Page 14 of Prince of Ruin
She hadn’t even realized there were others there.
“Wait!” Sera pushed onto her knees as a pair of demons strode toward her.
Azazel stilled. “You dare?”
Uriel’s words echoed in her head. “What price are you willing to pay for redemption?”
Everything, she’d breathed.
Well, everything was right here in front of her.
And pay it, she would.
“I’ll do anything,” she whispered. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” Their eyes met. “But only you.”
4
“I’m waiting.” Azazel poured them both a scotch, vapor curling off the ice as the liquid hit.
They were in the private room overlooking the dancefloor. The glass was thick enough to stifle the music—or warded—but she’d caught a glimpse of hundreds of people throwing themselves around in ecstasy.
It was miles away from this moment.
Miles away from the deals and punishments that were clearly meted out in this room. She hadn’t missed the scars on the enormous desk of polished walnut that stood in the center of the room. Razor straight lines that had to have come from a knife.
“I… met a man. I don’t know his name, okay? Just… it’s been hard to pay the rent this time of year, hard to keep the bastards from knocking at my door, and he promised me a huge reward if I brought him the golden box in your gallery.”
“Immortality.”
“Exactly.” She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to play the innocent. “You don’t know what it’s like to be human. I just wanted… a chance. I wanted to be the strong one. I wanted to be the predator for once.”
Merciless eyes watched her as he sank into his chair and rubbed his knuckles over his thigh. A little smile formed. “You’re a fool if you believed he’d pay you thusly.” Lazy lidded eyes glanced to the left. “And only a demon could promise you such a thing.”
There were hundreds of true demons in the city.
But only a few who would dare take on the Prince of Ruin.
“What are you thinking?” she whispered.
“That you don’t send a girl like you to steal a dangerous weapon.” He brushed his thumb across the fullness of his lower lip. Thoughtful. Dangerous. “No. You send her to be a distraction.”
Sera swallowed. Hard.
He was buying this.
She turned away, pacing two steps to the right. “Then you think this was a setup? You think he played m— Oh.”
The painting stopped her in its tracks.
She’d raked the room for danger the second they entered, but her entire focus had been locked upon him the second she’d marked it as clear. Not the furnishings.
This wall dwelled in shadows as if he wanted to hide the painting.
But it was her.
Her.
In her real form, light blazing from her eyes and fingers as she wielded her burning sword. A warrior. An angel. Bloodied and anguished, lifting her sword one last time as if to ward off a blow—
