Wanted Angel: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Feathers and Fate Book 3)

by Sadie Moss

  “You know the expression ‘needle in a haystack’?” Nix drawls. “That’s what this feels like.”

  “Shut up,” Ryland says absently, although there’s no real bite to his words. They’ve had this exact exchange at least three times already, so I don’t think he can work up the energy to be annoyed by his brother anymore.

  And, frankly, Nix has a point.

  I was so excited about the clue Flynn gave us. With a physical drawing of the mark, we’ve got a shot at finding the demon who tried to have me killed. But that’s where the needle analogy comes in.

  We don’t know where to look, so the entire fucking city is basically one big haystack.

  We’ve been tromping around the desolate city for most of the day, doing our best to avoid large crowds. Even though Flynn removed my mark, we don’t know how much longer the potion Isaac gave me will last—and I really don’t want to become demon bait again.

  “Man, who knew saving the world was so fucking tedious?” Nix jokes, bumping me with his shoulder. He winks at me when I glance at him. “And that’s coming from the laziest man in the world.”

  I snicker, but we both freeze when Beckett holds up a hand. Remi is up ahead scouting out our path, and he returns quickly, sticking to the shadows of buildings as he comes.

  “There’s some kind of market around the corner up there,” he reports, gesturing to the street behind him. “Lots of demons.”

  “We should check it out quickly, then move on,” Ryland says. “Knight?”

  Envy nods. He’s the one who usually sneaks into crowds when we encounter bigger groups of demons, since he’s the one who has the easiest time moving about undetected. I know he’s good at this, but I still hate it. My heart clenches with worry as I watch him move quietly forward and disappear around the corner.

  He’s gone for several long moments, then he slips back around the corner, walking quickly toward us. His eyebrows are knitted together, and he’s already signing before he reaches us. I’ve been trying to learn his language, but I’m still pretty freaking bad at it, so all I pick up is the word “demon” and the word “servant.”

  I wrinkle my nose. What?

  “You sure?” Ryland asks. Knight nods emphatically.

  “He saw a demon with the mark branded onto his skin,” Remi murmurs, translating for me. “He thinks it’s a servant of whoever put the mark on you. If we follow him, maybe he’ll lead us to his master.”

  My heart jumps with excitement. “Let’s go, then!”

  It actually takes a few minutes, since we can’t go anywhere until the servant leaves the market. But Knight keeps an eye on him and signals us quickly when the marked demon is on the move. The rest of us follow, leaving so much distance between us and our target that I worry a bit about him slipping our grasp entirely.

  But luckily, every time he slips out of view, we catch sight of him again quickly. We walk across the city into an area where the buildings are larger and spaced farther apart.

  My footsteps pause when the servant stops in front of a large gate outside a building that’s set back a bit from the road. As he unlocks the gate and begins to step through, Ford lunges forward. Wrath shoves the gate open wider with one hand while grabbing the back of the demon’s neck with the other. A forcible shove sends him flying into the wall that borders the property. The demon servant’s head hits the hard rock with a loud thud, and he crumples to the ground.

  We’re in a sort of courtyard, although like everything else in Hell, it mostly just looks like a burned out ruin. The building in front of us appears to be a large residence. It looks like the world’s spookiest mansion, honestly, and the fact that a demon who wants to kill me might live here only makes it scarier.

  As if drawn by my thoughts, a man steps through the front door, his brows pulling together as he takes in the prone body of his unconscious—or dead—servant.

  This guy is a demon, I’d bet anything, but he looks almost entirely human. He’s got a pointed nose, white hair, and shrewd eyes. He scowls at the crumpled form on the ground.

  “What the—”

  Before he can finish, Ford is moving again. The white-haired man looks up in shock, finally noticing all of us standing near the gate. He raises his hands, but before he can do anything, Ford pulls the same move on him that he just did to his servant.

  This guy is obviously more powerful, because the blow doesn’t even drop him. But it stuns him enough to give Ford the chance to wrap an arm around his neck, choking him from behind.

  “Don’t kill him!” I yell out.

  Ford gives me a furious but also sort of annoyed look, as if to say, How stupid do you think I am?

  I know he’s not stupid, but the warning still seems necessary. His rage is what’s giving him the strength to keep this demon subdued, but it’s also making him want to murder the demon. Wrath is powerful, but it’s also chaotic. It’s not easy to control, and I’m a little worried that Ford might go too far.

  But he’s listening to me, and he’s holding on to his self-control. And that means a lot to me. More than I can say. Or at least, more than I can say to him in this particular moment.

  Ford keeps the guy in a headlock, and Ryland crouches down in front of him. His smooth, cultured voice is cold, even colder than I’ve ever heard it before, actually. “Why did you mark Trinity?” he demands. “Who are you?”

  The demon narrows his eyes at Ryland. “Pride. I should have thought you were above this kind of thing. Slumming it to protect an angel.”

  Ryland raises an eyebrow. “The brother who is holding you is not the one that you should be afraid of—that would be me. He just wants to kill you. I want to do much more than that. So.” He smiles, and it’s utterly chilling. “Why did you order the hit on Trinity?”

  The demon chuckles. “You think you can intimidate me? You think you can beat me? My plans are too well laid for seven pathetic sins and a puny angel to defeat me. I am unstoppable. Soon, all of Heaven and Hell and Earth will know the name Salinas. They will quake to hear my name.”

  Ryland inhales deeply, his nostrils flaring. Something in his dark features changes as his gaze seems to bore into the demon before him. “I know pride when I see it. I can sense it. I’m sure someone so proud of his accomplishments wants to share them with us. To let us know why he’s undertaking such a task. So tell us. Tell us and let us spread the fear of your name to every corner of the world.”

  Holy crap. He’s laying it on thick.

  For a moment, I’m certain Salinas is going to laugh in Ryland’s face. But then the demon’s face twitches. Ryland’s eyes glow a little as the power of his sin pulses from him like an aura.

  It’s working. He’s using his pride to entice Salinas to spill the beans and get us what we want.

  “I want to take over Earth,” the demon replies, sounding lofty. “It’s ridiculous, the way that Heaven and Hell are fighting one another. Nobody’s paying attention to the prime real estate that’s just sitting there. Humans are only good as souls for the army after they’re dead? What kind of nonsense is that? I tried to reason with my superiors, I did, but none of the higher-ups would listen. They’re stuck in their ways, bound to their rules.”

  That sounds a lot like Heaven, and I cringe at the lack of difference between the two.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Nix mutters. “This is absolutely insane, you know. You’re never going to succeed. You can’t possibly manage to actually conquer Earth. Is that…” He glances around at the rest of us. “I mean, am I hearing this right? I can’t be the only one who’s hearing this. Why are you all looking so serious? This is a joke. He can’t actually do this, can he?”

  “I think the demon portals show that he possibly can,” Beckett replies, his voice hard.

  “Earth is full of humans running around making a mess of themselves. They’re chaotic, they’re killing each other, they’ve got no ability to properly govern themselves.” Salinas sniffs, sounding appalled. Which is pretty
rich if you ask me, coming from a demon—even a high-up one.

  “They’re just waiting to be made slaves of,” he continues. Ford tightens his grip a little, making his words come out more choked than before. But he’s obviously on a roll now, pumped up by Pride’s power. His voice is a rasp, but he continues speaking. “It would be the easiest thing in the world to conquer them. To make them come under my rule. Let us see Heaven or Hell oppose me after that!”

  He turns his gaze toward me, and I shiver. His burning yellow eyes look like both fire and sickness. “But you had to go and be so…” He sneers. “Noble. The other angels just ignored the portals, didn’t they?”

  My gut tightens and twists. I want to say that no, of course they didn’t, what kind of people does he take us for? I want to say that my heavenly superiors told me specifically to close the portals so that no humans would get hurt.

  But I know that Salinas would know I was lying. It would be my pride speaking up to say that, or rather… the hope of pride in my people. And it wouldn’t be real.

  “I took it upon myself to close the portals,” I say. I think that’s a fairly neutral statement.

  Salinas chuckles, an ugly, twisted sound. “I have to admit, you were more plucky than I expected. I was ready for you to give up or fail. I thought that the hydra curse was quite ingenious, multiplying the portals every time one was closed. But you found a way around that, and now… well. I’m afraid that I’ve had to go with the nuclear option.”

  That makes my stomach grow cold, even in this oppressing heat.

  “What the fuck does that mean?” Ford growls, shaking Salinas a little.

  “Explain yourself,” Ryland says, his voice cold as ice.

  Salinas laughs. As he does, I catch a new sound. Beneath his bone-chilling laughter, I hear chittering and growling. Heavy footsteps. Low snarls.

  Ah, fuck. He must have backup—other demons he’s either recruited with promises or threatened into helping him.

  And they’ve just arrived.

  “Fuck. Look out!” Beckett yells.

  Moving as a single unit, all of the sins except Ford turn, shoving me behind them. Salinas roars and tries to break free of Wrath, who tightens his hold in return. The two of them go sprawling in a blur of motion, and I ignore the approaching demons to leap at Salinas.

  He’s the leader, it’s only a smart move. And I can’t let Ford take on a powerful demon like this alone. I summon my angel blade and slash at Salinas.

  The demon roars. His face transforms, all semblance of humanity melting away, leaving a horrifying visage. Fangs and curled-back blackened lips, bat-like wings where his ears should be, sickly yellow glowing skin, and eyes like a snake with slit pupils.

  Part of me is terrified. I’ve never been in a fight like this. Demons are surging up and clashing with the other sins, who are holding the line, still surrounding us, trying to keep the demons away from Salinas and keep them from helping him.

  But another part of me is just—well, it might be my proximity to Ford, but I’m angry. I’m furious. I’m angry at my own people, at the angels who did nothing and didn’t care when portals from Hell appeared all over Earth. They didn’t lift a finger to stop this when corrupted started literally crawling out of them to hurt and maim and murder. I’m angry that neither side of this war cares about humanity. I’m angry that the one person who realized how valuable and precious Earth is has decided to take over that plane of existence to dominate, rule, and abuse humanity.

  I want to do what’s right.

  I want to help people.

  Who cares about the rules when the rules aren’t set up to do that?

  I’m so angry, so fucking frustrated, and maybe it is just because I’m so close to Ford and his fury that I’m feeling this way—but I don’t think it is. I think this has been building inside me for a long, long time.

  Salinas flexes his fingers as he darts away from Ford’s swinging fist. Long, wicked claws extend from the tips. Spines extend out of his spine, and even though he looks even more terrifying like this, I launch myself at him, slashing at him with my sword. I haven’t fought like this in my entire existence, really, but I’m so furious that it’s giving me a bit of an edge.

  Salinas lunges for me, and Ford yells in fury and—is that fear, as well, in his voice?

  “Leave her the fuck alone,” Ford snarls, his voice almost animalistic.

  It’s sweet that he’s so protective of me, but I want to fight this fight. I want to go up against Salinas. I want to fight him.

  I slide out of the way just as Salinas strikes down with his claws, and I swing my sword at his arm. The metal bites into his skin, and I drag the hilt toward me, deepening the gash.

  Salinas shrieks in pain and rage, and his tail—holy fuck, when did he get a tail?—lashes out at me, whipping around and hitting me smack in the side. Fire erupts against my body, a pain like I’ve never felt before. I scream out, and that sparks a furious yell from several of the sins.

  The men are nearly overwhelmed by the demons who’ve surrounded us, and more seem to be arriving every moment, shifting the odds even further against us. Several of them have jumped on Ford, distracting him as he viciously fights them off.

  To hell with it. I’m not letting us lose this fight. I want to win, I want to rage, I want blood in my teeth and on my blade.

  I slash again, trying to remember everything I was ever taught when I was trained for this, my wings erupting out of my back to give me an advantage. A few flaps bring me up higher than Salinas, allowing me to attack his head while he tries to jump up and swipe at me.

  It’s like fighting an animal more than a rational person who can actually think strategically, but he’s a ferocious animal all the same, and I’m barely holding my own.

  Salinas feints, aiming one way, or at least I think he is—then he lands a blow to the other side of my head, and I stagger, nearly falling, my wings just catching me in time out of instinct. My ears ring from the blow, the world around me going blurry for a moment. I shake my head, blinking, trying to recalibrate myself.

  No. I grit my teeth.

  I’m not letting him win this fight. I am an angel. Even if I’m fallen, I’m still an angel, and that means I’m supposed to protect and serve humanity. So what if the other angels haven’t been doing that? I’m not beholden to them. I don’t care about what they’re doing. They kicked me out of Heaven—they don’t want me anyway. So I’m going to forge my own path, and I’m going to do what I know to be right.

  It’s growing brighter around us. It’s easier for me to see now, and Salinas staggers back, shielding his eyes. Has someone turned on a light or started up a fire? Ryland and the others are somewhat familiar with magic, so maybe they’ve—

  Salinas hisses, baring his teeth. “You vile little bitch!”

  He leaps for me, chanting something, and I dive out of the way as his claws and a fireball both narrowly miss me. The light moves with me, and that’s when I realize—I’m glowing again. My angelic light is up, and I didn’t even notice until now.

  Wow.

  I’m glowing much more strongly that I did during the Blackfire Tournament when Ford and I had to get past those snakes. It gives me a boost of confidence to know that it hurts Salinas and the other demons to stare at my light. I grin savagely, in a way I know I’ve never grinned before, then lunge forward again to attack the ringleader.

  I’m exhausted but also elated, full of a strange kind of energy that buzzes through my veins, and I go after him again and again with my sword until both of us are bloody and I can’t even tell whose blood is whose anymore.

  “You’re nothing,” Salinas spits, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “You’re not even a proper angel anymore. You really think a fallen angel can defeat me? Bow before me now, and I’ll think about sparing you a painful death.”

  “I am born of righteous intent!” I snarl right back, conviction coursing through me. Holy shit. Is this what being drugged fee
ls like? I feel high. Is this some kind of battle fever? “I’ll smite you where you stand!”

  I launch myself at Salinas again, hurling myself toward him. I want to finish this, end it once and for all.

  Salinas seems to have the same thought, because he lunges for me at the same moment. Fire and light seem to bloom around us, the air singing with energy, and I just want to destroy him.

  I want to protect humanity.

  I want to be what angels are supposed to be.

  I want him dead.

  A million emotions surge inside of me in a single heartbeat, filling me up until I can’t contain it all.

  Then it explodes out of me.

  Piercing beams of light, like daggers made out of prisms of color, shoot out of my body in all directions, like I’m a bomb. Salinas and I collide momentarily before we’re forced apart by the blast, both of us flying. The light is so bright that it blinds me, making me feel like I’m flying through nothingness.

  Someone, I think maybe Sawyer, yells out. The sound is panicked and pained, and an answering panic rises up inside my chest.

  Then my head hits the ground and I black out.

  Chapter Fourteen

  TRINITY

  I don’t wake up where I fell asleep. Or where I was knocked out, I mean. Instead, I wake up lying on something comfy.

  Mmm. Very comfy. It’s like a cloud.

  My head feels heavy, and my eyelids seem to weigh a ton. My eyesight is blurry as I force my eyes open. It takes me a moment to adjust, and once I do, I have to blink several times before I can really see where I am.

  Slowly, with my back and head still aching a bit, I sit up. I’m on a bed, a very comfortable one. All around me is nothing but light, and at last I realize that it’s not because of an injury that I’m seeing the white light—it’s because of where I am.

  Home.

  I’m in Heaven.

  For a moment, I’m overcome with happiness.

  I’m home. I made it. I’m here.

  But then the reality of that begins to sink in, and I wonder what exactly this means. Why am I here? How did I get here? Where is everyone else?