“I think we’ve changed a lot about each other.” He murmured. “It’s a fair trade.”
Leviathan smiled against his chest. “Yes. I suppose it is.”
Part Three
59
His eyes flicked open, a low snarl building in his chest as tendrils of rage swirled through him.
The voice–familiar and hated–called out to him again, speaking in an old language, a language humans could hardly speak at all. One they never should have been taught in the first place. Those damned angels, breaking their own rules to gift the humans with knowledge. It had been causing irritating issues since the Beginning.
The voice called out once more, summoning him through that veil, and he could not ignore it for much longer. It wasn’t possible, not with the language of angels being used.
Slowly, Leviathan sat up, his eyes scanning the dark room before they fell on Cullen beside him, his cheek pressed into a pillow and the blanket tangled around his waist, revealing the gnarly scars that now adorned his back. He had refused to heal them for days, letting them heal slowly so that they would serve as a reminder for what Leviathan had let him do. The memories still brought a flush to his face,though he could hardly deny he’d liked it, since he’d let Cullen have control for several more days before he’d finally taken over again and pinned him down.
The voice called out to him again, drawing him from his thoughts. Beside him, Cullen stirred, wincing as if something had poked him. New fury flicked through him, his eyes narrowing as Cullen winced again.
Was he being summoned as well? He supposed he probably shouldn’t be too surprised, but the nerve of those fuckers…
He exhaled slowly, reaching to brush his fingers against Cullen’s temple. A gentle, comforting touch followed by a quiet, but strong command.Sleep.
Cullen fell still, his face relaxing again, and Leviathan climbed out of their bed, summoning some of his more intimidating clothes–a long, black-and-red robe made of a thick fabric that only deities had access to that cinched tight around his waist and left him looking the part of a god–onto his body before calling up his shadow portal.
His eyes went to Cullen again, his lips pulling down into a frown. The command would not last against a summoning for long. But hopefully long enough for him to slaughter the pricks and get back before Cullen was disturbed again.
“Sleep well, pet.” He murmured, stepping into the shadows. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
Rain misted down from the sky as he appeared exactly where he’d been summoned, exactly where his shadows had pulled him to against his will. He took in the dark sky, the storm clouds that brewed nearby, the still-demolished building just a few yards away, and then turned a slowsmile to the boy that stood in front of him.
That familiar shit-brown hair and that stupid determined look like he actually thought he was going to accomplish something tonight. Fool. This would only end with his blood spilled on these ancient stones. With his beating heart laid bare in Leviathan’s palm, just as it always should have been.
Movement to the side had his gaze shifting, his lips pulling up into a smirk at the sight of Dominick walking up beside the little brat. He looked just as determined, his glasses pushed up high on his nose and his face set in that pathetic attempt of bravery. His racing heart gave him away, though. Just as it always had. The man was nothing more than a coward who hid behind his fancy books and got in a few lucky hits now and then. The power flickering around his hands, casting small bursts of electricity across his fingers, might have made him nervous. If he hadn’t known he could take such power from heaven with little more than a wince.
They both looked exhausted, as if they had been up for days. And Walker’s eyes were red rimmed, as if he’d been crying. When Leviathan risked a swift glance into their minds, he saw that the boy that had been in his bed the night Cullen had come back to see him had not made it, had been pierced through the chest when Leviathan exploded the building around them all. Good.
Nearby, Diviners circled the courtyard of the academy, all of them with power flickering in their palms. Useless, pathetic fools. Whatever plan they were about to enact, it would fail just as all the others had before it.
“My, my,” Leviathan purred, striding a few slow steps forward, his eyes scanning for anyrealthreat and not finding any, save for… “This may be the most organized I’ve ever seen your little band of cowards.”
Light shimmered in front of his face, making him look down with a small pinch of his lips.
A large pentagram had been drawn onto the ground below him in blood, small runes carved into the stones inside of it. Runes that spoke of capture and holding and death. Runes that represented his name. His name…and Cullen’s.
A muscle twinged in his jaw.
Different. This felt different.
He kept the doubt from his face, sneering up at them as they approached.
“Where’s Cullen?” That pathetic brat Walker demanded, drawing his attention again.
His sneer became more brutal, the rage he felt seeping into it. “Sleeping well-fucked in my bed. But I suppose you wouldn’t know what that actually looks like.”
Walker’s jaw clenched, his teeth snapping together. “You sick fucker-”
“We’re not here for this.” Dominick interrupted, waving a swift hand between them. Leviathan merely smirked at the anger on Walker’s face, forcing his way into his mind again to whisper that he should do it, if he had any balls at all. He should burst forward and attack him–
“Don’t.” Dominick hissed, taking a tight hold of Walker’s wrist as he stepped forward. “If you go into that pentagram, you’re dead.”
