“Yes, both planets need healing. I just thought you might stay here until our world was healed first.”
“If there was a known threat I could deal with, I would. But there isn't. All of you can keep watch without me, and I can return in seconds if you need me.”
Tiernan sighed and stood up. “Will you at least reconsider going alone?”
I stood up too. “I may have been a little woo-woo for a while there, but a lot of what I said made sense. Shit, it was all sense. This is how I regain your trust.” I lifted a hand when he drew breath to speak. “Don't tell me you trust me. I know you want to, but this thing with Star has put doubt into your heart. I have to go alone so I can prove to all of you and myself that I can be trusted around Astaroth.” I took his hand. “Tiernan, I really believe that Star and I have been pushed together by outside forces. He's just not the kind of man to push himself on a woman. And I'm not the kind of woman to chase after a man when I'm happily married to five. This isn't us. And I know that more now than ever, after seeing the real me laid bare. If we can just be freed of all influence, our attraction for each other won't be an issue.”
“And to be freed, you have to go to Hell.”
“I have to accept my destiny. You'd think I'd learn by now that destiny can't be ignored.”
As if my words summoned it, a chiming came.
I frowned, looking down at myself. But my scry phone was back on the battlefield with the remnants of my clothes and my Demon sword. The chiming came from Tiernan.
He let go of me to pull his scry phone out of a pocket and swipe a finger across the crystal. Huddling together over the phone's light, we waited for the mist to condense.
It was Severriel.
At first, I smiled to see him. But then I noted his expression. “What happened?”
“I need you, Seren! Now!”
“I'm coming!”
Tiernan snapped his phone closed and met my frantic stare. “Go!”
I kissed his cheek. “My phone and sword are in the field.”
He nodded. “I'll fetch them. Go, Seren!”
“I love you!”
Tiernan summoned a light orb and set it to float above him. “I love you too. Scry me when you've handled whatever this is.”
“What fresh hell is this?” I quipped but also grimaced as I stepped back.
“I have a feeling Hell has nothing to do with this,” Tiernan muttered.
The angelic wind swept his voice up with me, echoing it around me as I laruked to Sever.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I followed my bond with Sever to the L.A. Fairy Underground. Specifically, to an empty street in the Underground. It had probably been flooded with fairies earlier, but these were people who knew when to hide. That's why they lived underground. A circle of twelve Angels surrounding the ex-King of Heaven and his daughter was enough to send the residents running for cover.
“What the fairy farts do you think you're doing with my husband and daughter?!” I demanded.
The twelve Angels had cast a harul over Sever and Miri—the Angel version of a Demon hakhil, a containment field. One of the Angels was Gabriel.
“Fairy farts?” Gabriel asked.
“My daughter is learning new words every day.” I motioned at her. “So, watch what you say around her. And take that harul down before I take you down!”
“Prince Severriel was about to laruk.” Gabriel nodded at the other Angels, and the harul's shimmering dome vanished. “We had to stop him so we could talk. It's important.”
“You could have said that,” Sever growled.
“I did!” Gabriel shouted.
