“This must be your little Center,” Lightning purrs, taking a step forward with his hand extended, as if he honestly expects me to shake it. Yeah. No, thanks. I much prefer not to be electrocuted painfully.
Raz and Van growl, the sound low and threatening, as they brace themselves on the balls of their feet. I don’t understand why they’re not fighting. Is it because these angels are more powerful than us?
If that’s the case…
Fuck a duck. I probably just made things worse by killing Bugs, didn’t I?
“Kastros!” Water slips an arm around my giant demon’s shoulders, as if they’re old friends instead of mortal enemies. “You didn’t tell us your Center is still alive. She’s a cutie.”
“I’ll gouge your eyeballs out with a rusty spoon if you call my cherry cute one more time,” Akor hisses darkly. He and Zolroth advance another step closer, until they’re only an arm’s length away from the angels.
“You know,” Water continues, almost conversationally, “the last time we saw your mate, it was just after the car crash.” He twists to smile at me, revealing two rows of perfectly white teeth.
His words are a metaphorical bucket of ice-cold water being poured over my head—fitting, considering his namesake. My insides twist into dozens of knots as I blink at him stupidly. The power thrumming through me recedes as quickly as it arrived, and I float back to the ground, staggering slightly.
Accident?
He couldn’t mean…?
“Honestly, I thought you were dead.” Lightning laughs, the sound grating on my already sensitive nerves. “I didn’t think a human could survive that much blood loss.”
“The woman in the driver’s seat certainly was dead,” muses Water. “Probably died on impact.”
They were…?
They were there? When my nanny, Ali, and I got into our car accident? The one that took Ali’s life?
Anger replaces the confusion, and it takes me a few tries to swallow it back down.
“You caused my accident,” I deduce, remembering flashes of a dark shadow illuminated in the lone streetlight…
They both cackle, throwing their heads back and clutching their stomachs. I turn towards Raz, desperation and confusion no doubt etched onto my face, but he seems just as confused as I am. No, not confused.
Suspicious.
“We didn’t cause your accident,” Lightning says once he has his laughter under control.
“Then what the bloody hell are you talking about?” Zolroth’s perfect features twist into a scowl as he takes another step forward.
Water claps Kastros on the back, and my vengeance demon winces. I swear he looks even paler than he did before. Desperation, fear, and horror emanate from his dark gaze as he pleads with me with only his eyes. But why? What is he trying to tell me?
“You didn’t tell her?” Water queries with another chuckle.
Kastros shoves the angel’s hand off of him as if his touch is poison steadily seeping into my demon’s skin.
“We didn’t do anything,” Lightning adds, flashing me a stupidly perfect smile. “But your demon here…”
“What?” Van jerks his head back as if he’s been shot.
And I swear, something inside of me…shatters.
Even before they confess the truth, I know. I can see it in Kastros’s dark eyes—eyes that once made me feel irrevocably safe and protected. Eyes that I could get lost in, traveling for hours and hours in their murky depths.
But now, those eyes are brimming with tears, tears he won’t let fall, and radiate nothing but guilt. So. Much. Guilt. It ripples through the air and settles deep in my soul, altering something inside of me. I don’t know what, and at the moment, I don’t care to look too deeply.
No.
No.
No.
“Your buddy here was in the area hunting for his Center.” Lightning squeezes Kastros’s shoulder good-naturedly, and this time, my demon doesn’t move away. He just continues to stare at me, panic and fear contorting his features into someone unrecognizable.
“What?” Akor growls, and he looks seconds away from using his powers on Kastros, not the angels.
“He found her all right.” Water chuckles at his own joke as my heart continues to shred into pieces smaller than glitter.
Can you survive with a heart this broken? With a pain this intense and potent?
Do you even want to?
Agony bombards me from all sides, reminding me distinctly of a room that steadily shrinks around you, caging you in. There’s no escaping. There’s no running.
All you can do is pray that your death is quick.
No.
No.
No.
Kastros doesn’t bother to deny it. He doesn’t offer me petty condolences or apologizes. He…