She considered him for a moment, her shoulder hitching upward again. “You mean to protect me. I understand and value that protection.”
“If you want to go somewhere else, you can.” He stepped forward to cup her cheek. “I’ll take you anywhere you want, Skye. Just tell me where you want to be.”
Gabriel suspected that she wanted to be somewhere away from him and the leash that came with knowing him. He’d been the cause of her imprisonment with Osiris. Perhaps not by choice, but it was all linked to Ezekiel’s obsession with her.
“I like snow,” she said softly, leaning into his touch. “It’s cold. I sometimes feel it.”
Their dynamic confused Gabriel. One moment, he swore the female hated Ezekiel. The next, she looked at him as she did now with such gratitude and affection in her gaze that he almost understood how she’d melted the cold assassin’s heart.
What would it be like to have someone look at me like that? Gabriel wondered idly. Then he frowned at the very idea. And scowled even harder at the fact that he was frowning.
Clara’s power had bewitched him, forcing sensations to grow inside him that he had no business feeling.
He didn’t want someone to look at him like that. He didn’t want anyone. He was fine alone. Content, even. Fine.
A growl threatened to lodge in his throat, his annoyance at this asinine conversation enough to drive him mad. Which only upset him more because he shouldn’t be feeling anything. None of it. Not anymore. He no longer possessed Clara’s emotive ability, yet everything around him seemed to roar to life beneath a new light. He was picking up actions and tells that he was better off ignoring.
Like how Ezekiel smiled secretly for Skye.
How she seemed to fall into his gaze and smile back.
How their bodies gravitated toward one another as though pulled together by some unknown divine inclination.
Gabriel shook his head, spinning away from them. He had nowhere to go except back to the couch. Or maybe he could mist back to Hydria for a bit. Find Clara. Demand answers.
His eyes narrowed. Yes. Yes, that’s what—
Skye sucked in a breath, the harsh sound pulling him from his thoughts and forcing him to face them once again. She had Ezekiel in a death grip, her knuckles white against the fabric of his shirt as she clung to him for dear life. Her blue eyes had gone white, her head tipped back at an odd angle.
Ezekiel held her steady, his hand still against her cheek, the other on her hip. He said nothing, his expression wary as he watched her.
And then she started speaking, the tone oddly flat and lacking the soft quality that usually caressed her voice.
“The Seraphim of Resurrection has created a new life. Power. Blood. A combination of abilities unlike any this world has ever seen. The daughter of a supreme being and one of his abominations. With her, he will create more. And more. And more...”
Ezekiel met Gabriel’s gaze just as Skye jerked herself out of her reverie, her sharp inhale reverberating around them.
“The High Council of Seraph knows,” she breathed, her voice hoarse. “They’re going to kill her, Ezekiel. They’re going to kill the baby!”
Gabriel pulled out his phone, dialing Leela. She answered on the first ring. “How’s Caro?”
“The High Council of Seraph knows about Lizzie’s child. They’re coming.”
“What?” she asked. “How could they—”
The line went dead.
Caro drew the blade across Sethios’s hip, the sharp edge slicing easily through his skin and leaving a trail of blood behind it that she followed with her tongue.
He tasted so good. Like home. She indulged herself in the flavor, memories of their short seven years together floating through her mind in a warm wave.
“I see you found the knife,” he mused, his green eyes smoldering as he met her gaze.
“You tucked it into the pillowcase,” she replied. “Which means you wanted me to find it.” Or he would have hidden it more thoroughly.
He smiled. “You took it off of Ezekiel; therefore, you earned the blade more than I did.”
Yes. Her mind held a version of events that had painted Ezekiel in a horrifying light. So she’d reacted accordingly, the confusion of Gabriel having taken her to the male she’d thought betrayed them all overwhelming her entirely. She’d jumped to several conclusions, including thinking Sethios was some sort of mirage.
Fortunately, all her memories were in the right order once again, putting her at peace for the first time in what felt