Adonis cleared his throat. “Johnny. Wonderful to see you again. You look well.”
As if this situation weren’t terrible enough, I felt the presence of a third angel moving closer—this one beaming with gold.
Kratos strode toward us, his coppery wings radiating light. “Johnny,” he boomed. “I thought I felt your presence. What the hell is going on here?”
Johnny just kept staring at me, pointing with his bloodied finger.
Adonis broke the silence. “It seems our favorite drunken angel has returned to us after one of his benders. No idea what happened to him, except that he seems to have had a brush with Devil’s Bane. I’d hazard a guess that he doesn’t remember the full story either. A tankard of vodka or two will do that to you.”
Kratos narrowed his eyes. “Why are the succubi clinging to you like that?”
Adonis shrugged. “Johnny’s famine magic is ripping their minds apart right now. Mine helps to soothe their pain.”
“Johnny,” Kratos said evenly. “Control yourself.”
Johnny continued to glare at me, hatred burning in his eyes. Yet he wasn’t saying anything, and his silence unnerved me.
He grunted, rubbing the wound on his chest again. His pale lips opened and closed. Maybe that Devil’s Bane had gone straight to his mind, because he didn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders anymore.
Without another word, he lunged for me, his eyes shot through with incendiary red. The next thing I knew, his hands were around my throat. I reached for the knife at my thigh—poison-tipped. If I poisoned him in front of Kratos, the jig would be up. Wouldn’t take a genius to figure out who’d been messing around with Devil’s Bane.
Through the blood roaring in my ears, I could hear my sister screaming my name.
My heart slammed against my ribs, my lungs burning as Johnny squeezed. Frantic, I lifted the knife— Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to make the call about whether or not to stab him, because Adonis was ripping Johnny away from me by his withered, blue mohawk.
“Subdue yourself,” snarled Adonis, still gripping Johnny by the hair.
For a moment, Johnny seemed to grow calmer, some of the fire in his eyes dulling, even if his gaze was still locked on me. He took deep, ragged breaths, and a thin stream of drool slid from his lips.
Slowly, Adonis let go of Johnny’s hair.
Then, like a wild beast, Johnny howled and whirled on Adonis.
Midnight feathers scattered into the air, and I watched with horror as Johnny tore a brutal rip in the top of Adonis’s wing. The sound of a wing tearing is something I don’t think I’ll ever forget—the shredding of tendon and bones.
Adonis roared, and the temperature around us plunged, shadows swallowing up the light. With a feral snarl, Adonis rushed at Johnny. It took only a few moments for Adonis to snap the punk angel’s neck, and the crack of bone echoed off the stone walls.
Kratos looked down at Johnny’s crumpled, filthy body on the flagstones, his expression betraying nothing. “I’ve come to expect dramatic entrances from Johnny, but this one has surpassed my wildest dreams.”
Adonis grimaced with pain. His hand hovered protectively near his wounded wing, but he didn’t seem to want to touch it. A bit of bone jutted from the top of it, and streams of crimson blood trailed down his dark feathers.
I swallowed hard. “That looks like it hurts.”
“I’ll live.”
Kratos’s gaze slid from me to Adonis and back again. “Anyone care to tell me what the fuck is going on here?”
Hazel stepped closer to him, blinking her dark eyes innocently. “Johnny was drinking again. He reeks of vodka. Must have been quite a bender, and he found himself—yourself—tangled in the forest’s brambles, unable to remember what got him there. When he tried to think back, it’s all a foggy mist of vodka, moss, and the elder roots that pulled you deep into the earth, deep until the secrets are forgotten and questions plague you no more.”
Kratos cocked his head, mesmerized by Hazel’s rambling, as though she’d just uttered the wisest jumble of sentences in the history of the world. Fortunately for me, I seemed immune to her skills. And given the way Adonis was frowning at her, I had a feeling he was too.
Another set of footsteps echoed down the hall as Elan approached, his arms full of pastries and an entire baked ham. Some sort of custard coated his cat sweater and was smeared over his cheeks.
His eyes were on Johnny. “He returned! Is he all right?” Crumbs rained from his mouth as he spoke.
Hazel rushed over to the lanky fae. She grasped for the baked ham, while Elan clung to it, dropping all of the other food in his arms.
“Adonis,” Kratos said sharply. “Can you stifle Johnny’s magic? It’s still creating chaos in here.”
Still shielding his wing protectively, Adonis whispered something under his breath. His dark magic swooped around Hazel and me, soothing some of our gnawing hunger.
Kratos stared after him. “I’m going to find some stronger servants to drag Johnny back into his room until he recovers.” He glared at Elan. “Share your food with the succubi, and see that they get back to their room.” He stalked away, a golden glow in the gloom.
With Adonis’s magic whispering over my body, some of the raw pain of famine began to bleed out of me, even if my stomach still rumbled.
While Elan and Hazel scooped food from the floor, I raised my eyebrows at Adonis. “How long will that take to heal?”
He looked positively murderous. “I won’t be flying anytime soon.”
“Thanks for pulling Johnny off me. I thought of stabbing him, but…” I glanced at Elan, unwilling to continue the conversation about poison-tipped weapons in front of him.
“Come.” Adonis nodded at my bedroom, then quietly slipped into the fire-lit room.
While Elan and Hazel continued to gnaw on food in the hallway, I followed Adonis. He stood on the flagstones, and warm firelight wavered over his perfect features. The door closed softly behind me.
“How long until Johnny blows my cover?” I asked quietly.
“When Johnny wakes, his mind will be addled. He was already confused from being underground for days, and the poisons are probably still working their way through his brain. When I snapped his neck, I bought you more time. But he’s immortal, and he’ll recover eventually. You can’t stay here any longer.”
I swallowed hard. How could I trust Adonis? Everything he did was self-serving. Not to mention that I’d seen him vaporize people.
Kratos—for all his faults—had reunited me with my sister. He’d done it because he actually seemed to care for me on some level.
But what would Kratos do once he learned that I’d been lying to him this whole time?
I heaved a deep sigh, stuck in an impossible situation. “I’ll go with you. But I want to take my sister.”
The door creaked as Hazel opened it, and she crossed to my side. She’d chomped halfway through the ham already. “I heard that. And I’m staying here,” she declared.