by Alisa Woods
“All right, I’m checking out the place!” Ren said, setting down Eva in her carrier and wandering off with Ralphie still strapped to her back. Ren was as wide-eyed as Eden at the splendor of their apartment.
Laylah’s solemn face was a strong contrast to the smile Eden felt was etching down deep in her bones. “It’s true, you know,” Laylah said.
“What?” Eden’s heart jittered a little.
“That he has Love of you.” Laylah was watching her carefully.
“Oh. I, um…” Her heart jittered even more. “I don’t know about that.”
“I do.” Laylah’s voice was very serious.
Eden didn’t know what to make of it—was she serious? “Why are you telling me this?”
Laylah bit her lip and glanced down the hall. Ren was exclaiming the décor of the nursery and declaring it adorable. To Eden, Laylah said, softly, “You should know… he had a difficult Fall. His heart is…” She winced like perhaps she was second guessing telling her.
“His heart is what?” Eden asked, breathless.
“It still is marked by his Fall. Before that, he was a great Warrior class angel. One of the strongest and wisest of the Light angels.”
Eden nodded. “He told me about the woman he loved.”
Laylah pulled back, surprised. “He did?”
“Yes. And I’m afraid…” She hesitated. But she could tell Laylah, right? She was already encouraging them to be together, or so it seemed. Eden still dropped her voice. “I’m afraid he looks at me and merely sees her.”
Laylah frowned.
Eden’s heart sank. “Which is fine, of course. I mean… if I can repay any of his kindness in any way, I will. Even if only as a reminder. If it helps.” She was bumbling now, lost.
Laylah frowned further and dropped her gaze like she was suddenly uncertain.
Eden waited, unsure what to say.
“Eden!” Ren’s voice called from the back. “Oh my God, you have to see this view!”
Eden hesitated, looking to Laylah to see if they were done.
Laylah put a hand on her arm and stop her from leaving. “You can help him. You can be good for him.”
Eden’s heart lifted. “I hope so.”
Laylah nodded. “I’ll be out front. Let me know if you need anything.” And with that, she turned and marched back to the front door.
Eden smiled at her retreat. If Laylah thought she could be good for an angel—something so crazy it might actually be possible—then Eden would have faith it could be done. She would just have to figure out how.
With that thought and a growing smile on her face, she lifted Eva’s carrier and brought the sleeping baby toward her new nursery home.
Chapter Thirteen
Razael was beginning to doubt his plan to trap Elyon.
He was completely distracted by thoughts of Eden—how radiantly happy she appeared in the dragon’s keep, how she didn’t want him to leave—but that wasn’t why this plan was falling apart. He wasn’t sure Jael could be counted on to deliver.
“Perhaps we should bring in another angel,” Razael tried. He was standing on Evangeline’s balcony with her on one side and Zuriel on the other—Jael was at the far end, fucking an angeling.
“He’ll be ready when the time comes,” Evangeline sniffed. She stood on one side of the devil’s circle Razael had painted on the shimmering black crystal surface. He’d used his own blood for the angel magic embued in it, and the three of them stood just outside three of the four stations along the perimeter.
“How can you be sure?” Zuriel was giving Jael a look of disgust, which made no sense to Razael—didn’t she fuck her own angelings? Maybe it was the rabid way Jael went about it, like an animal caught in a frenzy. It was painful to watch, but Razael was fairly certain the angeling was a volunteer… and also enjoying it. She’d had three orgasms since they’d arrived.
“I’m more sure of Jael than I am of you,” hissed Evangeline. “At least I know Jael won’t shove me into the circle.”
Razael squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead. Then he opened his eyes again and glared at Evangeline. “The only one who will go in the circle is Elyon. If we’re lucky, he’ll simply fall into it.”
“If we’re lucky, Elyon won’t damn us all.” Evangeline pulsed her displeasure with a wave of magic that rocked against both him and Zuriel. It caught Jael off guard, and both he and the angeling tumbled off the balcony. Evangeline rolled her eyes. “Jael!”
He reappeared a moment later in the same spot, still fucking the angeling as if nothing had happened.
Razael sighed. “Let’s go over it again.”
“I like the idea of acquiring new allies,” Zuriel said, her fists clenched at her side. Her body-skimming black satin dress was still fluttering from Evangeline’s temper burst.
“We don’t have time for that,” Razael said, raising his voice to near angelsong.
Jael’s fucking picked up in intensity—or at least in volume—then he and the angeling came noisily in grunts and cries that blocked all further attempts at speech for a moment.
“Are you quite done?” Razael asked loudly when they seemed finished.
Jael shoved the angeling off the balcony—she quickly recovered and flew off to perch on the wall—then turned lazily in Razael’s direction. Jael didn’t speak, just sighed and wandered over to Evangeline’s side. He slipped his hands around her from the back, roughly gripping one of her breasts but not further assaulting her, just resting his head on her shoulder.
Everything about Jael disgusted Razael.
“Will he be able to conjure a sword and wield it?” he asked Evangeline stiffly, trying to ignore his disgust and focus on the task at hand.
“Yes.” She patted Jael’s head like he was a puppy. “Show them, Jael.”
The sated and doddering angel lifted his hand from her breast, and a sword instantly appeared in it, extending out from Evangeline’s body and slicing across the blood circle on the floor. The sword was massive and thrummed the air with power. Most angels had to focus their effort to conjure a blade of that size—Razael had done it on the fly in the heat of battle, but only when Wrath was coursing through him. Jael’s Sin had addled his mind, but his ability to instantly summon his power was impressive.
“All right, then,” Razael said. “But he’ll need to stand apart from you, Evangeline. We need to cover each of the four cardinal directions—I’ll take the East, Zuriel at the South point, you at the West, and Jael at the North. Or would it be better for Jael to be opposite you?” He didn’t understand the relationship between them—Jael barely seemed conscious, more animalistic or reflexive, but then he gravitated to Evangeline and listened to her, apparently. And they fucked—maybe that was how she reached him. Or controlled him. He wasn’t sure how to characterize it.
“No, it would be better for him to be close on the circle,” Evangeline said, while she fondled Jael’s hand on the hilt of his sword. “He’ll take his place when needed.”
Razael frowned, doubt still plaguing his mind. But in Truth, it was too late to recruit a different angel to their cause. “Fine. But this will not be as simple as lining up at the ordinal points. Once we get Elyon within the devil’s circle, he will be trapped within it—at least momentarily—but he will still be able to attack. Project energy, conjure his own sword, use angelsong, any and all means will still be open to him. So defend yourselves but get into position. I’m unsure how much energy will be required to sned him to the Dominion of Darkness. But if all four of us can strike him with our blades at once, that would seem sufficient. Tales of the War in Heaven say it took as much to dispatch Lucifer.”
Perhaps the position of the blades wouldn’t matter, only the power—it was not as if angels needed instruction in dispatching demons with their blades. And they all knew the demons they slayed were not destroyed, merely wrenched out of this plane of existence and sent to the one where Lucifer dwelled. His demons came from there to begin with, conjured by those like t
he Winter Court fae, who trafficked in his dark magic. And while the four of them may be angels in shadow, any angel blade could return a demon to that realm… and Razael hoped the combined power of their four angel blades might be enough to send Elyon there. Especially since the blood circle and the incantations he’d performed over it would open a gateway straight there.
“How are we to get him in the blood circle in the first place?” Zuriel asked. She still seemed agitated by Evangeline and Jael, but she was at least staying on task.
“We’ll lure Elyon to the dragons’ keep,” he replied. “The circle will be conjured in their main throne room. He may not start his attack there, but we will drop the wards there first—while the rest of the keep remains behind a second set of wards. Either he will be drawn to the throne room, or we will have to drag him there.”
Evangeline made a face. “It won’t simply be four of us against him, you realize. He must be gathering allies to make a second attempt at recovering his pet.”
“Indeed,” Razael said. “Which is why we must tempt him into making the attempt before he has time to gather them.”
“What if he already has?” Zuriel protested.
“I have no problem with banishing any angel who puts himself in league with Elyon.” He met each of their gazes to see if there would be any hesitation on that point. If there was, it wasn’t strong enough for them to object.
“All this to protect a human you want to fuck?” Evangeline grumbled. “Why not just do it and return her?” She knew Elyon wanted to reclaim the women, but Razael had made no mention of being drawn to Eden himself. Word must be getting around—angelings gossip.
“That is of no concern to you,” he said with a glare. “We are banishing Elyon because he poses an existential threat to all of angelkind in shadow. Which, last I checked, includes everyone here. And in my Regiment. And Zuriel’s. And yours.”
Evangeline harrumphed but did not object further.
“How will we lure him to the dragon’s keep in the first place?” asked Zuriel.
“I’ve already called upon our allies in the Summer Court.” Razael stepped up to his position at the edge of the circle. In the immortal realm, there were no ordinal directions as there were on earth, but he had painted them on the circle with his blood regardless. “The summer forces are actively taunting the winter ones on the streets of Seattle. The battle continues to rage there. They are saying Elyon is weak, and the winter fae should abandon him now—that he couldn’t even rescue his human pet, the one carrying his child, and now she’s taken refuge with the dragons. Because even dragons can defeat such an inept and weakened angel.”
“You are baiting him with Pride, not with humans.” Zuriel smirked like she approved of this plan.
“Yes.” Razael was fairly sure it would work. Elyon wasn’t as addled with Sin as Jael, but Razael knew the toll the Sins could take—and Elyon had indulged his Pride more than most. “Now, let us practice this final part.” Razael conjured a glamour likeness of Elyon, crouched in a fighting stance in the middle of the ten-foot-wide circle. It was just large enough to contain his normal, oversized manifestation while still allowing them to reach him with their swords. Razael focused his righteous Wrath on conjuring his broadsword—a weapon made of distilled angel energy and a channel for the rest of his power. As he did so, Zuriel and Evangeline conjured theirs. At Evangeline’s shove and sharp words, Jael took his blade and ambled to his position on the circle. Once they were all in place, Razael said, “With Elyon in the circle, we may not have the luxury of communicating or signaling our intent. We must work as one, attuned to the others. If our strikes are simultaneous, we will bring the full brunt of all four blades. We may not have a second chance.” He looked at each in turn. “Are you ready?”
With a nod from Evangeline and Zuriel—and a blank stare from Jael—Razael lunged in to stab the apparition of Elyon. The others did the same, Jael hurriedly following last.
Razael frowned. “Again.”
They would practice until it was seamless.
Then he would return to the keep to make sure Eden was safe…
And wait for Elyon to strike.
Chapter Fourteen
“Temperance, Charity, Chastity, Diligence, Humility, Kindness, and Patience.”
Erelah was rattling off the Virtues again because Eden couldn’t seem to quite remember them all.
“So angels and angelings practice all of those?” Eden asked. The sun was sinking, and the babies were playing—the three moms were gathered in the great room of Eden and Ren’s new apartment, all sitting on a U-shaped collection of couches while Aurora played on the carpet, dangling toys in front of the smaller babies. Eva was propped up on a seat, and Ralphie was on his back on a blanket. Aurora would play then take flight and hover over them, then land on her diaper-bottom with very un-angel-like grace.
It charmed and mesmerized Eden—but she was also soaking up Erelah’s tutorial on angels and angelkind.
“Only the angelkind in the Light strictly adhere to the Virtues,” Erelah said. “Those in shadow…” She frowned, and Eden could see why. She was talking about her own father now.
“Does it really matter?” Eden pressed. “It seems like being in shadow just means you have black wings. After all, it was a shadow angeling who broke us out of Elyon’s prison in the first place.” She refused to call it a “nursery” anymore. Elyon’s was a prison. Razael’s was a refuge. And now they had their own nursery right here in the apartment—a real one.
“It is Truth that one can be in shadow and still be Virtuous,” Erelah said carefully. “But the Fallen still are beguiled by the Sins more than those in the Light.” But she was frowning.
“Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Sloth, Envy, Wrath, Pride,” Ren listed off the Sins. At Eden’s surprised look, she added, “What? I’ve been paying attention.”
Eden chuckled, but Erelah was nodding like this was of the utmost seriousness.
“What I want to know,” Ren said to Erelah, “is about Lust.”
“You would,” Eden teased. She leaned forward as if whispering a secret to Erelah. “She and Micah had a lot of sex. And by a lot, I mean so much sex. Really loud sex.” It was a wonder she could even tease about that now—such was the healing she felt happening in her heart, even without Razael actively pumping angel blessing power into her. It was as if he just had to get her started—and bring her to this heavenly place with a built-in family and safety for her and Ren and the babies—and everything just fell into place. Except that she had an aching need to see him and tell him that. Razael was the only piece missing in this delightful new puzzle her life had suddenly become.
“We did not have that much sex!” Ren protested, but Eden just laughed, and Erelah seemed confused. Ren’s shoulders dropped. “Okay, maybe we did. But not anymore. Don’t remind me.”
Eden would feel bad about teasing her if there weren’t so much joy in her heart for being able to.
“It’s not surprising that an angeling would enjoy sex,” Erelah said with complete seriousness. “Especially in shadow. The stamina of an angeling comes from their angel power.” She gave a small smile. “The sexual appetites of dragons are legendary, but Leksander can hardly keep up with me.”
Ren’s eyes bugged out, and she gave Eden a look like, Can you even believe this? And it was amazing—all of it—as if the nightmare they’d be having suddenly flipped, and now they were in the heavenly version. Where angels and angelings and other powerful, immortal creatures were cute babies, or sexy men, or sweet angeling-sisters-in-arms. But Erelah’s revelations about stamina didn’t surprise her—she already knew that sexual stamina applied to angels and angelings.
Elyon had used it to torment her.
But now she saw it in a different light.
She knew making love with Razael would be vastly different—if only he would let her in. “Wait…” she said, just realizing something. “If Chastity is a Virtue, and you need to practice the Virtues to be i
n the Light, then how can you be in the Light and wear out your dragon husband in bed?” This suddenly seemed a hyper-relevant piece of information.
“Right!” Ren chimed in. “I mean, Molly and Asa are totally banging each other, and he’s in the Light. How exactly does that work?”
“That is the question of the moment.” Erelah frowned at Eden. “Did my father not explain all this to you?”
Eden shook her head.
Erelah bit her lip but went on. “I suppose you have need to know, and he has his hands full with Elyon. But in short, a few angelings have returned to the Light after being in shadow. When I was able to mate with Leksander and remain in the Light—and bear an angeling—it sent shock waves through the immortal world. I feared that all angelings would rush out and try to mate with humans—even though Leksander is not human. I feared that the Light forces would try to build an army of angelings through mating—if they could do so without falling into shadow, it might escalate tensions between the realms and bring war.”
“But that didn’t happen?” Ren asked.
Erelah waved a hand at Aurora who was hovering over Ralphie and smiling at him. “It’s only been a few months since Aurora was born, but since then, two more angelings of Light—Tajael and Oriel—both have mated and remained, or in Oriel’s case returned, to the Light.”
“And now Asa has done it,” Ren said, nodding. Her brow was furrowed. Did she think this was something Micah might accomplish?
“So it can be done,” Eden said, her mind also turning with the possibilities. “But I don’t understand—if Chastity is a Virtue, how does that work?” She knew that wasn’t what was stopping Razael—he was in shadow, so it didn’t matter. But it was hard for him to be with her because she reminded him of his previous Love. She was convinced of that, as if she were a temptation and a torment all wrapped in one for him. But maybe she could help him ease out of that. Help him with his own healing. Maybe that would mean sex at some point—she was becoming more fond of that idea the more she thought about it. If they had sex, that wouldn’t be a problem, at least as far as Virtues and Sins went—he was already in shadow.
