“You were going to dowhat?”
“Sell them.” I lifted my chin, refusing to back down even as he took a step toward me. “Why should I care what happens to angel feathers? They’re probably worth something to the right buyer.”
His jaw tightened, and for a second, I thought he might wrap those hands around my throat and squeeze.
Instead, he moved faster than I could track, his hand darting inside my jacket before I could stop him. His fingers found the inner pocket, and he pulled out the last feather. It was gone in a flash.
I should have kept my mouth shut.
“I don’t seewhy we can’t go right now.” I sat on the couch in his living room with my arms crossed over my chest.
After he’d sent my feathers flying away, he gave me a tour of his home and rattled off the names of so many different objects that I couldn’t keep track of them all.
I didn’t even know what time it was, but he’d ordered dinner and was now moving around his kitchen, ignoring me for the hundredth time.
“Do you want a beer?” He opened the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles. I watched him in the reflection of the shiny rectangle above the fireplace.
“Is it the same as in Inferna?” I didn’t know if I trusted the man to feed me again. He might spit in my dinner, which he claimed was coming soon.
Pizza. It sounded like more poison to me.
“It’s alcohol.” He came around the counter and handed me a brown bottle. “Isn’t it all the same?”
Inferna and Earth were similar but vastly different. There were a lot of the same things, except their technology was superior and ran off something called electricity.
Inferna ran on magic.
I sniffed the rim of the bottle and scrunched up my nose. It smelled like Nico’s feet after a long trip. I sighed, thinking of him. He was probably shitting bricks worrying about me. Then there was Val and Amari. Those guards were after all of us, but they were Val’s father’s. I wasn’t born yesterday; it didn’t sit right with me.
I put the bottle to my lips and took a sip. I cringed, and Raphael laughed from his spot in a chair. It was a behemoth of a chair with a footstool that came out of the bottom with the push of a button.
“It’s an acquired taste. Sorry I don’t have any wine.” He shrugged and took a gulp of his beer.
I looked around his sitting room. It was plain, considering how much color Earth seemed to have, with mostly brown furniture, but there was a window that looked out onto the hillside and the Hollywood sign. He told me it was an iconic landmark people came from all over Earth to see.
It seemed a little ridiculous to travel to see giant letters, but what did I know? Maybe that’s what humans liked to do.
Raphael was staring at me, which I’d caught him doing several times.
I adjusted my posture since I’d sunk into the cushions. It was almost like it was built to be a trap. “Is there a reason you’re staring at me?”
“Are you a dream demon?”
“If you’re asking if I have the same capabilities as Reve, no, I don’t.” I ran a hand through my hair and cringed at how dirty it felt. “The females don’t have the same abilities as males, but they can cause sleep with a touch. A mated pair is very powerful.”
“Why didn’t you do that to me in the bathroom then? Wouldn’t that ability be useful in that kind of situation?”
“I’m null and have no abilities.” I shifted my weight, suddenly aware of how exposed I felt under his scrutiny. I didn’t like to refer to myself as null. It was condescending and reduced me to one of my flaws.
Two lines appeared between his brows. “That must have been hard growing up.”
He had no idea.
While my brothers were developing their abilities to gain power from the nightmares they caused, I was in my room whittling soap. Adding to the blow of having no powers, Reve could cause lucid visions and had a phantom form since he was the alpha male and heir to the throne.
I put my beer on the table next to the couch. “Are you the kind of archangel who tortures human souls in Hell? Like Lucifer?”
He shifted in his seat, and his furrowed brow was replaced by amusement. “I wouldn’t call it torturing. It’s more… rehabilitating.”
