Eternal Sin (Primal Sin #2) - Ariana Nash Page 0,76

gotten caught fucking a guardian angel in Haven.

Destiny was hilarious. Until she wasn’t.

More angels appeared in the skies.

Severn bared his teeth. “Kill me then. You’ll not get another chance.”

He just wished Mikhail were here, so Severn could see if he’d given him up. Was their love as real as Severn had hoped, or had Mikhail turned the ruse back on Severn as punishment? It would be the demon thing to do.

The ground rumbled.

He almost missed it beneath the thump of his racing heart and the loud beat of a dozen angel wings.

A strange, thundering noise shook the air.

Angels took flight from all over Haven, scattering like a startled flock of birds. But the guard with his blade propping up Severn’s chin didn’t move. Severn couldn’t afford to look away. This one would cut his throat.

A chill fell over his skin. Haven’s startling bright light dulled, as though clouds had smothered the sun on a summer’s day. Darkness covered the domes. A storm had arrived.

Severn lifted his face.

He’d have liked to have felt the rain on his wings, just one last time.

“Seraphim?” One of the guards murmured in awe, before suddenly taking to the air.

Severn held the guard’s glare. He knew hundreds of angels like this one. He’d trained them, led them into battle, and taught them how to kill demons just like Severn. He’d kill Severn and wouldn’t bat an eye. It was his duty, his life, his single purpose, because Haven had created him that way.

Lightning flashed—a brief golden crack in the domes.

Severn’s gaze slid over the guard’s shoulder to where a star appeared to shine against the darkness. A blink revealed it wasn’t an out of place star, but an angel clad in shining armor, framed by six enormous black wings. Seraphim. Light rippled around the god, warping the air, warping reality itself.

His heart raced harder, his mouth fell open, and for a second, he dared not breathe.

He was magnificent.

The guard’s eyes narrowed. No longer able to ignore the commotion, he stepped back, kept his blade high and aimed at Severn’s throat, and then glanced into the sky, where their god hovered like a vengeful, second sun.

Lightning flashed again, suddenly striking the dome. Glass exploded. Steel moaned and crumpled as though it were no stronger than paper straws. Metal screamed, and Seraphim raised his shining blade, his judgment and power tainting the air with an acrid bite.

Chapter 32

Mikhail

At Tower Bridge, the power blazing through him had been chaotic and misdirected. But now, lit from inside by pure righteousness, Mikhail held its reins. It scorched his veins, set him ablaze, and made the world tremble. Somewhere, distantly, he became aware of another’s touch, another’s guiding hand, and that other was full of pain and horror and anguish. It had power, and now that power was Mikhail’s.

The war was a lie.

The guardians were the real enemy.

The time for truth had come.

Mikhail would be its harbinger.

He had a blade in his hand, taken from the angels who had already tried to stop him and fallen in his path. Lifting the sword focused the monumental power to a single point, and through it, he commanded the ageless energy of a god long dead. He had no voice, the god, but he had a name.

Seraphim. The god who sacrificed everything for love.

Lightning snapped and danced, striking Haven’s domes again and again, stabbing at the glass like superheated blades from above. Angels cried, their horror and fear palpable.

Angels converged on Mikhail, each one a guardian’s puppet, each one a victim of lies. Mikhail would not kill them. Only the guardians needed to die. Tien had been the first to fall after she’d tried to poison his blood. The rest would follow.

More glass and steel rained from above. Angels scattered mid-flight. Some fled, some looked at Mikhail with murder in their eyes. None could stop him. The truth was too powerful, and it was overdue its freedom.

Angels who attacked, he swept aside. Some blades got through, striking his shining armor. It didn’t matter. He was untouchable. Unbeatable. He was Seraphim.

But then, far below, he saw the angel with demon wings set upon by guards.

His enemy, no more, this demon who had opened his heart and made him see a better world, one full of feeling.

Konstantin.

A blade twanged against his chestplate. Mikhail knocked the angel aside with a roar and plunged toward the ground.

The guard had Severn pinned, and somewhere distantly, at the back of Mikhail’s mind, he remembered a fear that wasn’t his, the fear