Page 158 of Wings of Lies
I was surprised he didn’t keel over by saying the word dear.
“Oh goody, I love games.” All the resentment I had stored over the years leaked out.
“Me too,” Michael said in a low voice, pressing the edge of his dagger to my inner arm. “Let’s start off with a truth of my own to set a good example for our game.”
I bit my cheek to avoid letting out a loud scoff. He didn’t know a good example, even if it came and sat at his feet like a sacrificial lamb.
“This dagger,” he dragged it across my forearm, indenting my skin but not slicing through. “There is only one of its kind. Its name is Tsal-mawet. Shadow-death.” He stared at it proudly.
So that’s what that looked like.
“Since you most likely forgot. I’ll recap what you’ve missed, and we can go from there.” The dagger left my arm and tinked against thetable. He walked around, letting the tip screech against the metal, outlining my body as he talked.
“After your mother hid you from me successfully over the years,” he said begrudgingly, glancing at her with a sick sort of pride. “I bided my time, waiting. Because your mother may know me and my tactics, but I know hers as well.” His lips curled up into a smile.
My fatheractuallysmiled as he gazed at her. A weird tenderness softened his murderous eyes.
“I knew because ofyou, she’d slip up.” The soft expression he reserved for her twisted into revulsion when he turned to me. “And she did. So, I sent a message to a demon called Marcus. He needed to find you and secure you.
“But see, your mother thought the demon still worked for Lilith, the Tenebrous Queen. She thought Lilith was after you because we all heard of the queen stealing female angels to escape her prison. So, your mother made a rune-binding deal with the demon, a trade.
“She’d give up herself for you, but only if the demon would keep you sedated and safe so you wouldn’t run off.” He laughed. “They put you up in an abandoned safe house with one bag of Nerium poison until she could return to you. Little did she know the demon was under my command. I told him to up the dosage to three bags, enough poison to torture your disgusting sin-filled mind until I could come to finish the job.”
She traded herself for me to keep me safe. Instead of being tortured by a queen, my mom poisoned me to keep me unconscious until what? She survived her own torture and retrieved me from Marcus, a demon who worked for Michael, who wanted me dead or to go to some council?
“If they made a binding deal about keeping me safe, how is destroying my mind defined as safe?” I glared.
He smiled with pride. For himself. “Because the only way to remove a rune of any kind is from an Archangel’s feather, which only an Archangel or Seraphim can use.
“Your mother assumed no angel would dare remove a rune from a demon. They are our enemies, so if a rune has been placed on them, we know our brethren had reason to do it. But sometimes, in rare cases, we must get our hands dirty for the greater good,” he shrugged, unphased. “So, I paid off an Archangel bounty hunter to remove Marcus’s rune. Therefore, no more deal. Then all I had to do was wait for my appointed time to finish the deed.
“See, long ago, I petitioned to the Seraphims that I wanted to come to Earth once a day on your birthday. Archangels are too powerful to grace Earth with their presence more than once a year.” The pride in his voice made my stomach roll. His shoulders were back, chin up like he was a god.
“My mom’s an Archangel, though.”
The corner of his eyes tightened. “No, she fell not long after you came to be. A Fallen angel who kept her signature powers because ofme. I gave her everything, even after her sin stole her wings and forced her to live in Elora or on Earth.” By his expression, I felt I was somehow the cause of her fall. “But she chose Earth. At first, I didn’t understand, then I put the pieces together.
“The Council of Righteousness is comprised of Seraphims, and they aren’t allowed there. However, they keep a close eye on the supernatural on Earth. So, your mother figured withme, we could keep you completely off their radar, and we did. Until the day I bound your powers, and you escaped. I told the council what happened, andwe made a deal. But first, I needed to find you, which proved difficult because I reduced you to a human, so I employed anyone willing and available to complete the task for me.
“When the demon stole you two months ago, I had to wait until your birthday to come. Only a few weeks remained until I could do what I’ve always wanted. But somehow…”
The dagger stopped near my thigh, an inch away from touching my skin. Heat radiated off the metal, and a magnetic pull begged me to touch it. If the chains weren’t holding my thighs in place, I would’ve pressed my skin to the knife.
“Somehow, you escaped Marcus. You even managed to evade all the other angels I sent to help fix his mistake. But luckily, he retrieved you on this celebratory day. So, here’s the game, Daughter,” he spat. Literally spat his saliva onto me. It globbed onto my shorts and sprayed onto my thighs. “You answer my questions the way I want, and you extend your life for a few more minutes or hours.”
I laughed. I think it was shock. Michael talked about extending my life, so he meant to kill me, regardless, on my birthday, which I didn’t even know until now, next to my unconscious mom.
Bolted to the table with my Glory bound, I had no way of escaping or helping my mom. Any hope of a rescue attempt from Oliver or Aspen didn’t exist. Neither knew where I was. Who knew if they were still alive? So, here I was at the mercy of a fake father who hated me and waited all this time to eradicate me from his life with a flourish of his special dagger.
The laugh was not the response he wanted. He moved.
I screamed as the tip of his magnetic dagger stabbed into my thigh. He pulled it down in a straight line, splitting my flesh. Jerkingagainst the heavy chains, my screams turned to shrieks, and my Infernus surged.
Michael spat on the purple flames. His spit turned to specks of ice on my skin. “Disgusting things. Put them away.”
I didn’t.
“I already owe you a slice for screaming. Do you want another for disobeying me?” He made another deep line next to the one he had just carved.
