Eternal Sin (Primal Sin #2) - Ariana Nash Page 0,41

everything, but not in that. I am Konstantin, Lost Lord of the Red Manor, and those wings behind me are mine. That’s the truth, and so is my love. I didn’t see it at first. I couldn’t. But in all those years, I changed. We’ve all changed. You’ve changed… can’t you feel it?” Severn reached down and touched his own chest, over his heart, next to where Solo’s blade pushed in. “In here?”

Solo’s face fell. He exhaled hard, spluttering out his pain. “Angels don’t feel.” But he lowered his blade.

“Of course they do. You’ve just been conditioned to ignore it. You love him, don’t you? You all love him? Well, so do I, and I’m not here to hurt him, I’m here to save him.”

“Save me?”

Severn jerked his head up. Mikhail entered the gallery, his wings revealed behind him and his face full of fury. Severn’s heart sank. It was over. He saw the end on Mikhail’s face too. He’d never let Severn leave alive.

The demons were right, he really had failed.

Chapter 16

Mikhail

Severn stood at the end of the gallery, his demon wings framed behind his angel form, creating a portrait of lies. Fury blurred Mikhail’s vision.

Konstantin was here. He’d slithered his way inside his chambers, inside his gallery. And he’d worn the illusion of a guardian angel to do it.

It hadn’t seemed likely that Severn would return. Not after the cataclysm at Tower Bridge, but with Solo’s suspicions about Remiel’s odd behavior, coupled with his own observations, he’d ordered Solo to discreetly leave a feather at Remiel’s feet and to follow him.

Mikhail hadn’t truly believed Remiel was a lie, or that Severn had dared trick him twice.

And here they were, the terrible truth revealed. For a second time.

“Konstantin,” Mikhail growled, approaching slowly.

The enemy looked up. “Mikhail…” Severn’s voice cracked, like he suffered, and so he should. He’d suffer a great deal more before this was over.

“You came for your wings.” Not a question.

Severn’s eyes widened. “Mikhail… wait.”

Mikhail nodded, signaling to Solo. Solo lunged. His blade struck Severn’s. Severn parried and shoved Solo back, the pair evenly matched. But as Mikhail reached up and grabbed the demon wings from the wall, tearing them down, Severn stumbled to watch, and Solo struck out, kicking the blade from Severn’s hand. Even Mikhail could see Severn’s heart wasn’t in the fight.

Solo clutched Severn to his chest, blade pressed to his throat, and held him rigid, forcing him to watch Mikhail.

The demon wings lay crumpled on the floor at Mikhail’s feet. He hated them more for his own mistake in keeping them. He should not have cut them from Konstantin. This horror had all begun with that terrible moment.

Mikhail knelt and pressed his hand to the arch of the right wing, the wing he’d recently sliced open.

This ended now.

“What are you doing?” Severn demanded. “Mikhail… Listen. I could have hurt you a thousand times. I chose not to.”

Did he think having his heart ripped out hadn’t hurt? Weren’t demons supposed to know emotion?

Power thrummed through Mikhail’s chest, down his arm, into his hand, his fingers.

Severn bucked against Solo’s hold. “Mikhail, I love you. Don’t do this.”

Rage scorched his palm.

“I need them back. I want to show you the truth!”

Smoke rose from between his fingers, bringing with it the smell of burning flesh.

“Gods, Mikhail… Don’t, please!” Severn slumped, Solo holding him up. “I just wanted to show you who I really am!”

“I know exactly who you are!” Blue flame burst from Mikhail’s touch and roared across the wing.

“No!”

Blue flame leaped to the left wing, skipping across skin and bone, devouring flesh and blood and the mistake Mikhail had made all those years ago. The wings crumbled to ash, and the flame spluttered out, leaving only a shadowy imprint of wings on the floor.

Mikhail straightened. The breeze from his feathers stirred the ash, blurring the remains.

Severn stared at the remains. He didn’t look up, didn’t beg for forgiveness, just stared.

Now, perhaps, Severn understood exactly how Mikhail had felt on that damned bridge when his own angels had told him his first and only love was a lie.

“Lock him up.” Mikhail turned away, hearing Severn’s sob when his wings swept the ash away, destroying Konstantin’s wings forever.

Chapter 17

Severn

His wings were gone.

Solo had thrown him in a holding cell deep inside Aerie and left him there, in the dark and the cold and the silence.

He shivered on a wooden bench, hugging himself.

He’d believed Mikhail would see sense, that he’d listen. Severn had hoped, even as his wings burned,