“I’m not going with you,” I tell him. “And if you try to make me, I will kill you and escape.”
“You tried to kill the Queen of the Protectors and demons. Publicly,” he reminds me of my failed attempt. “Evie is a beloved queen, and half the city, if not all of it, are calling for your head. You cannot leave here unless you come with me, and this world will not be safe for you.”
“I can look after myself,” I growl.
“It’s clear you can,” he muses, agreeing with a calculating look in his eyes. “But being away from your kind is a punishment worse than death. Your powers are incredible, but I sense you are not using even an inch of your true abilities. The way your power attacks everyone near you tells me you don’t have control, and one day you will lose what power you have if you do not use it regularly and train. With what I have planned, you will have a chance to learn your powers as you train. With my plan, you will be free and safe in the Reaper Realm for the rest of your life.”
For a second, I smile, thinking about going to the reaper world and being a normal person for a moment. Then my boss’s face flashes into my mind, reminding me that it’s not possible.
I’m never going to be normal. I’m never going to be free. Before Alun can say another word, I slam enough energy into his chest to knock out an elephant, and he goes flying through the glass, smashing it into pieces as my magic takes out the magical barrier at the same time. Well, that worked much better than I thought. My power flickers around my skin, looking like a purple shadow of energy that is out of control.
He was right about that. And in some ways, it is. But I like being out of control.
I walk to the edge of the building just as a small monkey lands on my shoulder, curling his tail around my neck, and I turn my head to glare at him. My magic never hurts Mossy, and I don’t know exactly why, but I’m glad of it.
“I could have used some help back there,” I point out.
Mossy grins. “I was busy. They have good food here. Did you see?”
“You’re such an asshole for a monkey, you know that?”
“You’re going to make me cry. A tiny, cute monkey like myself crying would be so horrible,” he overdramatically replies as the door slams open behind us.
“You’re an asshole, and you only cry when you watch Game of Thrones because you love the dragons,” I mutter as the room fills with people. “Spoiler alert—”
“Not fair, you know my weakness,” he whines, cutting me off.
“Did you just throw him out of the window?” Evie asks around a laugh from close by. I step forward to the gap in the window, calculating how much this is going to hurt when I jump as the wind blows my waist-length black hair around my shoulders. “And where did you get a monkey from? And why is he blue?”
“Don’t worry, reapers can use shadows to catch themselves,” Connor replies with a wave of his hand as I glance back.
Yes, but it still hurts like a bitch to land in a shadow.
“She is as crazy as you,” another man replies in astonishment, like his mate is the only crazy woman in the world.
I don’t listen for a moment longer, and I jump, the wind catching my breath as I slide down the glass, the scraping noise of my dress against the glass hurting my ears as I head for the greenhouse at the bottom of the building. I reach my hands out, changing power into them and getting ready to make a ball of shadow magic to land on just as someone catches me, knocking the air out of my lungs with the force as we stumble to a stop in the middle of the sky.
I gasp as I take in what caught me. A man, no, not a man exactly. He looks like an over-six-foot dark god sent here to seduce every woman in his path. I would guess he is an angel because of the bright golden wings stretched out behind him that seem like they are made of gold dust shaped into tiny feathers to make brilliant large wings. They are so enchanting it is hard to look away to see the rest of him. He has beautiful light blond hair that is braided back at the sides, and it really suits his face. I thought angel wings were white, at least the angels I have seen before. What is this dude? He slowly flies us down, his wings just make me want to reach out to touch them.
He is ridiculously hot. Dimples and all. His eyes meet mine, and I just stare. His eyes are the colour of honey. A pretty hazel colour that has so many different depths that it makes him quite pretty. But I quickly read him as a demanding asshole type, and I love those kind of men. The kind of men that can rock your world in the bedroom and almost break your heart in the morning, but in the end, you wouldn’t care because it would be worth it for that one night of pleasure. If he wasn’t a supe, he might be a good one-night stand I’d never call again. Supes are too possessive, and they ask too many questions.
“Let me go,” I demand, pushing against his hard chest, but it’s like fighting a rock. Poor Mossy is clinging to my back like a…well, literal monkey, and the man’s hands are holding my waist so tightly that it almost hurts.
“That is a funny way to say thank you,” the angel replies with a smirk, his deep sexy accent unfamiliar to me. But honestly? I have no idea where angels are from; I didn’t know they still existed until now, so maybe this is normal for them. “But fine. Your wish is my command, Daesyn Heartlocke.”
I scream as he literally drops me, his smirk staying in my mind as I plunge into freezing cold water within seconds. I barely noticed we moved closer to the ground or near a pool for that matter. I gasp, sucking in cold water as I swim to the surface, the damn dress making it hard to move my legs quickly.
If this dress drowns me, I’m becoming a ghost and haunting all dresses for the rest of time. Eventually I break the surface of the pool, the dress feeling heavy with all the water it has soaked up as I suck in deep breaths of cold air.
“The angel man is a fucker. Angel fucker is his name forever now,” Mossy shrieks as he climbs onto my neck, coughing out water. Mossy hates water.
“Serves you right for abandoning me for food earlier,” I breathlessly mutter to him. “But I agree with the name.”
As I look at the angel dude at the edge of the pool, Alun walks to his side. Both of them look like night and day. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I’m in so much trouble.
Chapter 4
“Do you need a hand?” Alun softly asks, trying not to smile but majorly failing as he stares down at me. The angel asshole isn’t holding back, he can’t help but laugh as I climb out of the pool on my own. Which, in a soaking wet dress, is not as easy as it sounds.
Nor remotely graceful.
Who am I kidding? I’ve never been graceful.
“Who the fuck are you?!” I demand, glaring at the angel. His wings disappear into gold smoke that the wind blows away, and I just stare. His magic feels different and strong. Addictive. What the hell is he?
He steps closer, crossing his thick arms against his chest. “Torfinn White.”
“Torfinn, I think it is best you accompany us to my house instead of travelling back alone. Daesyn might try to jump off another high building,” Alun asks him, like I’m not even here. “Or she might do something reckless. I’m inclined to believe she is wild.”
“As you wish, my friend,” Torfinn replies, never taking his eyes off me. Like a dusty storm in a desert, his eyes force me not to look away. He is challenging me, daring me to say something.
“Angel fucker,” Mossy randomly mutters in disgust, and Torfinn narrows his eyes at me.
“What did you just call me?”
