Ugh. Why was he punishing her? “I’m also sorry for stopping the other day. I didn’t lie. I do want you.”
“Just not enough.” His voice was laced with bitterness.
“Trust me, it’s enough.”
“Not compared to how you feel about your boyfriend.”
A lump formed in her throat. “No.”
Hurt lashed across Yael’s face, and he turned away from her. He cares. It wasn’t just some ego-thing about being rejected. He thought she hadn’t wanted him, and it hurt, because he wanted her. She reached out, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I want to be with you more than I’ve ever wanted to be with anyone. That’s why I stopped.”
He spun back. “What?”
“I loved Eric; I loved the idea of him. He was my first boyfriend. I thought we’d get married and I’d have the normal family I’d always dreamed of. But that wasn’t real. And for a moment, I felt guilty. How dare I enjoy myself, how dare I let myself want another man, when Eric was barely in the grave? It’s only been two months, even though it feels like it was a lifetime ago.”
Old Rowan, the Rowan who had been happily wearing blinkers and living within the careful parameters she’d selected—she’d chosen Eric. But the new Rowan, the Rowan who was finally beginning to see the world as it really was, she wanted Yael. Had wanted him from the moment she’d met him, even though she hadn’t acknowledged it then, because it meant betraying Eric.
Yael raised a hand and caressed her cheek. “I don’t expect you to love me more than him, but for you to not want me at all because of him…”
She gave a watery chuckle. “Trust me. That’s not it at all.”
“I don’t like being rejected.” His gaze softened.
“Oh, really? I wouldn’t have guessed.”
His gaze dimmed. “It’s me who should apologize. I was acting like an ass. I shouldn’t have made you say sorry. My whole life, I’ve been a failure to my parents. Never good enough. And so when I wasn’t enough for you—”
“You didn’t take it well.”
“No.” He let out a deep breath. “I was a jerk. And I won’t take my frustration out on you again.”
Rowan reached out and placed both hands on Yael’s shoulders. “I know your parents are angels. But they’re idiots. They aren’t good enough for you. You were an elite soldier. You can speak over thirty languages. You learned one of them just to piss them off! You’re clever and quick-witted. And handsome. Why wouldn’t they be proud of you?”
“Because I’m not an archangel. Because I wasn’t first in my class. Because I wasn’t captain of the Darts. And because I’m not very good at self-sacrificing. Seraphina—one of the Darts—went into Hell to save one of our comrades. I could have done it, but I refused. Kept looking for another way. But she just did it. Even when she asked me to return the favor your grandmother was owed, I didn’t want to. Just wanted to keep hunting for the Heart, favor be damned.”
“But you did it in the end.”
“Out of guilt.” He took her wrist in his hand. “I am not good at putting others first. I am not good at bending to what other people want. And I want to get back into Heaven.”
She glanced down. “And being with me—”
“Will be worth it. Even if we find all three pieces of the Heart, I can wait to return.”
“Wait for what? Me to die?”
He met her stare, his cool and calm. She stepped back. “But I will grow old and you won’t.”
“We could find a way to make you immortal. Your grandmother already thinks you’re something special. There might be a way.”
“And then what? What if I become immortal? What if they ban you from Heaven because you chose to be with a human?”
“Then I will deal with it at the time. But here’s the one thing in my life I have always craved: choice. I want to be able to choose my destiny, not have it foisted upon me like an unwanted mantle.”
Choice.
He made it sound so easy, but she knew it wouldn’t be.
However, they only had the now; potentially, it was all they were ever going to have. So why not enjoy it? They may never get rescued, may be trapped here for eternity. It was time to take advantage of the situation, rather than fight it.
“Fine.” She threw her hair back over her shoulder. “I choose you. Right now.”
“Right now?”
“You got it.” She closed the distance, all but leaping on him. Her mouth pressed against his, urgent, hungry, while her hands clenched on his shoulders, the muscle underneath firm. She wanted to explore that muscle, feel his heat without any restriction between them.
One hand snaked up under his shirt, while the other tugged at his sleeve. He got the message. A moment later, his T-shirt was gone, and there was nothing but firm, masculine flesh before her eyes.
She kissed his pec, right over his heart, before returning to his mouth, feeling the zap of awareness between them. His mouth left hers, trailing wet kisses down her neck, onto her collar bone. She wrapped one leg around his waist, bringing her core into contact with his erection. She rubbed herself against him, growing wetter and wetter as the friction sent lightning bolts of ecstasy through her.
She gasped, and threw her head back, giving him better access to her neck, and her chest.
“Ahem.” A cough echoed through the chamber.
Rowan and Yael sprang apart, her body on fire, her core aching, her limbs weak from trembling.
I needed to finish that.
“You!” Yael lunged forward, kicking out at the intruder who stood next to Twosret’s sarcophagus. His foot flew through the man’s torso, failing to make contact.
“Have we met?” the newcomer asked, staring at his chest, amused. He appeared Egyptian, with slightly tilted eyes and sun-kissed skin, but his English was perfect. He was handsome, but she was beginning to think that most non-humans were.
And he was wearing surgical scrubs.
That’s odd, even for magical stuff, right?
“You can see and hear us?” Rowan asked, leaning forward. Yael wrapped an arm around her torso, pulling her back.
Yael jabbed a finger at the stranger. “That is Set.”
Set the god of chaos? He’s real, too?
“Set? Oh. I see.” The newcomer shook his head. “No, I’m Osiris, his brother.”
Yael glowered. “You look exactly like him.”
Osiris threw his shoulders back. “My eyes are yellow, and his are red. We’re very different. Although we are twins.”
“So, uh, why can you see and hear us and other people can’t?” Rowan asked, trying to diffuse the tension. If this guy was their ticket out of here, she wasn’t about to quibble about his identity; if he was a bad guy, they could no doubt try to escape him later. Yael was a pretty badass fighter, and she knew Azrael and Dru would be, too.
“Because I am a god.”
“A deposed god. Lucifer was here before and he couldn’t see us.”
Osiris’ lips curved in a secretive smile. He raised his hands. “But I am an Egyptian deity, and this is my domain.”
Yael didn’t hide his skepticism.
“In one legend, Anubis was thought to be Osiris’ son,” Rowan murmured. “And Osiris is the god of death. And we’re in a tomb.”
Osiris rubbed his hands together. “Very good.”
“Well, can you get us out of here?” Yael demanded.
“Are you sure you want to leave?” He waved at them.
She blushed. How much had he seen?
“We’ve been stuck here for days. Yes, we want to leave.” Yael let go of her. He looked about ready to strangle the deity.
“It won’t take long. Wait a second.” Osiris touched the Anubis statue and wavered, like his body had just been plucked out of the real world and dumped into theirs.
“What are you doing? Why are you joining us?”
“There. Time will pass as normal now.” He stroked his c
hin. “We’re about to have a visitor.”
The ceiling exploded.
Chapter 45
Stone shattered as something shot down through the ceiling of the tomb. When the dust cleared, a figure with ink-dark wings hovered effortlessly over the sarcophagus. Yael walked around the pillars, so he could discover the identity of their visitor. “They still won’t be able to see us?”
Osiris shook his head.
“Dina,” Yael whispered.
Harshly beautiful, her golden hair was pinned back from her face, while her clear blue eyes rapidly searched the tomb. She landed next to the sarcophagus and cleared away debris that had fallen on the stone coffin.
She lifted the lid and pushed it aside.
“Stop her!” Rowan shouted at Osiris.
But the god shook his head. “I may be a god, but the power she wields…”
Dina had been on the brink of ascension for centuries. Osiris wasn’t a fool, hesitating to do battle with her. Even Yael thought twice.
“There are three of us—”
While they debated the issue, Dina pulled off the second nested coffin’s lid, and stared at the mummy. She rifled through the amulets that Lucifer had so carefully handled, and then punched her fist through the mummy’s chest. Yael couldn’t hear it, but he imagined the sound of dry cracking ribs, of old flesh torn asunder. He flinched.
Rowan yelled, “What is she doing—?”
Dina threw her head back and opened her mouth in an unheard scream of rage. Then she launched herself up through the hole she’d created in the ceiling, and vanished.
“You let her do this.” Rowan was panting in anger, her fists clenched at her sides as she faced off against Osiris. “She just desecrated Twosret’s resting place! She desecrated Twosret!”
Osiris walked away, back to the Anubis statue. He touched it, and Yael felt dizzy for a heartbeat. Rowan’s legs buckled beneath her. He caught her, and gently lowered her to the ground, careful to avoid sharp rocks that had fallen from the ceiling.
“You’re back in normal time,” Osiris said. He turned melancholic eyes on the opened coffin, approached it and held his hand over Twosret’s chest. He closed his eyes, and a golden glow emanated from his palm, filtering down to the mummy below.
Rowan stood and hurried over, her mouth dropping in awe. Yael watched, too, as the damage done to Twosret was repaired.
“What was she searching for?” Osiris asked.
“Heaven’s Heart.” Yael and the god shared a meaningful look.
“And she thought Twosret had it?”
“So did Lucifer.”
The god held up both his hands. “I fixed the damage to her. But this is now officially above my pay grade. As you say, I am merely a deposed god.”
“Oz!” Dru’s voice reached them, before she and Azrael appeared in the doorway. She fist-pumped the air. “They’re back!”
Rowan gave a wan smile. “We’re back.”
Then she collapsed.
Swearing, Yael caught the redhead. Panic thumped through him. What was wrong with her? Had the spell’s release affected her because she was human?
Osiris got in his face. “Let me have a look at her.”
“You’re a death god, you’re not touching her.” He jerked his torso to the side, Rowan moving with him.
“He’s a doctor,” Dru said.
“Really?” Yael wasn’t buying it, but could tell Dru wasn’t lying.
“I’m a pathologist, but yes, I have treated living patients before. Z was one of them.”
So, this was the surgeon they’d gotten to check Z and determine if Heaven’s Heart had been inserted within his body. “Fine.”
Osiris quickly felt her pulse and checked her eyes. “She’s just passed out. How long were you trapped here?”
“Around six days. Maybe seven.”
“Seven days?” Azrael exclaimed. “You weren’t even gone twenty-four hours.”
“It’s just exhaustion,” Osiris said. “She’ll be fine.”
Relief swamped Yael. She was going to be okay.
He left the tomb without a backward glance. “Can you grab our gear?”
He heard Dru rummaging around while Azrael followed him. “Seven days?”
“There was a time dilation effect or something. Time passed slower for us.”
“Ten times slower,” Osiris added.
“Well, did you find the Heart?” Azrael asked, when they emerged from the tomb, into the cool air outside.
Yael inhaled deeply, tasting pollution, sand, and old magic. “No.”
“No?”
“We got trapped before we could search. But Lucifer came, and so did Dina, and they both left empty-handed.”
“So, it wasn’t there?”
“It doesn’t appear so.”
Azrael sighed. “Back to the drawing board, then.”
Yael shifted Rowan into a fireman’s carry and climbed the ladder, careful not to drop her. At the top, he moved aside so Azrael and Osiris could follow, but Azrael reached the top alone.
“Osiris?”
“He vanished.”
Gods. Typical.
Rowan stirred against him, and he lowered her to her feet. She opened groggy eyes and leaned against his chest. “What happened?”
“You passed out.”
“I’m such a badass.”
He chuckled and kissed her, uncaring that Azrael was there, that they were under the open sky where any angel might fly. They were out of that trap, and now they had the rest of her life to find the Heart, cure her of mortality, and have sex.
He planned on them having a lot of sex.
A cold voice lashed through the air. “Isn’t this touching?”
Yael turned to face Lucifer, who stood opposite them in a flannel shirt and jeans. Campbell and Murdoch were on either side of him, the lanky Murdoch almost appearing apologetic.
“Well, we’re touching, yes.” Yael smirked. He’d never been very good at respecting authority.
Lucifer clicked his fingers, and Rowan vanished. Yael growled low in his throat and launched himself at the Hell-lord, garotte in hand, only to stumble as he met no resistance. Raising his head, scanned the area, the taste of sand and blood in his mouth.
He spat out a gritty glob of saliva.
Gone.
They were all gone.
“Mother fucker!”
Chapter 46
Rowan stumbled and fell onto her butt. The air stank like rotten eggs, and it was hot, like desert hot. Glancing around, she yelped, crab walking over the ground to bump into something hard. Two ‘people’ stood in front of her, one with dark red skin and a fur pelt, the other, tall and insect-like, and covered in scales.
Dr. Campbell and Dr. Murdoch. It has to be.
Luke strode into view, coming to a stop, hands on hips. A thunderous expression marred the beauty of his face. He was angry, at her.
What have I done?
The rattle of a chain accompanied the lowering of a metal grate, separating her from the others.
“What is going on?” She was in a small cell, dark stone lining the walls around her. There was no bed, or toilet, or water. She was trapped.
Again.
Except this time, she was exhausted. And scared.
Where was Yael?
“If you hadn’t decided to get so…comfortable with your angel bodyguard, you wouldn’t be here.” Luke shook his head, as if disappointed in her. “But I can’t trust you anymore. So, enjoy your new room. If you cooperate, you’ll graduate to another area of the Tower. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself in much worse accommodations.”
“I don’t understand.”
There are worse cells?
Luke rolled his eyes. “It was cute, when I first found you, that you didn’t believe in magic. But it’s annoying now. I am Lucifer, King of Sheol, archangel, and so forth. These are demons.” He indicated the archae
ologists on either side of him. “And you are a conduit.”
“I don’t have any powers—”
If she had, she probably would have come to accept magic was real long before now.
“You don’t need to. You make yourself available to me, and I can use you to harness magic currently unavailable to me.”
“I’m not going to help you.”
“Brave words. But time—and torture—can change the strongest of wills.”
Then he left her.
He just left.
Dr. Campbell followed the fallen angel down a corridor that vanished into darkness, but Dr. Murdoch lingered for a moment. “For a human, you aren’t stupid. If you cooperate, life will certainly be better for you.” His mantis-like head tilted to the side. “And he wasn’t lying when he said things could get a lot worse.”
The demon scurried after the other two, and she was left alone, in a new prison. But this one, this one was going to be a lot harder to break out of.
What do I do now?
Chapter 47
“She’s gone?” Seraphina paced Raze’s study, while Yael looked on, propped up against a bookcase.
He still couldn’t believe it.
One click of his fingers, and Lucifer had stolen the most precious thing in Yael’s world.
“I thought you might know someone who could get her out. You said you were taken to the Tower of Tortures…” Yael let his voice trail away.
Seraphina stopped moving. She turned to look over her shoulder, at the giant winged bastard who stood near the windows.
Trick.
Fuck, Yael wished that asshole wasn’t here. But he had contacts they needed. And when it came to Rowan, he was willing to make a deal with anyone.
“We don’t know if she’s in the Tower,” Azrael said, ever the reasonable one.
Trick rubbed his chin. “It’s Lucifer. His fortress is the Tower, it’s a good guess.”
“I agree with Trick and Yael,” Raze said. “It is the most likely place to start our search.”
“But how are we going to break in?” Yael demanded.
“We won’t,” Trick replied.
Yael shoved a hand through his hair. “I don’t get it.”
“Let me make a call.” Trick vanished.
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