“I was there,” Isabella said. “I heard Dagan say it.”
Kala leaned back and contemplated Isabella. He didn’t like the speculative gleam in her eyes at all.
“You intrigue me,” the demon said. “Here’s my deal. I’ll grant the archangel permission to go through the ruins of the pirates’ nest, if you accompany me back to the capitol of Anzu.”
He surged to his feet, looming over the table at Kala as his wings unfurled with outrage. “No fucking way. Keep your claws out of Isabella. She’s not a pawn to be used in your negotiations.”
“You speak for her, do you?” Kala stood, malevolence pulsing from her. “Are you her keeper, Nathanael?”
“I’m impressed,” Eblis said to Isabella. “You’ve brought an archangel to his knees.”
Nate gritted his teeth. Was it so fucking obvious he’d do anything to keep her out of danger? He should have left her someplace safe, far from the venomous machinations of demons. Except where the hell was safe anymore?
“That’s enough.” Isabella slammed her hand on the table. Eblis raised his eyebrows but didn’t appeared enraged that she was glaring at him. “Is this all the enmity between demons and archangels comes down to? Petty squabbling?”
Despite the danger crackling all around, he admired her courage. Full blood demons weren’t known to tolerate differences of opinion from those they considered beneath them. It was a well-known fact they possessed little respect for mixed bloodlines.
The pirates were proof of that. Their ancestors had been pureblood demons, but their heritage was now so diluted they were shunned by the upper echelons of their own race.
“What do you do on Earth?” Kala sounded fascinated. “Is it difficult to blend in with the rabble?”
“No. I’m half human.”
“Fortunately, your demon blood is dominant.”
With difficulty, Nate folded his wings and hauled his temper into line. It didn’t sit well with him, but there was another direction he could take with the demon. “Primus Kala, Dagan has threatened Isabella. I need to find him.”
He sent a silent appeal to Isabella. Don’t disagree with me. Why hadn’t he initiated telepathic contact between them before they’d come here?
“Isabella would remain safe within my domain.”
Caution vanished. “What’s your real interest in her? And don’t give me any bullshit about keeping her safe. Why would you care about that?”
“Here’s my deal.” Isabella didn’t stand or raise her voice, but she commanded all their attention anyway. “I’ve pledged to stay by Nate’s side until we’ve found Dagan. If you grant us the help we’ve requested, when Dagan is dealt with, I’ll come with you to the capitol of Anzu.”
“The hell you will.” There was no fucking way he’d allow her to go to Kala’s planet alone. “You don’t need to make any kind of deal with the demon.”
Isabella’s smile was oddly sad. “The truth is, I’d like to see how that half of my heritage lives, Nate. It’s not a permanent arrangement. I have a life on Earth.” She glanced at Kala, who shrugged.
“Sure. The choice is yours. But you might not want to go back there when you see what you’re missing.”
He kept his mouth shut. There was nothing more to say and it wasn’t his business. But a dull ache gripped him deep inside. The mission they’d set themselves had not yet finished.
But Isabella had already moved on.
He exhaled a long breath. It didn’t matter if she stayed on Earth or Anzu. When this was over, when he knew she was safe, they’d never see each other again. He was an archangel. She was half-demon. There was no getting away from the truth. She’d never had a family until she had found the Watchers.
Millennia ago, he’d almost destroyed his family. And because of her involvement with him, when the Watchers had seen them together in the temple, Isabella had all but lost hers.
She was safer without him.
“Do we have a deal?” Isabella asked.
“Very well.” Kala cast a critical glance his way. “You have my permission to visit the pirates’ nest. Not that you’ll find anything of use.” She gave him the location. “You’ll be safe from my guards as long as you’re with Isabella.”
Her mocking taunt echoed in his ears as he took Isabella’s hand and got them out of there.
Chapter 26
Bella
The nest was underground, the air was bad, and a massive hole gaped in the ceiling, revealing a deep turquoise sky. She glanced at Nate, and his gaze captured hers. If it wasn’t for the fact hers and Gabe’s lives were on the line, she almost wished they’d never find Dagan, just so they could continue to search for him, together.
“Guess Kala forgot to tell us she’d nuked the place.” His voice was sardonic. “We’ll be lucky to find a trace of DNA in this wreckage, never mind anything else.”
“I don’t understand why Gabe thought she’d help. How do they know each other?”
He shrugged. “No idea.”
It was hardly the time to ask, but she might not get another chance. “Do you know Eblis well?”
“I barely know him at all. We met a few times, millennia ago. He didn’t get in my way, I didn’t get in his.”
What had she expected? That Nate could provide her with an in-depth analysis of Eblis, so she could somehow piece together his real motives in recruiting her, all those years ago?
“This is,” she hesitated. Would Nate think she was being ridiculous? Yet who else could she talk to of such things? “It’s a lot to wrap my head around. Demons and archangels are fabled enemies. And when I joined the Watchers, the histories they shared just confirmed those tales. But you all work together.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” His voice was dry. “There’s no love lost between us.”
“But Gabe trusted Eblis enough to let him come to his home. I didn’t expect that.”
Nate’s fingers tightened around hers. “I don’t have an answer. All I know is demons can’t be trusted.”
He was so adamant. Yet he’d trusted her enough to take her to Gabe, who had mysteriously lost his immortality, and Azrael, whose powers were as disabled as his wing. Could he even see the contradiction?
“But I’m half-demon, Nate.”
What did she want from him? A passionate declaration that he didn’t care about her heritage, that he wanted them to at least try and forge a future together?
It was crazy. For so many reasons. But mainly because she wanted him to accept the immortal side of her heritage. Not discount it.
“You’re half-human.” There was an edge in his voice and his wings unfurled in all their glory, but he didn’t let go of her hand. “You have integrity.”
She couldn’t work out if she was touched or exasperated by his comment. It was a backhanded compliment whichever way she looked at it. “Not all humans are trustworthy. And why shouldn’t demons have integrity?”
Why were they even having this conversation? Did she hope to change his mind?
Demons and archangels were enemies. It was hardwired into their very existence. This was the history she’d learned from the Watchers. It was even woven through the hidden texts she’d read of the Archangel Nathanael. The buried history, which showed he never had indiscriminately hunted every demon blood he discovered.
Except that fundamental tenet of the legendary enmity between their races wasn’t true. Eblis and Gabe had a bond she didn’t understand but couldn’t deny. And Kala, a powerful demon who appeared to control an entire sector of a galaxy, had seen them on the strength of her relationship with Gabe.
Maybe Gabe was the anomaly here. But she wasn’t convinced. Her view of archangels had been warped for years, until she’d met Nate. And discovered what he was really like. He wasn’t an arrogant hunter of innocents, and he wasn’t blinded by prejudice.
Except when it came to demons.
He exhaled an impatient breath and swept a condemning glance around the debris. “There’s nothi
ng here that will lead us to Dagan.”
And there it was. Gently she tugged on his hand until he faced her, a frown slashing his brow.
“Why are you hunting Dagan?”
He didn’t look at her. “You know why. He threatened you.”
“No.” She wouldn’t be deflected. Not this time. “You were searching for him before you even met me. Why are you really after him, Nate?”
His jaw tightened. “I knew him once. Long ago.”
She already knew that, but the conversation at Gabe’s flickered through her mind, presenting a possible answer. “When he masqueraded as a demigod in Ama-gi?”
“Yeah.” He ground the word between his teeth. Leashed rage thudded between them. What wasn’t he telling her? There had to be more than the fact Dagan had lied about his heritage. Nate wasn’t that shallow.
“What did he do that was so bad?”
Tension spiked from him, fed the rage, a lethal cocktail that caused a shiver to race over her skin. Instinctively, she took his other hand, facing him, willing him to share. She didn’t even know why it was so important. Only that it was.
“He betrayed us all.” The confession sounded as though it had been torn from the bowels of hell itself. “And everyone archangels loved in Ami-gi were destroyed.”
That was bad. Worse than she’d imagined. “How did you find out who he really was?”
Silence grew heavy in the air, a suffocating presence that closed in on her like a physical entity. He wasn’t going to confide. It shouldn’t hurt. But it rammed home to her that despite his determination to protect her, when it came to anything deeper, the connection just didn’t exist.
And then he spoke, the words grinding from him as though they were dredged from the bottom of his soul.
“I always knew what he was.”
It was the last thing she’d expected him to say and confusion spiked through her mind. What had she missed?
“You knew he was a demon in Ama-gi? But how? Did you see through his masquerade?”
His grip on her hands tightened. She doubted he was even aware of it.
“I knew he wasn’t a demigod,” he said through clenched teeth, “because I was the one who suggested he conceal his true nature.”
Nate
Nate glared into Isabella’s beautiful blue eyes, bracing for her contempt. It was nothing less than he deserved. Why the fuck had he said anything at all?
It was something he’d never spoken of. His deception, which had seemed so minor at the time, had led to the destruction of the precious Nephilim.
Except no one had ever asked him such a thing before. Why would they? Only he had known who Dagan was. Or what he had done. But her questioning gaze had burned into his soul. Although he’d never lied to her, he’d been economical with the truth, but that ended right now. Even if it ripped him apart.
“I don’t understand.” There was no condemnation in her voice. But then, she didn’t know the full extent of his guilt. And she never will. He could barely live with the knowledge himself. There was no way he wanted the magnitude of his sin reflected in her eyes every time he looked at her. And now, it wasn’t only that he was responsible for the deaths of the Nephilim. A century ago, he’d also come close to destroying Isabella’s chosen family. “Why would you do that?”
Because he sucked me into his deception.
But that wasn’t true. Dagan had had no need to weave a web of lies, because Nate had been only too willing to subvert the status quo. He just hadn’t wanted to admit it, even to himself. Even after all these eons.
There’s no need to respond.
Release her hands. Turn away.
He remained rooted to the spot. Ensnared by her gaze. Bewitched by her beauty.
Deluding himself once again. Her eyes or her face or the sound of her voice weren’t the reasons why he couldn’t get her out of his mind.
He was an archangel, answerable to no one. Least of all a half-demon. He owed her nothing. Yet her very existence captivated the essence of his soul, and to deny her the truth would corrode whatever was left of his honor.
“He was injured and stranded on Earth.” Nate had believed his tale of being hunted by radicals from the Demonic High Council and it had fed into his own streak of rebellion against the dictates of his goddess. But for all he knew, Dagan had been a spy from the Council itself. The way he’d been so easily used sickened him. “I healed him.”
She didn’t answer right away, but her gaze never wavered from his. He should have kept his mouth shut. There was no way to change the past. It was done. But in one misguided comment he’d risked changing Isabella’s belief in him.
If it weren’t so fucked up, he’d appreciate the irony. He wanted her good opinion. Yet here he was, spilling his guts about the most despicable thing he’d ever done.
Giving his trust to a demon.
Something he’d vowed never to do again. And the universe, the screwed-up bitch that she was, had led him to Isabella. His unlikely confessor. End this now. It wasn’t too late. She need never know the part he had played in the devastation that had ravaged Earth.
“You took him to Ama-gi.” It wasn’t a question and there was no condemnation in her words but the consequences of that one action had condemned him long ago. “Where he betrayed you. And that’s why you can’t trust those with demon blood.”
He let out a bitter laugh, then silently cursed when Isabella flinched as though he’d struck her. She was right, but there was so much more to it.
Dagan wasn’t the only demon he’d trusted. Because it didn’t matter how hard he’d fought against it, she—a powerful demon blood— had managed to secure his trust.
And so much more. Even if he could never find the words to tell her.
“If all he’d done was betrayed the friendship I thought we had, I’d have forgotten him long ago. My ego’s not that fragile.” He attempted to give her a mocking grin, anything to lighten the darkness that had descended around her but failed. Did he really think by voicing his deadly error of judgment he could cleanse his tarnished soul?
All he’d do was prove how despicable demons could be. Truth was, he didn’t want to be the one to shatter any illusions she had about her race. It wasn’t her fault. He wouldn’t be the one to burden her with the truth of what had really happened eleven thousand years ago.
Or confess his part in it. Even if the need to unburden his guilt was eating him alive.
It was nothing less than he deserved.
“What did he do, Nate?”
“It doesn’t matter.” He tore his gaze from her and glared around the chamber. But he didn’t see the ruins. He saw the scorched Earth, the floods, and the deaths of the beloved Nephilim.
“Yes, it does. It’s the reason you’re hunting him. It’s why you can’t let go of the past.”
“You don’t need to know the reasons.”
She pulled her hand free and pressed her palm over his heart. Did she know she was destroying him, piece by piece, from the inside out?
“Tell me.” Her voice was gentle, and it was his undoing.
She’d risked her life for him. Almost killed herself trying to free him. He owed her the truth.
“My only excuse is I was young.” No. Why was he still lying to himself? Worse, why was he trying to deceive Isabella? His sin had nothing to do with his youth. He covered her hand, but the pressure against his heart didn’t ease the pain. It reinforced the memories of everything archangels had lost.
Because of him.
His sigh raked through his chest. “I liked him. Demons had been banished from Earth and I enjoyed the subterfuge of going against the word of our goddess.”
Her smile was so sad it clawed a wretched talon through his heart. But she didn’t say anything.
“No one questioned his heritage. For decades, we hung out together. Unsurprisingly, he harbored a hatred for our goddess I hadn’t encountered before, but I found it intriguing. The things he told me, from when demons
had lived in Ama-gi and been the favored ones, didn’t align to the history she had shared with us.”
He sucked in a harsh breath. It had been a revelation, to discover how easily their goddess had turned on her first children. And while he had no doubt Dagan had lied and embellished the truth to suit his own purposes, their goddess’ betrayal of the demon race had been savage.
At the time he’d been so certain that archangels were above her wrath. How wrong he had been.
“History’s always written by the victors,” Isabella whispered, no censure in her voice. “I just never realized it had been written by the goddess.”
The goddess had played her part. But if not for him, she would never have discovered the truth of the archangels.
“I told him things.” The confession burned his throat, corroded his tongue. “Things that should never have been shared, least of all with a demon. I confided our plan in him, and by so doing, condemned our precious Nephilim.”
Chapter 27
Bella
The agony of ages threaded through each word, and Nate’s eyes were filled with bleak despair. There was nothing Bella could do, nothing she could say, to ease his pain. A pain she had once imagined a cursed archangel could never feel.
But Nate was nothing like the hunter of demons she’d despised for so many years. The tome in the Forbidden Archives on the Archangel Nathanael began with a great betrayal between him and the last, unnamed, demon in their lost paradise. She hadn’t managed to read much of the ancient volume, but she’d read enough.
That great battle had been the catalyst for the devastation that had befallen Earth, and the beginning of Nathanael’s quest.
He was a demon hunter, yes. But not the cruel slayer of every demon blood descendant he encountered, as all new recruits were taught. The truth hadn’t been lost. It had always been known by the Elite.
And she had known it too, deep in her heart, from the moment she’d discovered who he really was.
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