don’t know where to find them or their leader, and I was hoping you could help.”
Belial scrubbed his fingers through my hair, gently combing out some of the tangles. “Hmm. Their temple is in the Second Circle. I’ll bring you there myself, on one condition.”
“What’s that?” I asked, my eyes half-closed with contentment. With Belial on my side, some of the stress melted away. If he told me he’d bring me to them, then I knew he’d go to the ends of the earth to keep his word.
“You don’t go until tomorrow morning,” he said.
My eyes snapped open. “But we need to look now-”
Belial was already shaking his head. “We’re all covered in ash and blood. You just had the shit kicked out of you by one of your own mates and a massive fucking dragon, and you’ve slept for three days. You’re going to eat something, wash, and get some rest. I know you’re a walking powerhouse, angel, but you’re eventually going to collapse if you run yourself ragged.” He paused, clearly debating what to say next. “After all, it’s not just you alone anymore.”
I rested my palm against my stomach. He was right. It wasn’t just me anymore. I had a whole new person to care for.
“I can’t believe I’m the one talking sense into you,” he muttered, and lowered his hand to cover mine.
“No, you’re right. I could run myself into the ground at this rate.” If I wanted to help Lucifer and Vyra, I needed to be at my best. One of the first things we’d learned in Heaven was that a run-down warrior was a soon-to-be-dead warrior. Pushing myself to the limits with a baby and a broken bone was a guaranteed way to make sure all my efforts would be in vain. “I’ll try to sleep again. But tomorrow I’m going to this temple. I just hope they’re willing to do something for her. She’s belongs to them, after all.”
Belial took my hand and pulled me off the bed, leading me into the hall and shutting Vyra’s door behind us. I tried not to think about how the click of the door sounded like a death knell to my ears, like I was shutting the thought of her behind it.
Even though he was always the first one to push me into action, Belial was the voice of reason now.
He locked my bedroom door behind us. I shed my clothes and ran a bath in the massive pool instead of showering, conscious of all the bandaging around my wing.
“It’s going to be impossible to get all the soot out of my feathers if I can’t stretch it out,” I grumbled, slipping into the hot water and standing upright in the deep bath so my wing wouldn’t get soaked.
“That’s why you have me.” Belial sat on the edge, his legs dangling in the water. He reached out and pulled me closer until I was wedged between his thighs, adjusting me so my wing was draped over his leg.
I leaned against him as he smoothed my hair over my shoulder and out of the way, then dipped a cloth in the water and wrung it out.
A shiver ran through me when he ran the wet cloth over my feathers, carefully brushing so he wouldn’t move the slowly-healing bone. He worked his way through the layers of feathers bit by bit, his touch so gentle I barely felt it.
I pressed my marked palm against his thigh. Even with the bathwater steaming, his skin was hotter still, and the gentle flex of muscle moved under my hand as he shifted in place to clean my wing.
I had no idea how I’d gotten so lucky as to win him over.
“I know what the others would say,” he murmured, running the cloth over the fine feathers near my shoulder blade. “I shouldn’t encourage you. I’m supposed to tell you to stay inside, stay out of trouble, stay out of the way. But that’s just not what you’re meant for.”
I shook my head, wrapping my hand around as much of his muscular thigh as I could manage and pressing my fingertips into his skin. “Is it selfish of me to not give this up with Sarai on the way?”
He trailed his fingers down my spine, making my skin tingle, and carefully resumed cleaning the long pinfeathers. “No. It would be selfish and cowardly to hide away and let everyone else take care of it. That you refuse to stop is just one