He’d seen the shallow smiles of the angels in the parks. He’d witnessed their hushed voices. And that was only what was observable, a thin veneer over the ugly. An insidious thread wove beneath Haven and its inhabitants. One of those threads sat opposite him.
“What of Severn?” he asked, warily eyeing the room in a new light. No windows. One door, now locked. A room or a cell?
Tien stood and picked up her pad. “You need not concern yourself with him any longer. He will shortly be in our custody. We will care for him.”
A lie. He heard it as plain as day. They’d kill Severn. And Mikhail had brought him here, to his executioners.
Mikhail rose to his feet too. He’d come to Haven seeking an escape from the terrible emotions, but all it had done was remind him why he cared so deeply for Severn when everything about this world demanded he shouldn’t. He’d had doubts. He’d feared his own mind and body were out of control, but Severn had banished those fears. He knew, with absolute certainty, that their love was right. And he would not allow anyone to take it from them.
“Unlock the door. Allow Severn and I to leave Haven.” He pressed his fingers to the tabletop, pushing against the tingle of power beginning at their tips.
Tien sighed. “Your name was spoken of with the highest regards. To see how far you have fallen is truly disappointing.”
“Is there a book?” he asked.
“A book?”
“Demons and angels, together. Love, not war.”
Tien came out from behind the desk. “Ah, Aerius’s book. It was destroyed long ago.” She dared pity him with a look. “If it’s evidence you seek, you need only look in a mirror. You are the evidence of Seraphim and Aerius’s crime, as were the thousands of demons who visited the correctional facilities, fearing they loved angels, or those angels who came to Haven before you, so distraught by their own emotions they could no longer function. Angels and demons were made to love. It is our greatest weakness. Unfortunately, love is the only emotion to have a habit of unraveling all the hard work undertaken here at Haven.”
Then it was true. Remiel and now Tien confirmed it. The old guardians knew demons were made to love; they knew war was not inevitable and were covering it up—had been covering it up ever since the ancient guardians had tried to murder Aerius to keep Seraphim theirs. Guardians, like Tien, continued to hide the truth today. He hadn’t known. None of the angels knew. All this time, all the dead left on the killing fields… Demons and angels, needlessly warring.
It was a travesty.
“What happens to those who love?” he asked quietly.
She sighed. “Are you really that naïve that you don’t already know? Some can be saved. The others, well, love is destructive. They’re euthanized in the kindest way.” She faced him. “Fortunately, we’re certain you can be saved. Angels are shaped from birth to fledgling, as were you. It would be a terrible blow to lose an angel of your caliber to preventable emotions.” She touched his shoulder, delivering an instant prick of pain.
He flinched away and touched his shoulder. Euthanasia?! Guardians killing their own kind out of fear of love? A heavy, numbing throb consumed his arm and chest. He hissed and stumbled back from Tien. Whatever drug she’d administered began to ravage his veins and thump through his body. The room spun, the walls tilted.
No… he had to return to Severn.
“Soon, this will all be over, and you will once again be the guardian you were designed to be, for your own good and the good of angelkind.”
He stumbled against the table. Lies. His whole world, his entire life, had all been one terrible lie. And not just his life. Every angel who had left Haven had been manipulated by the guardians. Guardians should protect the truth, not deny it.
Heat raced through his veins, fighting the poison Tien had administered. Rage. He’d feared it, shied from it, hated it, but right now, he embraced it. This guardian, reaching for him now, to guide him away and make him forget everything he was supposed to be—she had failed angelkind. She’d failed Seraphim, who in his last moments had protected the demon Aerius. For love.
Mikhail knocked the guardian’s hand aside, thrust a hand beneath her chin, and drove her against the wall. The terrible weight of too many wings bore down on his shoulders. Her wide, fear-filled eyes