Page 12 of Trick Of Light

Raphael shook his head. “Only with the fallen, not with those made since.”

“Still,” she said, grimacing. “One should not speak with demons lest the evil overtake them.”

Raphael scoffed. “Anahel is a Seraphim, just under the archangels. He’s beyond corruption, which is why his realm can be neutral.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Dylan interrupted. “What do the archangels do?”

“A whole lot of nothing,” Raphael made clear.

“That’s not true,” she scolded my mate, smiling at him because, like everyone else, she found him charming. “The archangels are fearsome and amazing, but you’re right about Anahel. I’m putting human attributes on an angel, and that’s not even possible. It would be a wonder to meet an angel.”

“How is he right? Neutral is not good,” Leith said.

“But neither is it evil,” she countered, then turned to Ryan and Julian. “Which, especially if he owes Raph a debt of blood, would keep you quite safe in his realm.”

Ryan looked at Raphael. “He owes you for what, saving his life?”

“The debt is not your concern, only the fact that he will honor it. Angels don’t enjoy being honor bound to do anything.”

“I would suspect not,” Julian said, smiling at him. “But really, you trust him?”

Raphael nodded. “I do, and you and Ryan would do better in his villa than in some inn on the side of the road in Limbo, where he would have to watch you ’round the clock. I mean, once anyone gets close enough to realize you’re human, Ryan will have a fight on his hands. Let me take you to heaven instead.”

“That sounded weirdly sexual,” Dylan commented. “Like a bad pickup line.”

“It did,” Ryan agreed, exhaling a breath and grabbing his hearth, holding on tight while Julian buried his face in the side of his neck, telling him over and over that everything would be all right.

“I love you,” Julian told Ryan, who could only nod and shiver.

“Simon bears a mark,” Jael spoke into the silence.

I looked at Leith’s hearth and saw him comforting his warder too.

Simon forced a smile. “I, um, have what looks like a lesion on my hip. I thought maybe it was a mole that was turning into something, so I went to see my doctor.” He dragged in a breath. “The biopsy says it’s not cancer, but it must be something, because suddenly I’m anemic and my doctor doesn’t know why. Now, though, I’m thinking that if Julian’s curse is internal, then perhaps mine is instead beginning to rot me from the outside in.”

Jesus.

Leith’s eyes were tortured, and I finally realized what I’d been looking at for the past month. Cold terror.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” I whispered to Leith.

“We didn’t know what it was until Dylan was attacked and we all started talking about what that could mean.”

And he’d let none of us in because he showed only Simon his heart. Even Marcus only saw pieces, and only his hearth was privy to his soul.

When Simon put his head on Leith’s shoulder, my friend and fellow warder’s eyes flicked to Raphael’s.

“You should come with Julian and Ryan as well,” Raphael told them. “Simon’s lesion won’t get any bigger, and Julian will get no sicker. Both will simply cease as soon as we make the jump to the planes of Ibos and then on to heaven to Anahel’s villa.”

Leith was struggling to keep his emotions in check, but it was there, on his face, the fight between hope and hopelessness. “Does the debt he owes you cover us as well?”

Raphael nodded.

“You’re certain you’re not overpromising or that you won’t be in Anahel’s debt for—”

“The debt is great,” was all Raphael said.

“Okay,” Leith agreed, looking over at Jael. “But it means we’ll be gone, and time moves differently in heaven. We may be changed men when we return, Jael.”