Unmade (Unborn #4) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,27

lead—”

“For the first time in your life—”

“Frustrating, isn’t it?” he asked. I hesitated, loath to admit that it was indeed infuriating. My silence proved confirmation enough for the Dark One, and he let a wry smile overtake his expression. “Now, I asked first.”

“I will tell you nothing until you promise not to tell Sean of Ares’ proposition.”

His smile fell away in an instant. “Is that how you want things to be again?”

“What I want is your word that you will not create a situation that causes my brother to throw himself into the Oudeis in a misguided effort to save me.”

“So you want me to allow you to endanger yourself to spare Sean?”

“If that is how you wish to view it, then yes.”

“I can’t promise that,” he finally said, the words forced through clenched teeth.

“Why not?”

“You know why not…”

“If you tell him, I will be forced to despise you for eternity—or worse.” I shifted beneath him, pressing my hips tighter to his. “What a shame that would be, given how I have grown strangely fond of your unwavering presence in my life.”

“You’ve grown fond of a lot of me.”

I could feel the length of him pushing back. “I think, Oz, that perhaps you are illustrating just how fond you have grown of me.”

He leaned in close, his lips at my ear. “Maybe…”

With a tuck of his wings, he rolled off of me onto the empty spot beside me. He managed his way under the covers, then arranged them to his liking before closing his eyes.

“Is that it? You no longer wish to know of my dream?”

“Oh, I want to know, but I’m not willing to make you a promise I’ll break in a heartbeat if I need to. So you can go ahead and be pissed at me, or hate me for eternity, or whatever it is you think you can do to leverage me into swearing to you that I won’t sacrifice your brother, but it’s never going to work, new girl. I’d prefer your wrath to your death any day of the week.”

I stared at him, completely at a loss as to how to proceed. Oz was normally so overbearing and argumentative that his straightforward answer, combined with his placid appearance, had thrown me entirely. Perhaps there was no way to force his hand. Perhaps I would end up having to make good on my threat and hate him for eternity.

The pressure in my chest protested that possibility.

With no other viable course of action with Oz, I got up and turned off the firelight in the room, leaving us in total darkness. I made my way back to the bed and climbed in, keeping my distance from the angel at my side—the one now snoring lightly. He was still exhausted from his ordeal with Kaine and the Dark Ones, even if he did not let on.

The soft rhythm of his breathing lulled me into joining him in sleep, though the thought of Phobos returning to my dreams kept startling me awake. Try though I did, I could not shake the residual fear his visit had caused. I tossed and turned until sleep finally won out. The moment it did, I felt someone tugging on my mind, the coward having waited until I was in a state that would allow him to hold me. Just as fear blossomed in my gut, something seemed to cut the tether, freeing me from his grip. Instead of panic in my stomach, I felt a warm, welcome pressure grounding me—keeping me from being pulled further into Phobos’ trap.

I nestled into that feeling, doing all I could to remember it so I could call upon it in the future. I fell asleep with a sense of warmth and safety surrounding me, and I slept until a death cry rang out in the Dragon’s lair.

11

“It’s Sean!” Kierson and Pierson said in unison as they barged into my room.

I startled awake to find myself encased in a cocoon of black down, a male arm snaked around my waist. No matter how hard I fought to climb out, it was clear that Oz had no intention of letting that happen until he deemed it safe. Seconds later, his wing lifted as he released me and climbed from the bed. I followed his actions, rushing to my brothers who hovered in the doorway, breathing hard.

“He cannot be dead,” I said, stuffing down my rising uncertainty. Where Phobos was concerned, I was not sure certainty could be found.

“I know,