Rev paused while reaching for the handles on the giant iron doors leading to the private living chambers he shared with his mate, Blaspheme. “How many did you root out?”
“Three dozen from our fighting forces. They planned to plant explosives in the barracks.”
“Any others?”
Drudge hesitated, his long, dragon-like snout flaring. “My lord…”
Fuck. “Tell me. I won’t kill the messenger,” Rev said. “Probably.”
The crimson slits in the dragon-demon’s yellow eyes flickered with anxiety. “We discovered one traitor in your cabinet. Sir.”
“Who?” Rev growled, his gut sinking. He didn’t trust anyone except his mate, but he’d hoped the people he kept near him could at least be counted on to not betray him.
“Noctus,”Drudgesaid, his voice grave. “It was under some…intense…questioning that he admitted to conspiring with the Sythh clan to poison your mate.”
Revenant hissed, his fangs punching down as a fresh rush of fury flooded his veins. Enemies and allies alike had plotted not to kill him, but to kill his mate. Most of those involved had paid in blood—theirs, and that of their loved ones.
“Is he still alive?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Bring him to me. Put him in my personal holding chamber.”
A slow, malevolent smile spread across Drudge’s angular face. “What shall we do with the remaining traitors?”
“Kill them,” Rev said. “Kill them all. However you want. But noone lays another claw on Noctus. He’s mine.”
“Yes, sir.” Drudge fled, eager to get on with his grim work. Revenant wished he had time to watch, but Blaspheme was his highest priority, especially now that he knew she was a target of his enemies.
As soon as the male disappeared around a corner, Revenant threw open the doors and burst inside. Blas’s maidservant, a willowy Drekevac demon, yelped in surprise, dropping a cup of what he assumed was tea.
“Where is she?”
“In her chamber.” She knelt to clean up the mess on the floor, but glanced up at him, concern clouding her black eyes. “Milord…she needs to eat.”
Alarm shot through him. Blas hadn’t been doing well lately, as the effects of full-time Sheoulic evil on a heavenly angel began to take their toll.
Fucking Heaven. His fury boiled anew.
When Heaven initially locked him inside Sheoul, Blaspheme had still been free to come and go. As a doctor at Underworld General, she’d run one of its clinics in the human realm, which limited her exposure to the toxic effects of Sheoul’s evil. But recently, the Heavenly pukes had changed their minds, and she’d been trapped down here, just like him.
Just like his mother.
His wings exploded from his back, and he shot upward through the gaps in the floors that allowed him to get from the bottom floor to the top in three flaps. Servants scattered as he landed at the top floor staircase and strode to the entrance to their private chambers.
He could have just flashed into them, but he didn’t want to startle Blas. In her weakened condition…well, he didn’t want to think about what surprising her might do to her frail body.
Gently, he tapped on the door and swung it open. A fire burned hot in the great fireplace, once a hideous, twisted monstrosity that served as a source of amusement for the keep’s previous owner. Rev could still hear the shrieks of the victims who’d burned—sometimes to death—inside.
Now, the glossy, ghoulish thing had been replaced by white marble from the human realm, shot through with silver and gold veins that Blas said vibrated with heavenly frequencies.
Revenant wouldn’t know. Heavenly frequencies usually weakened or died in his presence.
Blaspheme stood facing the flames, her back to him, and the sight of her nearly brought him to his knees in shock.
Her ivory gown hung limply from her gaunt frame, the dirty hem pooling around her bare feet. Her wings drooped against her back, the feathers dull and frayed, curling at the tips. Several feathers lay on the floor around her.
Rev’s entire body trembled at the sight of his beloved, his once-vibrant, glowing angel, now so diminished.
