The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,26

over at Bel. "I figure that if we can make the bubble a protection, and none of us tend to run around Tyrnigg by 'accident,' then we could just make our skins here be our ideal bodies, right?" My eyes jumped to Luke next. "I can just re-skin you all back to the demons - or angel - that you should be?"

"That's actually not a bad idea," Luke agreed. "And if we need to go near any fairy habitations, you could re-skin us for the visit, right?"

"I think so," I agreed. "I mean, making skins is pretty easy for me."

"It's not for the rest of us," Luke explained. "This hunk of fairy? Took me years to build it. But, we have a working plan, I think? Nick, if you can't make the changes reversible, then you can simply add the protections, and Sia can alter our skins. You ok with that?"

"I am," Nick said. "It would be better to have the bubble remove our skins, so if someone stumbles into this area, we could simply chase them off without needing to find Sia, get a skin, and plan it out. But if that's what we have to do to make sure Ron doesn't hurt, then that is what we'll do. Any complaints?"

All of us shook our heads. We were talking about ideas and options that were only theoretical, to a bubble that shouldn't be possible. Playing it safe was the best idea, and this sounded like it counted. Yet the most important thing about all of this was that no one wanted Ron to suffer. There had been no need to stand up for him or argue my case. I pointed out that Ron could hurt, and the entire legion worked to find an idea where that wouldn't happen.

Unfortunately, though, none of this got us closer to locking Angelis. The guys hadn't said anything, but I got the impression they believed that since we'd handled all of the immediate issues, it was time to sit back and relax until the angels tried something else. Almost like this was our little vacation, and we should enjoy it.

But I couldn't. All my life, I'd been raised that if you wanted something, then you didn't wait for it to come to you. No one would do me any favors if they didn't have to. The world wouldn't wait for me to get up my nerve or to get my shit together, well, except my guys. Life was nothing more than a game of catch-up, and the big goal was to finally figure out how to get ahead - and this time, I actually knew how.

I'd locked Michael in his own prison. He was trapped in a box, slowly deteriorating with the lack of food and water. I didn't even feel guilty about that. Not after what he'd done to so many people over the millions of years that he'd been raising us like livestock to fuel his luxuries.

But the slaves needed a champion, and that was damned well going to be me. To think, I'd been born there. If Uriel and Kacira hadn't given me up, I'd probably be dead already - if I wasn't chained to Michael's side as his personal pet. I certainly wouldn't be lying in the middle of the floor in a fairy cottage, plotting my revenge. Maybe that was why this felt so personal to me?

So, feeling like I was beating a dead horse, I decided to bring it up again. "Guys? What about the Angelis veil?"

I expected Nick to try to talk me out of worrying about it. Instead, it was Luke who let out the annoyed groan. "No," he said. "We have taken more risks with your growing abilities than we should have. Right now, you need to give your aetherial conduits a rest. Let them heal from the strain of making the Vesdar veil!"

"You said the amount of aether you channeled for that burned," Nick reminded me, falling back on what seemed to be his favorite argument.

Sam draped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to his chest. "How about a compromise?" he suggested. "Clearly, this is a big deal to her. There has to be a way to meet in the middle?"

"I think the dragon hurt her," Bel said. "She was fine until it touched her."

"I touched it," I reminded him. "She was actually very careful not to hurt me. And I can't be more than a fly to her. Probably more