“She’s weak,” Lex said, giving life to the insecurity that ate at me. “She is so ridiculously human.” The way she said human reminded me of the way the Council said it.
“You are human too.”
She arched a brow at him. “Really? How much of me do you think is still human? Not enough to be plagued by their incompetence, that’s for sure.”
Lucifer cocked his head to the side in perfect imitation of human scepticism. “Really? Apollyon seems unable to secure her soul. Shall I send you to try?”
I couldn’t stifle the squeak. Lucifer grinned at me and my heart literally stopped.
“If you wish,” Lex said. “Or you could snap your fingers and end it now.”
She was too good at hiding her feelings. So good even I couldn’t tell if she was bluffing. With Lucifer’s will pressing down on me, it took me precious seconds to think about trying to use the Ley sight. When I cast it down around me and peered at Lex’s aura, all of the light in the world died.
I saw the Ley sight in bonds of love, affection, and familial connection. Lex’s aura was a blistering midnight blue surrounded by a black-and-silver corona of bone magic. When I had first met her, Lex’s aura has been so dark red I almost couldn’t bear to touch it. Her love for Betty, her absolute loyalty to her grandmother, was something to behold. As time went on, that darkness went almost black with the threads of her love for the people she had made friends with. All of that was now gone.
A tear trickled down my cheek.
Lex rolled her eyes. “I don’t have time for this,” she said. “Are we snapping fingers, or can I get back to the real work?”
Lucifer turned to her for the first time, his own icy-blue eyes speculative. “If you keep looking at me like that,” Lex said, “I’m going to have to start charging you.”
She really didn’t know when to shut up. It was one of the things I loved about her. Lucifer wasn’t convinced, but the way his jaw clamped made me sure he couldn’t tell if she was lying either.
“Urgh,” she said. “Fine. I’ll do it.”
She raised her arm and looked at me square in the face for the first time ever. She smiled at me and a chill sliced through my chest. “Mawat–”
Inside Kai’s body, Apollyon raged. “Brother!” he shouted.
Lucifer was the one who rolled his eyes this time, but he flagged Lex to stop. My heart beat in my throat, a condition that happened every time I heard her speak Angelical.
“Finish this then,” Lucifer told Apollyon. “Take the necromancers if you can’t do it yourself. I grow weary of these supernaturals.”
He waved his hand, and I woke up suffocating. The second I came out of the nightmare, the mating link arched up and smothered me in comfort. It made the nightmare smooth at the edges until I wasn’t sure what it was that had frightened me so badly.
A heavy limb was thrown over my shoulder, pinning me to the mattress. Max’s chin rested on the top of my head. “Max!” I tried to push at his arm, but it wouldn’t budge. “Move!”
His arm retracted slightly but he didn’t relax his hold. “Shhh,” he said. “I’m trying to sleep.”
“Get off me right now!”
He pounced on me, rolling me onto my back, and settled above me. “You’re so grumpy in the morning.”
Lex had always said the same thing. What did she expect when she kept me up all night with screaming and cursing in her sleep?
“If you don’t move right now, I’m going to transmute your junk into acorns.”
“I think that would be more of a punishment on you than it is on me.” His eyes flashed gold before he sank down and kissed me. The moan slipped out against my will which was turning to mush with the sweep of his tongue. He was smirking when he pulled away.
“Very funny,” I said, slightly breathless. “How long was I out?”
“It’s been two days.”
I hissed. “How am I supposed to do anything if a simple transmutation knocks me flat?”
“There was nothing simple about what you did.”
His cheek twinged. It was only then that I remembered the malachim sheltered in his body. Sinking inside, I tried to inspect the mating link for any signs of an intruder. Max’s hand closing over my throat dragged me back to the real world. “He has been instructed to leave it alone,” Max said.
“Is it weird?”
He considered the question. “It’s different. Mostly he just observes.” He stroked his thumb over my chin.
“Come on,” he said. “They wanted us at the Academy as soon as you woke.”
We were halfway to the portal field when the sky began to give off a strange pink hue. The nightmare kicked to life inside my mind. I paused. “Max,” I said. “I had a bad dream last night.”
“Tell me later.” His attention was far in the distance where the perimeter was beginning to become blocked by rolling grey clouds. “Come.”
He took my hand and we booked it to the portal field, only to be intercepted by Durin. “They’ve changed the meeting to Seraphina,” he said. “This madness is happening everywhere.” Yolanda ran up beside him, followed by the other alphas. Durin turned to her.
“Lock this place down.”
Guards streamed both into and out of the portal. Dorian and I crossed paths. He smiled at me but all I could do was nod. “Wait,” I said just as Max
