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With a snort, Wrath glanced at him. “And you know how much your approval means to me.”
“Absolutely fuck all?” Shade chuckled.
Wrath nodded and led them through a large arched opening, but not before Eddie caught his smirk. Not exactly chums, but it was a step in the right direction.
A soaring winged staircase in ochre and cream marble led upwards to the cool, shaded depths above. Tapestries adorned the walls, providing splashes of color in the restful interior.
“This is incredible,” Dee whispered as they started up the stairs. “I’ve looked after that stupid hell gate for my entire life, and now I’m in hell.” She widened her sparkling eyes at Eddie. “I’m actually in hell.”
Eddie had to smile at Dee’s enthusiasm. “I was expecting a lot more fire.”
“Right??” Dee giggled. “Makes me wonder what heaven looks like.”
“Probably a lot fewer clouds than we’re expecting.”
“Heaven is similar to this.” Shade leaned in closer to them. “Each demesne tends to reflect the personality of the archangel.” He grinned. “So, Gabriel for instance, lives in a fucking filing cabinet.”
Chapter
Thirty-One
After lolling long enough to go pruney in a tub that resembled an ancient Roman bath, Eddie pulled on a white linen lounging set that Vexia had brought her. Double doors opened on one side of the bathing chamber—because no way she could dub this room something as mundane as bathroom—and Eddie wandered through gauzy white curtains onto a wide, deep balcony. She was high enough up to see beyond the fortress walls to the savannah stretching out for miles in all directions. A harsh line of jagged mountains pushed up through the grasslands to her right.
The fortress couldn’t be approached other than by traveling uphill across a plane with no concealment. Was Wrath similarly unapproachable? Did she care?
Well, yes, she kind of did. For a girl who’d grown up dreaming of a father to rescue her from her awkwardness, she very much did care. And Wrath had seemed more than amenable to establishing a connection with her.
Dee had only stayed in their large, airy bedroom for long enough to summon Vexia and then she’d gone on a tour of the fortress.
“Eddie,” she’d said as she strapped on yet more knives. “This may be the one and only time I see this, and I want to see all of it.”
A black speck flew low to the ground over the savannah, growing larger at a rapid pace until she caught the red flecks in Wrath’s wings. He soared over the fortress walls, and then veered straight for her balcony.
Eddie had been half expecting a chitchat with daddy dearest since the theatre, and she braced.
Hovering in front of her balcony, Wrath bowed his head. “Daughter.”
“Um…Wrath.” She tried for similar insouciance, but the word stumbling ruined the effect. She didn’t know what to call him, and dad seemed wrong on so many levels.
He motioned the balcony. “May I?”
“It’s your balcony.” Eddie braced her hips against the stone balustrade that guarded the edge as Wrath lowered himself about ten feet away from her. The draft from his wings sent her damp hair flying.
Landing, he furled his wings, and they disappeared into his back. “Stretching my wings,” he said.
If Eddie had wings, you could bet your ass she’d be out there stretching them.
A demon appeared through another set of doors that led to a sitting room she and Dee had as part of their suite. Distressingly rodent-like, the demon bowed to Wrath and then her and set up a large jug and two glasses on a table before scuttling away again. He must have been a lower order demon. Look at her getting all up on her demonology.
“I thought we could…have words.” Wrath cleared his throat and motioned the jug. “Wine?”
Wine sounded like a perfect accompaniment to words. “Yes, please.”
While he poured, Eddie studied him covertly. She tried to find some trace of her features in his. Perhaps her darker hair when Rosabella’s hair was lighter brown? Maybe in the square line of their jaws, or the fullness of their bottom lips? She definitely got her blue green eyes from Rosabella, but she was taller than her mother and less curvy.
Wrath held a glass out to her filled with a pale, straw-colored wine. “I hope this will please you.” He joined her at the railing. “We make it here, but we do not have your human mastery of the perfect grape.”
“I guess you have bigger things to worry about.” Eddie accepted her glass. Cool to the touch, the wine caught the roseate light of a sinking sun.
