A mother’s love was one of the purest forms of love in the universe, and Haziel ached for the woman with a smile on her beleaguered face as she made her way back to them.

Issy turned to her. “How long?”

“Three days,” Haziel said.

“Will you come for me?”

“No, but I will see you once your soul is freed from your body.” She took Issy’s hand. “In your next life, you will get to grow up and get married. You will have children and a wonderful future, and your mother in this life will be one of those children.”

Ramiel would lose his shit if he heard what she’d said, but Haziel didn’t care. Humans suffered so much tragedy and pain. If she could spare this child one moment, it was worth it.

“Good.” Issy giggled and looked at her clothes. “I’d like to stop shopping in the children’s section at some point.”

Haziel watched her walk across the lobby toward her mother, and the two hugged. She needed another glass of wine—STAT.

“Ramiel would shit himself if he heard what you told her,” Wrath said.

She whirled to find him standing beside her table dressed like a human male in jeans and a snug T-shirt with a plaid shirt framing his gorgeous chest.

“I didn’t feel you approach.” Her heart thumped against her breastbone.

Wrath smirked and pulled out the chair Issy had vacated. “Because I didn’t want you to.”

At a cursory glance, he looked like a human male, but if you looked closer, those clear blue eyes gave him away as other, not to mention the low-grade aura of power that hung around him. He’d muted it, but it was like trying to turn the sun to low.

Several people in the bar watched him, their expressions caught between intrigued and admiring. You could take the prince out of hell…

So many questions spun through her mind that she had trouble picking one. The wheels spun and landed. “What are you doing here?”

“Finding you.” He smiled at the starstruck waitress who had appeared beside their table. “I’ll have whatever the lady is drinking, and another for her.”

“White wine?” The waitress blinked.

“Perfect.” Wrath flashed his pearly whites at her.

“You were looking for me?” She shoved a handful of nachos in her mouth to stop her pick-me why from spilling out.

Wrath tilted his head and studied her. “You look good as a human.”

The compliment warmed all kinds of stuff inside her. “Why were you looking for me?”

“Well.” Wrath stretched his long legs out beside her chair and got comfortable. “I thought I’d make it easy for you to keep an eye on me.”

“Liar.”

He laughed. “You know, demons have been ended for less than that.”

“Not a demon and not scared of you.” She tried to suppress her answering smile.

Wrath’s laugh was infectious, a deep bass rumble that made you want to share the joke. “Why are you here?”

Dammit with the direct questions! “Ramiel sent me.”

“Why?”

She was the one who was supposed to be asking the questions, but she couldn’t get control of the narrative, not with her heart pounding and a flush of pleasure that he was here controlling her good sense. “He wanted me to check on the horsemen and assess the damage.”

Wrath sat up and frowned. “And he sent you? A seraph.”

“He…” She wanted to say that Ramiel trusted her, but their last interaction had made her question that, and she couldn’t say it. “He thinks…” Nope, she couldn’t say that Ramiel even believed she could handle herself, because seraph versus horseman wouldn’t go well for her. And she was down to the truth. “He wanted me away from you.”

“Ah.” Wrath smiled his thanks as the waitress put down their drinks. “Ah, Misty.” He stopped her before she could leave again. “I know this is going to sound weird, and you don’t know me, but the answer is yes.”

Misty looked confused. “What?”

“The question that’s bothering you.” Wrath sat forward and leaked a tiny amount of his power. “You should leave him. If you don’t, he will do it again.” He took her hand and brushed a gentle finger over the bruise on her inner wrist. “He’s an asshole and bad to the bone.”

“How did you—” Misty frowned. “I didn’t…”

“I’m psychic.” Wrath shrugged. “I know shit.”

Haziel stared at him. “Ramiel would definitely not like what you just did.”

“Don’t give a crap.” Wrath sipped his wine and gave a happy sigh. “Humans and their wine. They really do know their way around a grape. These South African whites are particularly good. I’ve been trying to replicate them in my demesne, but I haven’t got the composition of the soil quite right.”

Her head was spinning with the information overload. Wrath cultivated wine. Wrath giving advice to human women. Wrath being here at all.

“Is Eddie okay?”

His face softened. “Yeah. She’s doing great. Ramiel helped me heal her, and that sped things up a lot.”

“Good.” So Ramiel had kept his side of their bargain. But Wrath being here now could complicate things. “Does Ramiel know you’re here?”

“Nope.” Wrath finished his glass and picked up the wine list. “I think I want to give this sauvignon blanc a try. I like the vineyard.”

“So he doesn’t know you’re here.”

“Unlike you, sweet Haziel.” Mischief made his eyes dance. “I don’t have to report to Ramiel, and I’m here because I want to be.”

“Why?”

He chuckled and motioned for Misty. “That is an entirely different discussion.” He placed his order with the still mystified waitress. “Now, tell me why you told that child what you did.”

Issy and her mother had left the lobby, but the story crashed into Haziel again. “She’s dying, the little girl.”

“I know.” Wrath’s gentle tone brought tears to her eyes. “But you know she’s going to be all right. It all works out in the end.”

“I do know that.” Haziel had never spoken of her feelings to a fellow supernatural. Most of her peers barely noticed the human souls they shepherded from one incarnation to the next. “But humans…some of them go through so much in a lifetime, and they face impossible challenges.”