“You have Heaven inside of you too,” Kalyke said, his voice bouncing off my skull. “Balance in the purest form.”
Balance in the purest form...What kind of poetic bullshit was that?
"I'm sorry, Lilith, but I'm an angel. Anything Queen Astral orders, I follow." Gabriel's arms wound around my waist from behind, and my back flattened against his chest. His breath hit the back of my neck, sending a frigid chill down my spine.
I stiffened as he slapped a wire bracelet on my wrist. “That’s the thing about you angels, you always follow orders!”
He'd teleported behind me without so much of a second for anyone to process it, and the bracelet he’d clasped onto me sunk into my skin bit by bit. I grabbed at the cold metal but wasn’t able to get it off.
Gabriel’s fingers traced my collar bone. “That’s not true. I didn’t follow orders when I asked Queen Astral to suggest a betrothal or when I killed you for choosing a demon over me.”
The guys whirled around, and Gabriel jumped backward with me in his arms, leaving more distance between us and my guys. His thin fingers dug into my hip bones, and my heart thumped wildly inside my chest.
“I’ll fucking kill you, Gabriel!” Aziel broke into a sprint toward us.
“Lilith!” Kai burst forward.
Blaise jumped up to come down from above. “I’ll rip your bloody wings off and shove them down your throat!”
Thaddeus ran to the side to come at Gabriel from behind. “I’m going to obliterate you! Fuck balance!”
Just when we’d fucking done it. We obliterated Viktor, but before we could even enjoy the win, Gabriel had to pull something out of his ass. I knew we shouldn't have worked with him. His hatred for me ran deeper than anyone could ever know.
I studied each of their faces, determined and fearful, memorizing every fucking bit of them, but I couldn’t fight Gabriel here. I knew what he was capable of, and he could kill them if he wanted to. They were my weakness, and he damn well knew it. But they were alive, and at that moment, it was all I could ask for.
Numbness spread through my wrist and crept through my limbs. “What does this bracelet do?”
There was a flash of white and a gust of wind before the warehouse and everyone in it disappeared. Gabriel’s stiff embrace was the only thing keeping me upright as my eyelids drifted shut and exhaustion swallowed my consciousness.