“Yes, and to spite Damien. He thinks he still owns me. He has no clue what monster he’s created when he put that crown on me. He must learn I am not to be contained. It’s my will that will be served, not his. Now find Alec and take me to him. Wolf is so weak to find him on her own.”
“How do you propose I do that? Have you forgotten I am no longer an angel? I cannot manifest or sense creatures in pain.”
“Have you forgotten that I just kissed you and you still had that fucking light? You haven’t fully fallen, Zava. In one of the books Joshua brought home, I read you needed to cut off both your wings for the transformation to happen. You’re still an angel, so do your angel thing.”
How could a creature so smart make such stupid choices? How could one so beautiful hurt and destroy with such villainy?
I closed my eyes and found Alec easily, even in my futility. His pain was too loud to miss. “He is close.”
“Yeah.” She glanced at me. “That’s funny. I can feel him, too. How?”
“You have always said I silenced your demon. The longer I touch you, the longer she sleeps. Your wolf must have found room to emerge.”
She nodded. “Hurry up. I need to end this fast.”
“Why? You are not fond of the feeling anymore?”
“No. I’m doing all this to stop that feeling once and for all. I’m tired of my soul being split three ways.”
“But that is what you are, Belle. Queen of Hell or not, you will always be a Belle.”
Her head whipped at me as if she had just realized that truth. Then she shook her head. “The demon has taken over, and as long as I’m in Hell, the other two will always be smothered. Once I pacify the twins and Joshua, my instincts that is tethering me to them will grow quiet.”
“Is that what your heart truly desires? To forget them? Is that what you promised them, Belle?”
She just stared at me, grimacing.
“That is what Damien has always wanted, and you are giving it to him on a silver plate.”
“Stop talking.”
“You know I am right. You know that is why he has not come after us now, why he is going to let you succeed with your task, why he has let you believe your act of rebellion is all yours and finding that closure is your defiance, not his bidding all along to rip his rivals from your heart.”
Her grimace deepened. “Are you saying that, his refusal to let me see them, his assholish act, his infuriating words, all this has been part of his manipulation?”
“He knows your weaknesses better than anyone else, I’m afraid.”
She swallowed, and then she burst into laughter.
I sighed. “Your humor truly bewilders me.”
“That’s why Damien is my mate and you’re not.”
Incomprehensibly, this hurt more than the wound the loss of my wing left.
“Though, our kids would have been much cuter,” she said.
My heart fluttered at the picture she painted in my mind, finding no offense in her calling anything related to me cute anymore. Innocent children of light with my eyes and her smile. “Indeed.”
“So…if I’d chosen you to be the father of my child and favored Heaven, what would have happened to my beasts?”
“Nothing. You would have remained a Belle. Your agreement with Damien would have been broken. After our…unity…you would have gained light immortality which surpasses Damien’s power.”
“And would you have let me keep my mates, Damien included?”
“As difficult as it would have been, I would not have interfered with your heart, but I would not have allowed Damien in our family. He would have been a lethal danger to the Lightborns.”
Her expression turned pensive. “It was either them without Damien or Damien without them, and he knew. That’s why he stopped you before explaining yourself, before I had all the information I needed to choose well.”
