Eternal Sin (Primal Sin #2) - Ariana Nash Page 0,56

but still, that odd little curl of jealousy squirmed inside Severn’s mind, making him uneasy. Jealousy was not a common incubus trait. Maybe it was an angel one?

“No,” Mikhail replied after some thought. “It was not the same.”

“Did you want it to be?” Severn asked, wishing again that he hadn’t.

“Yes.” Mikhail looked down and clasped his hands behind his back. “Another mistake. I likely scarred Solo for life.”

“I think you woke him up, actually. And he’s not the only one. Nobody talks about it, but clearly angels do feel a need for company, otherwise the nephilim wouldn’t exist. And there’s more… Before he tried to kill me, Remiel told me a story. There’s a book in Haven, written by a demon, that proves Seraphim made demons to love, not war.” Mikhail’s eyebrow arched, making him look skeptical, but Severn plowed on. “Demons were supposed to diffuse the angels, not make everything worse. Aerius and Seraphim were a couple. But fearing they were losing their leader to love, the guardians attacked Aerius. Seraphim saved him and died doing so.”

Mikhail’s brow pinched. “A tale, nothing more.”

“How many angels do you know who lie?”

Mikhail leveled him under a glare but then softened and huffed an unexpected laugh. “You sound as though you’ve been speaking with the crone. Seraphim and Aerius as lovers… It’s all mythical nonsense.”

“What crone?”

“A cauldron cambion.” He waved his own words away. “She lived with a pet rayvern. She fixed my wings after I broke out of that cage. I thought it was you who fixed them. Ever since then, I’ve been… There have been changes in me.”

“Change in your wings?” Severn kept his tone carefully level.

“I’m sure it’s nothing related.”

It was absolutely related. The crone from the cauldron had to be the meddling Amii. No doubt about it. And by the sounds of it, they’d been pulling his and Mikhail’s strings for a long time. He’d have to have more than a word with that demon when he next saw them. If Mikhail discovered another demon had manipulated him, he would not react well.

This seemed like the right moment to mention his wings. But they were talking and not fighting, and the sun was shining, and the flowers swayed in the breeze, and if Severn fucked it all up by revealing demon wings attached to an angel too soon, Mikhail was liable to lose his shit, and there’d be no going back. Things were already on a knife-edge between them.

“But what if the myths are true?” he went on, opting for a different time to reveal that final piece of himself.

“Why would a book written by a demon be in Haven?” Mikhail half smiled, thinking the notion ridiculous.

“Do you even know what goes on in Haven?”

“Yes, I know.” He sounded mildly offended.

“The same as you know what’s going on with the correctioners?”

Mikhail winced. “That has been dealt with.”

“Not what you thought, was it?” Severn’s demon heart skipped a few beats to know Mikhail had listened to him, even after the betrayal. It was a good sign, a sign his angel hadn’t completely given up on him. “So you admit you’re not all-knowing?”

“I do not admit that.”

“It certainly sounds like it, Your Grace.”

His dark brows pinched. “Haven is a sanctuary for mated pairs. They produce offspring, and those offspring, once fledglings, are sent to Aerie and other cities to complete their training.”

“So you’re told. Do you remember any of it?”

“No.” He hesitated. “Few do.”

“Few or none?”

“I… don’t know.”

Severn fought a grin. “And once a pair go to Haven, they never return. Don’t you find that strange? If it’s so benign a place, why does nobody escape it?”

Mikhail dismissed his words with an incredulous laugh. “It’s always been that way. There’s nothing insidious about it.”

Severn snorted. “Just because it’s always been that way doesn’t make it right. Gods, I love how naïve you are.”

The word love lodged between them. “It’s called focus,” Mikhail replied. “I focus on the task at hand, not fanciful stories told by wayward cambion.”

“No, it’s called having your emotions conditioned out of you so you can all pretend to reign supreme while, deep down, you’re emotional wrecks, just like the rest of us.” Was he pushing too much? “Tell me I’m wrong.”

The corners of Mikhail’s soft mouth ticked. “You’re wrong.”

Severn beamed. “Liar.”

Mikhail smiled, and Severn dug his heels in to keep from grabbing his wonderful face and kissing the fledgling smile right off his lips. It was a good thing his hands were already rammed into his