“I know,” I sighed. With my magic, I could have easily done it. Just a whisper of power and I could have frozen the blood in their veins or caused the vessels in their brains to explode, killing them instantly. It would have been a merciful death. Between Banand and I, we could have circumvented the silver shackles touch long enough for me to do it. But I stupidly had wanted them to resist the Angel’s methods so we could escape together and rejoin the Demon army to crush the Angels beneath the heels of our boots.

They’d died anyway.

Now, it was just Banand, me, and a handful of other Demons with eye color ranging from garnet to cherry. Not nearly enough bodies to make an attempt to flee. Not nearly enough power outside of Banand and me to make a difference against the tide of Angels.

During our captivity, we’d managed to learn a few words of Angelic, and I held a finger to my lips and pointed at the group. Closing my eyes so I could focus on the voices alone, I tried to discern what they were saying.

Zaph burst into the room a moment later, ordering the others to start cleaning her. Two female voices joined the mix as they argued about some type of clothing. Or was that washing? Regardless, the tone was a mix of excitement and tension, and there was a lot of back and forth amongst the group.

When footsteps retreated, I opened my eyes again and found the two females stripping the Halálhívó’s fallen of her clothes. They volleyed back and forth with one another, though I couldn’t understand what they were saying. One went to the end of the table and yanked her dark hair back. Had she been conscious, it would have hurt. The second dipped a cloth in a bucket of water and swiped it over her arms, repeating the process until they were tan once again.

By the time the second had finished washing, the first had untangled the fallen’s hair and was raking a comb through the ends. They exchanged a few more words, then shuffled positions until they were on either side of her. With more roughness than necessary, they flipped the fallen over. The one that had been working on her hair swept it across her back and turned her head to the side.

Both females shrieked simultaneously, causing Banand and I to jump back. They curled over the fallen, pointing and pressing on her back. Cackles escaped them as they straightened and exchanged a few more excitable words. When they clapped their hands and shouted for the others, we pressed forward again, risking rising to our feet to see what had caused such a stir.

They had no attention to spare for us as the others returned. The hair one pointed at the fallen’s back, and Zaph stalked forward, his evil turquoise eyes gleaming.

There, between her shoulder blades, was a perfect circle.

She’s his mate.

I whipped my head to the side. Banand’s eyes were wide, horror-struck even, and his hands trembled as he gripped the bars.

Because we both knew what this meant.

The Angels had the ultimate leverage over the Halálhívó—the type upon which wars were decided, along with the fate of millions of lives. Millions of Demon lives, including our own.

OceanofPDF.com

58

Athrob, almost like I’d been bitten by that snake again, ricocheted off my skull. I groaned, and the pain intensified. I lifted my arm to touch my head, only for the motion to be halted halfway there. Cracking open one eye, then another, I found my vision fuzzy for a moment before light speared into my eyes, renewing the pain. I slammed them shut and tried not to cry out.

Melodic voices started then, sending my head pounding anew.

“Can you just be quiet please,” I managed to whimper, letting my arm fall limp against my side.

“Wake up, whore,” a voice said in the common tongue. My brows furrowed.

Why aren’t they speaking Demonic?

My understanding of the second language wasn’t great, since I never had much use for it when I was always surrounded by Demons.

My eyes snapped open.

Panic gripped me instantly when a pair of turquoise ones stared back at me, a malicious smirk playing out on his lips. White hair fell over his shoulders, with a bit tied back, though a fringe of it also covered his forehead. “There she is,” the Angel said, straightening and revealing a ring of them surrounding me.

I bolted upright, only to be stopped short by binds around my wrists and ankles. “What the fuck! Let me go!” I shouted in Demonic before cursing and repeating myself in the common tongue.

The group merely laughed and spoke amongst themselves. So the melodic voices I’d heard in our camp were Angels speaking in Angelic. Why didn’t I think of that? Unfortunately, my mastery of that language was zero. I didn’t even know how to say fuck you. It was truly a shame because I very much wanted to scream it at them right about now.

“Rokath!” I screeched down our bond. He would have noticed me missing by now. How long had I been out? And where was I?

I sliced my attention around. A white tent surrounded us, and the heat was nearly stifling with all the bodies packed into it. My spine pressed against a hard wooden table. When I jerked my arm again, silver chains flashed and tinkled.

One of the females tipped her head back and laughed, grabbing another by the arm and pointing at me. They exchanged a few words, and I didn’t have to speak their tongue to know I was the subject of their conversation.

“Rokath!” I tried again, but no response came. My mind felt fuzzy as did my tongue, and I shook my head in an attempt to clear it. Panic did that for me when I realized the magic in the center of my chest was muted. The bond was there, hidden behind a thick curtain, and the shadows that normally undulated like smoke in the wind hung limply around it.

Oh, Fates, had something happened to him? To all of the Demons?

“What did you do?” I asked in the common tongue, attention slashing directly toward the two females standing at my feet.

The one with icy blue eyes laughed, then said, “That drug we used to knock you out will keep your mind fuzzy for a while. You won’t be able to communicate with your mate until it wears off.”

“We found use for you after all, Hayyel,” the female beside her trilled like she’d told the funniest joke in the history of Ravasz.

I bared my teeth at both of them, then at the turquoise eyed male who seemed to be their leader. “The Halálhívó will kill you all for this.”

The group only laughed at me again. Fury blazed through my veins, and I curled my fingers into my palms, trying to bite back the words that wanted to spit out of me. Then, the meaning of their words slammed into me. “How did you know he is my mate?”

Snapping my attention to my body, I noticed that my leather armor was gone, replaced with a pale blue dress. So, during my unconsciousness, they’d stripped me and dressed me like a doll. No blood graced my arms, which meant that they’d cleaned me too.

Reaper, how long had I been out?

“Such a pretty sacrifice,” the icy-eyed one, Hayyel, purred, reaching her long fingers out and brushing them over my ankle. A light blue fabric fluttered over her arm, so similar to the color of my dress.

I jerked back as much as I could, horror blooming in my gut. I knew the Angels would not let me live, but sacrifice? What sort of sick, twisted way were they going to kill me?

Then, rage shattered through me, cutting me in a million ways with its jagged edges. Every time I thought I was close to finding a good life for myself, the Weaver whipped her rug out from beneath my feet and left me flat on my face. A manic laugh bubbled up and I threw my head back and released it to the world.