Her smile was small and wry. “I’m not a fool, Fee. I know that Conah is attracted to you. I’ve known for a while, but I trust him. He’s my soulmate, and our becoming lifemates is important to the Underealm.”
She was calm, logical, and reasonable. Nothing like the angry woman I was expecting to encounter.
Guilt, I am thy bitch. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. I trust Conah, and I’ve come to trust you. We can’t decide who we’re attracted to, but we can govern our actions.”
She was so right. “I promise you, Kiara. I will never betray your trust.”
She bridged the gap between us and pulled me into a hug. “Thank you, Fee.”
It was weird, but the exchange left me feeling lighter about the whole Conah situation. Men came and went, but friendships were forever. I’d learned that the hard way, and Kiara had just reminded me of that.
“You’re late,” Azazel snapped as I joined him on the pinnacle.
I winced. “Kiara stopped me for a chat?”
Why did that come out as a question? God, did he have to be so intimidating all the fucking time? There had to be an off switch.
The memory of his body pressed to mine and his arousal rubbing against my thigh flitted through my mind. He’d backed off quickly then. Off switch. Ha.
“She’s an honorable woman,” Azazel said.
Huh? What? He said it in a way that implied that I wasn’t. “I’m honorable, too, you know.”
He huffed. “You have too much of Eve in you.”
Seriously? He was comparing me to an immortal I’d never met? “And what is that supposed to mean?”
“Eve is a seductress.”
A ball of indignant heat bloomed in my chest, and my next words were out before I could think. “Really? She’s not the one with several lovers; your mother, Lilith, is.”
Azazel’s expression was suddenly glacial. “Do not make assumptions about Lilith. You know nothing of her.”
“Yeah? Then don’t make assumptions about me. You don’t know me.”
We glared at each other for a long beat. I was damned if I’d bow out first. Who did he think he was saying shit about me? Seductress my ass.
He was the first to blink and drop his gaze. “You should control your temper.”
“And you need to watch what you say. Seductress, pfft. You getting a hard-on isn’t my fault. I don’t control your dick.”
He blinked in surprise. “Agreed.”
“Good.” I released a breath to staunch my annoyance. “Now that we have that sorted, I do need your help with my anger.”
I filled him in on what tended to happen when I got pissed, ending in what happened at my house with Lucas and how Mal had calmed me.
“He kissed you.” Azazel frowned. “He overloaded your body with other sensations and distracted it from the rage.”
“Yeah, but I can’t rely on someone kissing me to control my anger in the future.”
“We’ll work on it. But right now, we should go. Your reapers will be waiting.”
He scooped me off my feet and cradled me to his chest. “Hold on.”
I wound my arms around his neck, turned my face into the crook of his shoulder, and closed my eyes. I knew what was coming. The last time it had almost blinded me because Azazel’s wings were different from Mal’s and the other reapers I’d seen. They were silver and huge and almost blinding in the sunlight. Best to keep my eyes closed.
There was a whoosh—the sound of his wings unfurling, and then my stomach dropped as we launched into the air. His grip on me was firm. I was safe in his arms. Comfort washed through me, followed by longing, which was a tugging sensation in my solar plexus, and then the mark on my chest tingled again.
The mark.
Oh, shit.
Chapter Nine
Azazel landed outside the gates to my house and immediately lowered me to the ground.
He really didn’t enjoy physical contact.
The sun was setting in the human world, but I was getting used to the time differences between the Underealm and this world, so the transition from morning to end of the day didn’t faze me.
The night seemed to wrap around us like a blanket. The ward blocked out the stars, but the sky still looked clear.
I looked up at the house through the bars on the gate. “Where are the reapers?”
“They’ll be at the operations house across the street,” Azazel said. “It’s where Peiter usually met with them.”
I glanced longingly at the house. We had it set up just