Eternal Sin (Primal Sin #2) - Ariana Nash Page 0,81
would ever again love a demon.” They sniffed and leaned back. “That’s where you two come in.”
Severn threw his hands wide. “What, exactly, are we supposed to do? Go to Aerie and tell all the angels to stop fighting because we’re in love?” He laughed and thrust a hand into his hair, cutting off the laughter’s mad ring. “Remiel stabbed Mikhail in the back and shoved him off Aerie!”
“Oh yes, I heard about that. So very dramatic for an angel. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“For what?” Severn snapped.
“The wings. They saved you both, yes?”
“Yes,” he replied stiffly. So his wings had been Amii’s work? But when had they gotten their claws into him… Ah, in Whitechapel… when they’d delivered a massive hit of ether that had knocked Severn out cold.
“And you,” they nodded at Mikhail, “I hear Haven just witnessed your latest manifestation of some god-like powers, hm?”
Mikhail’s eyes narrowed. “Your serum?”
“Of course, my serum. Fucking hells, if I’d left it up to you two, you’d both be dead months ago. So the words you are looking for are, ‘Thank you, Amii, for saving our beautiful angel asses.’”
“You maneuvered both of us to suit your plan,” Severn said, slightly surprised Mikhail hadn’t cut in to rant at them. “So where’s the rest of that plan? What are we supposed to do now?”
“Well, I don’t know,” they threw their hands up, exasperated. “I’m not doing it all for you. Frankly, getting you this far was exhausting.”
“Our love,” Mikhail said pointedly. “Is it real, or is that your fabrication too?”
Amii sighed. “Oh, Seraphim, give me strength with these two.”
“It’s a valid question,” Severn said. “You’ve been watching us for months.”
“Years actually, but okay, whatever, just assume the worst—”
“How do we know you didn’t somehow make us love each other?”
Amii rolled their eyes. “Konstantin, dearest… You’re young, but even you know emotions don’t lie. You love that big oaf of an angel, and he loves you. There’s a whole lot of other baggage tied up with you two, but if you didn’t love each other, I wouldn’t be here. So can we just get past the whole me helping you along bit and figure out what we do next?”
“We?” Mikhail asked.
“By all means, blunder along without me, but as you’ve mentioned, Remiel will stab you in the back, Mikhail, and he’ll gleefully cut pieces off Konstantin. Plus, there’s Luxen—the demon High Lord.” She puffed. “Luxen is a problem.”
Mikhail’s gaze slid to Severn. “I’ve not heard of Luxen. Should I have?”
Severn winced. He’d hoped to have this conversation much, much later. “When I left the demons, and after you killed Argothun, it created a power vacuum among demons. Luxen is not a leader, but he was clearly waiting for an opportunity to grab power. He’s now the High Lord, and a concubi. We engaged in sex—I needed his ether to wear the Remiel illusion. I didn’t know he had a thing for angel.”
Mikhail blinked.
“Darling…” Amii leaned an arm on the chair and raised their eyebrows. “Every single demon has a thing for angel. It was written into their creation.”
“Are you suggesting they don’t have a choice?” Severn asked, keeping Mikhail in the corner of his eye. “We’re born to love angels?”
They waggled their finger. “No, that ain’t what I said. We can choose not to love, same as we can choose not to fight. Fucking and fighting aren’t so different. Y’all just got confused along the way when the creatures you’re supposed to love weren’t capable of reciprocating.”
“All right, so maybe Lux getting hard for angel is a good thing?” He could hope? Mikhail’s frown had gathered more shadows.
“The issue is more that Remiel is mobilizing your ranks, Mikhail, and Luxen isn’t capable of efficiently retaliating. We need to stop the coming battle before Remiel slaughters the remaining demons.”
“How?” Mikhail asked.
“Well, there’s really only one way.” Amii fixed their gaze on Mikhail. “You fight for demons.”
A laugh almost choked Severn.
“I won’t kill angels,” Mikhail refused. “They’re innocent. It’s the guardians who need to be stopped.”
Amii clicked their tongue. “A sudden attack of morals? Pfft, please.”
All of this was moot anyway because Mikhail could not just command demons. “Demons will never accept him,” Severn added, his voice pitched too high. “Most of them want him dead, preferably a long, painful death, ending with his head on a spike. They’ll not follow an angel.”
“No,” Amii sighed, “but they’ll follow you, Konstantin.”
“No, they won’t. Wings aside, I’m an angel.”
“Well, that ain’t strictly true, now is it?”
“What? It