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

watched on.

Severn tore his gaze away and stared at the ceiling. He’d loved Samiel once, but felt none of that love now. He cared for him. He felt that inside, but not the breathless, soul-deep longing of love.

“I’ll talk with Lord Jeseph,” Samiel said, standing.

Jeseph? Well, that explained his extended stay having his skin ripped off. Jeseph had always despised Konstantin’s meteoric rise through the demon ranks. He’d happily get off on having Konstantin tied to his table.

Demons... he’d forgotten what it was like to be among them, to have to fight for rank. They were fiercely loyal, hot-headed, and passionate. As Konstantin, he’d been among the most powerful. Now, he was, at best, a novelty, at worst, a threat. And if few knew he was here, Jeseph would take advantage of that secrecy. It was a wonder Severn wasn’t already dead.

“Samiel?”

His name stopped him before he reached the door. He turned, and it didn’t take much for Severn to imagine his glorious, leathery wings opening behind him. They’d once flown through the clouds together, darting, spiraling, racing, until his wings ached and the air burned his skin. And then Mikhail had ruined everything.

Severn wet his cracked lips. “You’re really here?”

Samiel’s soft lips lifted at their corners, but his eyes were sad. “I was always here for you.”

He left, and Severn stared at the closed door, waiting for the others to return. Samiel was alive. That was good, amazing even. Why, then, did he feel so empty?

Chapter 2

Mikhail

Mikhail wiped again at the angelblade, where the vicious demon blood refused to let go. He’d tried everything to clean the blade back to its original spotless shine, but the thick, crusted layer of crimson had glued itself to the steel.

He threw the blade onto the desk by the window and waited for his heart to slow—the anger to pass. The filthy sword mocked him. He couldn’t scrub the blood off like he couldn’t scrub the demons from this earth or scrub Severn from his mind. No, not Severn. Severn was a lie. The demon lord Konstantin.

He couldn’t think on him, or what they’d done, or the things they’d both said and how it had all been a cruel fabrication. Any time those thoughts crept into his head, he lost control, lost all reason and sense and composure. He couldn’t function when consumed with all the damned emotion Severn had awoken in him.

He swallowed hard and combed his fingers through his long hair, sweeping it back from his face.

Sunlight streamed in through the windows and over the desk, making the sword glow. A desk Severn had fucked him against. The entire house was full of memories. Severn sprawled in the bed, his smile a tantalizing question. Severn laughing on the rooftop in the rain. Severn’s firm hips, his rounded ass, and the way he threw his head back, his loose golden locks aglow, when Mikhail…

Mikhail turned away with a snarl and soon found himself outside, walking the streets, needing to escape. He was a twitch away from spreading his wings and taking flight, returning to Aerie to stare at the horrid demon wings displayed on his wall. He always returned to the gallery, especially when his memories tried to convince him not everything about Severn had been a lie.

“I love you. That is no lie.”

No, no, no… he could not listen, he could not fall under this insanity trying to bury him. His angels already mistrusted him. He’d… done things. Careless things. Killed angels in his haste to slay demons, killed… people, by accident, but still… it was a sin. He knew it. They all knew it. Vearn had covered up the worst of his mistakes, but it kept happening because the only way he could function was to turn everything off. All of it. And feel nothing. There was peace in nothing. A hollow coldness he welcomed, where only necessity pulled his strings. But it meant he forgot who he was supposed to be.

Whispers spoke of wanting him banished, of having a guardian from another continent come in to manage him. Angels feared him. And they were right to, but he wasn’t leaving London, and he would not be pushed from his home.

The only way for the madness to end would be for Severn to die. The allyanse remained, and maybe his death would kill Mikhail too, but at this stage, it would be for the best.

Demons had Severn hidden somewhere. In the two months since Tower Bridge had fallen, he’d caught