She yanked her arm out of his grasp and crossed her shackled wrists. “These haven’t exactly been conducive either.”

“Nor was being in a cage,” he shot back. The heat between them was scorching. Banand leaned in, ever so slightly, like he wanted to capture her mouth to force her to close her furious, blazing eyes.

“What would it take?” The conversation was devolving, and I needed an answer before it fractured entirely.

Their attention sliced to me. But it was Araquiel who spoke. “What do you mean?”

My nostrils flared as I exhaled. “What would it take for you to fuck?” I snapped, my patience wearing thin. “For you to let him take you, and for you to take her?”

Banand ground his teeth. Araquiel stabbed him with a hateful glare. Both spoke at once, but I held up a hand, silencing them. “Ishim has requested a meeting for tomorrow. He wants to see the traitors for himself so he can tell the Koron and Korona all about it. Maybe even return to Sivy with a few.”

I let the information hang in the air like an executioner’s blade. The mates paled. For the first time, Araquiel’s animosity bled away, replaced by unfiltered terror.

“Unless you can figure out a way forward, where Araquiel can comfortably insert herself on the Demon side, she’ll go with them.”

Banand’s face turned a dark shade of red and he lunged for me. But I was prepared, having been challenged over my mate as well, and I caught his arm and twisted it behind his back. Holding him close to my chest, I looked over his shoulder at Araquiel. Her face was a light shade of green, like she was going to heave up the contents of her stomach.

“Threats are no way to make me believe you aren’t an animal,” she said, but her voice was weak. The barest hint of clinking metal reached my ears.

“Do you truly believe that?” I asked her. Banand snarled and jerked in my hold, so I wrapped an arm around his throat, cutting off the blood to his brain.

She watched him slip from consciousness with horror in her eyes. I wouldn’t kill him—it was all a test for the two of them. One both were currently failing.

A scream caught in her throat, and she clutched it like it was her air scraping to be let in.

“Stop! Please!” She surged forward like something sacred was ripping from her chest. She leaped toward her mate like she could snatch him from me and ferry him to safety.

But she was no match for my might.

“Answer my question,” I commanded.

“No! I don’t! Have not I given you information enough?” she burst out, her grammar in the common tongue crumbling.

Immediately, I loosened my hold on Banand, who fell to his hands and knees, gasping for air. Araquiel went to his side, brushing his hair out of his face and checking on him with unexpectedly tender care.

I crouched down, still more massive than both of them. “So what will it take?” My voice was low, deadly, dangerous. “Alcohol? Lust? The threat of death? Will it take watching each other die before you admit what’s already been done?”

Banand sat back on his heels and grasped Araquiel’s hand. He held her gaze, deep enough that I almost felt like an intruder in their intimate moment. In a way, I was, because I’d caused it, forcing their hand rather than waiting on them to work it out.

“You’re already mated. The bond is unraveling you, piece by piece. Shredding your sanity. And when the next battle comes, you can bleed together or bleed alone.”

Banand’s throat worked like he was swallowing glass. “This is not easy. I never saw myself in this position. Everything I thought I knew was thrown into question. But this is happening for a reason.”

Araquiel nodded, rolling her lips like she was trying to hold back a sob. “My people would execute me for this bond alone. They’d call me cursed. It is the gravest sin to lie with a Demon,” she admitted. She looked at her mate like he was a puzzle her Goddess needed her to solve. “I don’t know. How do I walk away from everything I’ve ever been taught and choose you?”

“Together. You move forward together.” I straightened to my full height. “And you move forward under the Demon banner. Because we will not kill you, Araquiel. Not if you and Banand accept the blessing of your bond. Would your people offer him the same kindness?”

A tear spilled over and tracked down her cheek as she shook her head. “But what about after? If you win?”

“When we win, you will have a home on this continent. Believe it or not, our goal was never complete extermination,” I told her. Banand nodded in confirmation. “If we needed to stamp out every Angel to ensure our survival, we’d do that. If we could cut off the head of the snake and everyone else would fall in line, then we’d do that. You can make the latter a possibility.”

Banand helped her to her feet. To my surprise—and his—she went straight into his arms. With her wrists bound, she couldn’t wrap him in an embrace, but burying herself into his chest was as close as she could get. Her mate, on the other hand, broke, clutching her to him like she was the most precious thing in the world.

As he fucking should.

I massaged my temples, a headache pounding behind my eyes. “Whenever you are ready to accept the full force of your bond, you can remove her shackles. After that, she doesn’t need them any longer.”

“Thank you,” he replied, his voice thick with emotion.

“Take one of the rooms on the upper floor after our meeting. I’ll ensure no one else bothers you. Then tomorrow,” I paused, waiting for Araquiel to look at me. She did, her eyes rimmed with red. “You will stand by us. You will show Ishim and whomever else he brings with him that we treat our prisoners far better than they treat ours. You will fucking lie and go along with everything I say, true or not. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Halálhívó,” she affirmed. Stepping away from Banand, she awkwardly offered me a Demon-style salute.

“Good. I’ll see you in the meeting room in ten minutes. If you do not show up in that time, I will send out a search party for both of you. You will not come back from that alive.” With the threat still hanging in the air, I spun on my heel and made the remaining trek to the primary building. I didn’t feel the least bit guilty as I ascended the stairs, coming face to face with my mate.

“Do you think they will?” she asked, her voice lilting and full of hope.

Devious little thing, spying through our bond.

“There’s nothing like the threat of death to make you realize what really matters.” I grabbed her waist and tugged her to me. We both knew the reality of that all too well. I planted a kiss on her forehead, then looped my arm over her shoulders and steered her toward the command room.

“I hope so. I like Araquiel. She reminds me of me before I let myself love you. They could be good together if they’d just allow it to happen,” she sighed, leaning into me.

Similar words, spoken by Rapp, rang in my head. It had been days since we’d had word from him or Trol, and when we were finished here, I planned to find the separated mates and request updates on both fronts. I’d inform them of Ishim’s location and our planned meeting atop the wall.

Settling in a chair, we waited, along with Zurronar, Olet, and the other Parancsok under my command for the bonded to appear. Banand would elevate himself to the fourth position as soon as he’d claimed Araquiel.

Because there was no doubt in my mind that the moment their bodies joined, there would be no going back. They’d both be irrevocably changed, much like Assyria and I had been. Except for Araquiel, there was no return to her people. Perhaps not even her Goddess. Only forward, into a war that might chew them up and spit them out anyway.

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