He was still trying to see right through me to get to him.
All the hair on my body stood on end, and I settled myself more firmly between the two of them.
To my shock, Shem pressed himself closer to my back, his forehead resting between my shoulder blades. I realized with a start that he washiding.
“Tell him, Shemhazai. Tell him who you belong to.”
Rage ripped through my chest at the claim.
Casually, I rolled my scepter through the air in warning.
“Don’t speak to him. Speak to me,” I growled.
The seraphim smirked and cocked his head to the side.
“How can I speak to you when I don’t even know your name?”
“My name is?—”
“Don’t,”Shem breathed behind me. He was fuckingquivering,and it was making me see red.
“I’m not afraid of him, Shemhazai,” I murmured back, and he curled his fingers into my shirt and pressed himself more firmly against my back.
“You should be,” he whispered, and I frowned.
Yeah.
Fuck that.
I looked directly at the angel and let him see clearly that I would fucking unmake him if I had the chance.
“My name is Gabriel, and I have come to demand the return of the mother and the crone.”
Raziel paused, looking slightly surprised.
“Well. I knew that devil of a woman was puresin,but even I wouldn’t have thought so low of her that she would recruit the help of ademon.”
He said the word demon as if it were a curse word.
I smiled.
“Give me what I want, and I’ll consider letting you live.”
That was a lie. As far as I was concerned, whatever he had done to reduce Shemhazai to the terrified shell of a demon cowering behind me was a grave enough crime to lose him his life regardless. It didn’t matter if he gave me what I asked for. I had already made the decision to kill him.
“Is this your new lover, Shemhazai?” Raziel asked, and Shem shook more violently behind me. The angel chuckled at Shem’s refusal to answer. Raziel continued as if he had.
“Of course he is. You think I don’t know? You think I haven’t seen every sinful thing the two of you have done together during your time here? I’m disappointed. You know what happens to bad boys who give into the temptations of sin.”
As much as I wanted to beat this angel to death for the way he was intentionally antagonizing Shem, I was too curiousto interrupt him.
He was giving away exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I was unintentionally learning more than Shem would have ever willingly given me, so I found myself frozen, waiting to hear more.
“You haven’t let him where you let me, though. Not yet. Why is that, Shemhazai?”
It felt like the floor beneath my feet suddenly vanished. I had the strangest sensation that I was falling.
Shem made a low hissing sound, and I glanced over my shoulder to find his green eyes burning with fear and hatred.
