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“—are messing with ourlives, Michael, and Aria is playing into it.”
I bit back all the harsh words I had for her, swallowing them down and letting them burn.
She doesn’t know. If she did, she would have already come to help me. She doesn’t know.
“You can’t hold her accountable for this, Sariel,” he continued like I hadn’t even said anything, glancing from me to my giggling other half on the screen. “Or even Barimuz, despite the fact he took part in your pain. They’re both just small fish in a huge pond.”
“Like hell I can’t. He shouldn’t have done it.”
My anger must have reached him because he’s suddenly giving me a patronizing look.
“Did you know shapeshifting alters the mind? Sure, Barimuz followed his master’s orders and took your form, but did you know that while he’s in that form, he cares for her as you do?”
Nausea roiled through me. I rolled onto my side just in case I couldn’t contain it.
“So he could just decide to stay as me forever, and they’ll live happily ever after? That’s just fucking great.”
Michael rolled his eyes. “Unlikely. Barimuz still knows who and what he is. He just has the unfortunate addition of loving your mate.”
I wanted to tell him there was nothingunfortunateabout loving Aria, but a look at my surroundings proved that would be a futile argument.
Michael stayed with me for a long time, talking about nothing in particular and avoiding answering me when I demanded to know why. Some distant, softer part of me thought he was just doing it to be kind, but that would be ridiculous. I’d been sitting in this damn cage for days; he hadn’t cared then, so what could’ve changed?
“You’re shattering,” he answered me, whereupon I realized I’d been mumbling to myself. “Your psyche is fracturing under the stress of this situation. When you finally break, someone needs to be here to make sure you don’t lose yourself, as Lucifer did.”
Michael gave me a look when I opened my mouth to ask, so I chose to sleep instead.
When I woke up, he was gone.
The cycle continued, consuming everything. When Lucifer finished with me, though, Michael always sat on my cage and stared down through the bars. I wanted to say I hated him for not doing more to help, but it wasn’t so bad to have company. It was grounding, even.
“You know she’s my descendant?”
Michael was watching the screens with me, seeming interested when my brother’s friends were discussing another idea for how to rescue Michaelson. So far, they’d come up with a whole lot of nothing, and I wished I was actually present so that I could shake some sense into my youngest brother. We couldn’t leave them there; was I the only one with any common sense left, or what?
“I figured.”
“It never ceases to amaze me what my mate and I made,” he drawled. “Seeing our bloodline through the years has been interesting, to say the least.”
“Your mate?”
I shuddered, trying to breathe through the remnants of pain. Lucifer hadn’t shocked me today; he’d decided this burning sensation was more appropriate, so I was trying not to inhale too deeply. Every move my body made—involuntary or not—was agony.
“Cosette,” Michael breathed her name like a prayer. I could sympathize. “Aria looks a lot like her, actually. Maybe that’s why I’m so partial.”
Unfortunately, his musing was interrupted by the throne room doors bursting open. I heard them slam theatrically against the walls and would have rolled my eyes if it didn’t send a spike of fear down my spine to know an angry Lucifer meant a bad day for me.
“I knew it!” Lucifer hissed. I wished—not for the first time—that I could see beyond those four walls.
The angel’s head snapped up, obviously looking at the irate man that was surely stalking toward us.
“You always have to butt in where you’re not wanted, don’t you,Michael?” Lucifer spat the angel's name like a curse.
“You cannot destroy Aria’s mate, Lucifer.”
“I’m not destroying him! On the contrary; I’mhelpinghim.”
“You’re torturing him instead of allowing the natural progression of their power. You can’t—”
