Page 28 of The Shadow Sanctum

With his bare hands.

I grab a fistful of snow and fling it into his eyes. He recoils, body lifting with a sharp breath that leaves him regrettably vulnerable. I drive my knee up between his legs—as hard as I possibly can. Hard enough to cringe at the sound of his howl.

I shove him off and scramble away. Blood dripping from my lip paints a gruesome crime scene in the snow as I stand, hands swaying in front of me while I right myself. Angel’s head presses into the frozen ground as he shifts on his knees, already trying to recover from the pain.

His rage is an unstoppable force pushing him to his feet. He scrapes the snow from his eyes with a single sweep of his arm, his breathing ragged, his fists raising.

"Angel, please," I lift my hands to concede. “Just listen to me. Liberty’s gone. She’s safe. She was supposed to stop you from coming here.”

Angel stays poised to attack, but it’s the narrowing of his eyes that I lock onto. Suspicious, calculating, thinking.

"Bullshit."

There—the faintest hint of uncertainty in his voice.

Palms splayed, I lower my hands. "I'm not. I swear to God, she's safe." I spit blood into the snow. "She left last night. I took her to the fenceline and personally watched her go."

He studies me, chest heaving, blood still streaming from his nose. He shakes his head. "She wouldn’t have gone anywhere with you. You put her here, you sick, jealous motherfucker."

My mouth hangs for a moment.

Jealous?

I blink as if confused. Then mimic him with the narrowing of my eyes, weight shifting to my heels as I rear back. “You don’t seriously believe I wanted Liberty here?”

He just glares.

“Angel… ” I let out an exasperated breath. My hand rakes through my hair before jutting toward him. “I needed you here. To help me. Not Liberty. I just needed her to make sure you’d come… Jesus, you know I wouldn’t let anything happen to her, don’t you?”

His glare doesn’t crack. Not at first.

And my expression? Hurt. Pitiful. Betrayed.

I am a bastard.

“She’s your wife. I would never hurt her. I could never do that to you. Please tell me, in your heart, you know that.”

Silence stretches, broken only by our ragged breathing and the occasional whisper of wind through the hemlocks. Blood drips from both our faces, staining the snow beneath us.

Finally, his fighting stance eases. He stands straighter, hands slowly uncurling. “She’s okay?”

I let my shoulders fall forward with a sigh just short of exasperation. Disappointed is most appropriate. Because why should he question it? Why should he question me, after everything?

The thought nearly makes me sick—so much so that for the briefest moment, I want to let the hurt slide off my face. For a moment, just this once, I wish I was anyone but myself. It isn’t fair to Angel that I know him this well.

He is hard as stone in nearly every area except for two small fissures in his armor.

Liberty.

Me.

I nod just the right number of times. “Of course she’s okay. I’m…” I look up as if thinking. “I can explain everything. These people, they think I’m a human trafficker. They forced me here to lure female initiates, but trapped as I am, they’ve given me full control over the women for as long as I ask. I wouldn’t have brought Liberty here if I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I could protect her.”

My mind flashes to the Bower, to the sound of her screams while the Keeper was on top of her.

I fucking hate myself.

Angel breaks eye contact and doesn’t respond. He’s pissed. I see that.