Page 34 of Prince of Ruin
Demons hissed and slunk out of the shadows behind Samael.
And right in the middle, the car burned like holy fire.
She’d seen a thousand paintings plucked right from the pages of Dante’s Inferno, but this was the cinematic version of it.
Sera was stuck in the middle of all three of them, but she couldn’t take her attention off him.
And the way he looked at her—suddenly she was back in the past, staring at him as Heaven burned.
She could see the knowledge in his eyes.
You’re with Uriel.
You’ll always go running to him….
“I’m sorry.” The words broke from her lips.
The look he gave Uriel was cold, flat, merciless… and almost thoughtful.
And then he turned his attention to Samael. “You’re breaking the city’s treaties. You shouldn’t be here.”
“Once this is done, I don’t think any of the other ruling city heads will care. They’ll be trying to keep me from their throats.” Samael clicked his fingers and vampires and demons beganpouringout of the streets. Some of them climbed the walls of the buildings—just your friendly neighborhood vampire!—and others scuttled along on all fours. Fangs flashed as one of them grinned at her.
Sera found herself backing away.
The numbers weren’t in their favor.
Azazel walked toward him, his hands still in his pockets and the faintest of smiles on his lips. There was no mercy in that smile, and she could tell, from the way Samael’s demons tensed, that fear radiated from him like a menacing shadow.
What was he thinking?
He was dozens of feet away from his demons. Samael could drown him in vampires with a snap of his fingers.
“Sera,” Uriel called, gesturing sharply. “Come here.”
The two demons faced each other.
And while Sera knew she ought to get out of the way, she couldn’t make her feet move.
“Azazel!”
He cut her a look. “I’ll deal with you later.”
Arrogant fucking demons.
Sera tugged the shard from within her shirt.
Suddenly, everyone froze.
“Here,” she called, tossing it to the archangel.
Uriel batted it out of the air with his sleeve and it landed in a muddy puddle by Tay’s feet. “Sera!” The look on his face would have been comical if the situation wasn’t so serious.
She hadn’t even thought the action through.
If he’d touched that shard it wouldn’t have just ignited, the detonation would have been catastrophic. Maybe the entire quarter would have burned.
“Sorry. I’m a little on edge.” She wrapped both hands around the hilt of her broken sword.I need you now. I need you….
