“Them?” he asked, using that bored tone ofhis.
“Look at me,Jarod.”
Slowly, as though it physically pained him, he dragged his attention back tome.
My heart held very still. “You know what I am, don’tyou?”
“A pain in my ass,” hemuttered.
“Besides that,” Ideadpanned.
A nerve twitched next to his eye. Sensing he’d be harder to break than elysian quartz—not that I’d ever tried, but I’d heard only angel-fire could cut through it—I stepped closer. Human hands fell through our wings like powdered sugar through air, but angel-bloods could feel ourfeathers.
I took the fingers he’d balled and pried them open. Surprisingly, he let me straighten them. Without breaking eye contact, I lifted his hand toward my shoulder, then beyondit.
For a heartbeat, I worried I was wrong, that his fingers would slip right through my feathers. But as our hands neared my wings, his exhales pulsed harder against my brow. Right before I could set his hand on the peak of my wings, he put up some resistance, but it was too late. I hoisted my wing until its tip brushed hispalm.
He shuddered so hard it shook his entire body. Shook mine,too.
His touch sent a slow shiver through each shaft, making the vanes tremble. I reasoned that the sensation had everything to do with the discovery that my sinner was an angel and nothing to do with the feel of his skin against myfeathers.
His eyes sparked, then sparkled like the Eiffel Tower atnight.
I swallowed, trying to quell the tremors sinking into my wing bones. “You’re one of us,” I whispered, my voice hoarse withemotion.
Buthow?Had his mother, a Nephilim, conceived him, or had he somehow run away from a guild before his wing bones couldmaterialize?
Gently, I released his wrist, allowing him, now that I had my answer, to snatch his handback.
Although his eyes kept shimmering, he parked his fingers back next to his side. “I amnothinglike you,” he growled, spittle smacking my forehead. “Unlike your kind, I don’t seek to do good for personal gain, to better my soul, or grow those appendages you believe make you so glorious and superior.” He stepped back, then stalked past me, grabbing his jacket from hisbed.
“Jarod!” I swung around, my feathers swaying from my brusque spin. “What are youdoing?”
“What you’re incapable of:leaving.”
Before my next breath, he’d flung his bedroom door wide and trampled down the stairs, his furious footsteps echoing against the runner and then against marble. As another door clanged shut, rattling the very walls of the house, I drew my wings around me. My feathers quaked as his words reeled through me, scoring me deeper anddeeper.
It’s not personal. Not personal.Then why did it feel like he hatedme?
A tear curved down my cheek, and I raised my hand to scrub it away but froze at the sight of myskin.
I’d attributed the shine in Jarod’s eyes to emotional turmoil, but it wasn’t the sight of my wings that had made them glitter. It was the sight of myskin.
Itsreflection.
I’d just smoldered JarodAdler.
Oh, Great Elysium, what was wrong with me? My body must’ve been wired defectively, because why else would it want to seduce someone who detested all I was and all I stood for, someone who’d murdered their ownmother?
I watched my flesh glitter, then snapped out of my daze and sought out the switch to turn off the absurd glow. Since I’d never smoldered, I realized I had no idea how it worked. All I knew was that I should be able to controlit.
My heart was beating too fast, which must’ve caused my flesh to light up. I flared my nostrils, inhaling long and deep, then exhaled until my lungs cramped. The scent of Jarod almost choked me, but I persevered, sensing I needed to relax in order to stop shining. I repeated this breathing sequence until the vibrations in my chest decreased and dowsed myradiance.
Chapter 27
On the upside,the shock of smoldering Jarod tempered the shock of learning he’d murdered his ownmother.
As I tucked my wings back, I caught the gleam of the letter opener that had ended a Nephilim’s life. I watched it suspiciously, as though it might levitate and stabme.
