and the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end. There was something familiar about him and the energy he exuded—I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I’d felt this intensity at some other point in my life.
I tried to hide how much it bothered me that he might’ve been around me at some point without me realizing it. Whether he was playing guardian angel or what, it was still unsettling.
“It’s not our fault, though,” Aria frowned.
