“Talon,” Alex admonished nearby.
Isaac studied Talon with a sharp eye. Slightly shorter than Shadrach, he wore dark-wash jeans and a leather jacket over a simple black T-shirt. His hair was shorter than Shadrach’s, his skin pale and flawless. This was the demon that started it all, the one that tempted Alex away from the guild and set them all on the paths that led them here. The one who inadvertently introduced Isaac and Shadrach and set them both on a far more personal path, as well.
“You’re the one who captured me,” he said.
Talon bared bone-white teeth at him. “You’re lucky I didn’t gut you where you stood.”
That might’ve frightened a lesser man, but in truth, it had merit. “Maybe you should’ve.”
“What?” Shadrach’s voice was higher-pitched than he’d ever heard it.
Isaac shrugged. “It would’ve been cleaner, wouldn’t it? Even I can admit that.” Perhaps there would even be peace after death, not more punishment. “Things are far more complicated for all of us than they were before that day.”
Shadrach looked back and forth between them. “It—but—no?—”
Isaac cast him a weak smile. “Don’t hurt yourself.”
The demon’s eyes narrowed into a teasing glare, and he leaned in, his nose brushing Isaac’s ear with a rattling growl. “Pushing it.”
God, he hoped so. He wanted to see how far he could push Shadrach. For the first time in his life, he was free. Where were the limits? How far was he allowed to go? What would Shadrach do when he pushed too far?
“Oh, fuck me, I don’t want to see them making eyes at each other,” a red-eyed halfling with long hair and a sidecut said.
“Too fucking bad,” Shadrach said. “I’ve had to watch you guys make eyes at each other formonths. Besides, we’re here for a reason. We’ve got some things to discuss, and I think we should do it while drinking. Killer, can I get you a beer?”
He tilted his head thoughtfully. “I’ve never had a beer.”
“Appalling,” Shadrach declared. “You’re trying a beer.”
Shadrach clamped down on Isaac’s shoulders and steered him into the… arcade area? Meeting area? There were papers and laptops strewn across the air hockey table in the middle of the space. A sofa sat against one wall, surrounded by folding metal chairs, which was where most of them were. He pushed Isaac down onto the sofa beside Ira and then went to fetch him a beer while the others joined them.
Isaac’s eyes snagged on a pair of teenagers, both with dark hair and dark brown eyes.
“That’s Zach and Angie,” Ira supplied. “They’re… recruits.”
If the guild knew the Sentinels were recruiting, they’d lose their shit. He wondered if they realized how much danger they were actually in. If they hadn’t before, they probably did after the paladins attacked.
With everyone sitting or standing around in a loose circle, drinks in hand—Angela with a hot cocoa and Zachary with a soda—no one seemed to know how to break the silence. Isaac took a long sip of the beer, and Shadrach, standing beside the sofa next to him, watched him curiously. The flavor was bitter and bubbly but not at all unpleasant, and he took a second sip with Shadrach’s satisfied smile warming his profile.
“You came back,” Nathan finally said. He was sitting across from Isaac, in a metal chair with his elbows on his knees and a tumbler of whiskey and soda clutched between his hands. He looked pensive, and the white-haired demon sitting on the floor beside him wrapped one large hand around his ankle, as though grounding.
Isaac looked from face to face, uncertain now that they were all waiting for him to speak. The words left him without thought.
“I should apologize for the things I’ve done. I betrayed you all, and I’m sorry.”
Sighing heavily, Nathan softened. He took a long sip of his drink and then asked, “Why’d you do it? Why did you spy for them?”
Isaac didn’t know where to start. Everything the guild taught him was so tangled up in his head. It couldn’t be right, not if he was meant to be with Shadrach, but he couldn’t just clean the slate. Those lessons couldn’t be erased so easily. He looked up at Shadrach, at his comfortingly dark eyes. Shadrach drifted closer, perching on the armrest and laying one hand flat at the base of Isaac’s neck.
Grounding. With a deep breath, he found his voice.
“You know what they say about me there. As far as I know, it’s true. Because my circumstances were different, they used a different approach with me. I was taught not about goodness and doing what’s right, but obedience. I was meant to do whatever they told me, no matter what. Sloan’s word was the highest authority. They said it was because I had no moral compass of my own, so Sloan was meant to be mine. When I did something they deemed wrong, I was punished. The methods differed sometimes. They would take away my dinners or send me to Hawley, who would give me lashes for my disobedience.”
Shadrach growled lowly, his fingers curling possessively.
“So when Sloan asked me what people were saying about everything that was happening, of course I told him about the meetings Nathan had arranged. And when he asked me to continue going so I could report back to him, it didn’t even occur to me to disobey. I’d been conditioned not to.”
“Jesus,” Luke said under his breath.
