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Rubbing a hand down my face, I shook my head. “You’re certain I did not harm Farryn.”
“You did not. Not so much as a nick to her skin.”
“I appreciate your vigilance.”
“The two of you are exhausting.” On an irritated huff, he stepped back from the bed. “Truly, a human toddler would be less troublesome.”
I sneered at that and pushed up from the bed. “Is she asleep now?”
“It seems. She hasn’t emerged from her room, but Kezhura has checked on her.”
“So, is she well. Well enough to come looking for trouble with me.”
“Presumably. She is perhaps the most stubborn woman I have met in the entirety of my existence.”
“Isn’t that the truth.” Throwing on the black robe I’d draped over the chaise earlier, I headed toward the door with Vaszhago in tow. “I’m going to have a chat with our guest.”
“Should I accompany you?”
“No. I wouldn’t exactly consider Soreth much of a threat.”
Vaszhago snorted. “He certainly did not put up much of a fight.”
Once we reached Farryn’s door, I cracked it open and strode across the room, coming to a stop alongside her bed. Staring down at her, I took comfort in seeing her easy breaths, the way her lashes fluttered in dreams, and the lines of worry softened to peace. Gods, even the small dose of pure vitaeilem felt good, and I longed for the day when my power would be restored and I could touch her without the threat of my demon half.If not for Vaszhago’s intervention, who the hell knew what I’d have done to her.
While my conscience begged to give her up and set her free, I wouldn’t. Not then. Not ever. And perhaps I should’ve loathed that about myself, but I had never professed to be a good man.
Good men didn’t burn down cities for the woman they loved.
After pressing a kiss to her cheek, I exited the room and headed back down the stairwell, through the back of the cathedral, and down to the enclosed staircase which led to the dungeons below. Chilled air cooled the burn of my skin as the effects of the vitaeilem took hold. In one of the empty cells, I found Soreth curled up into a strange ball on the floor, his body contorted in such a way that his nose was touching the sole of his foot.
“Is this how he’s kept you imprisoned?”
Only Soreth’s eyes tracked upward. “Yes. He told me that, were I not a friend of yours, he’d have had me sniffing my own ass.”
The comment had me chuckling, and I leaned against the bars of the cell, arms crossed, marveling the demon’s downright cruelty. “I’ll have him release the paralysis spell on the condition that you don’t hand me a line of bullshit about why you’ve come.”
“I come with news.” His voice was slightly muffled by his position, and I continued to fight the urge to laugh. “We are old friends, are we not?”
“I don’t even trust friends these days.”
“I must admit, it is quite impossible to have a serious conversation this way.”
I ran a hand over my mouth in a poor attempt to stave off the laughter begging to escape. “I will try to ignore it. Now keep on with your explanation.”
“That contemptible demon didn’t even ask before he cut me and stole my blood.”
I didn’t bother to mention that he’d taken it for me. Doing so would’ve alerted him to my weakened state, and though I’d known Soreth for many years, I would not have admitted such a thing to him.
He groaned, his body hardly moving but remaining stiff and rigid. Poor bastard would undoubtedly be miserable once Vaszhago lifted the spell. It was no mystery how much the demon hated angels. He probably prayed for one good reason to send Soreth to absolute death. “The Sentinels are aware that you’ve returned from Ex Nihilo.”
“You’ve crossed The Vale, putting your life at great risk to inform me of this?”
“Have I not been your harbinger for centuries now?”
“What else brings you here, and bear in mind, I can have Vaszhago leave you smelling your own ass.”
Soreth huffed, undoubtedly tired of the paralysis. “I need asylum. It is not safe for me in the mortal realm, nor the heavens. And here, I’ll be hunted by the Noxerians and their band of jolly sell-swords.”
