Page 15 of Wicked Bonds
“You will,” he promised, grinning against her mouth before releasing her and taking a step back. “Now tell me about the High Council of Seraph. What do you think they’re going to do next?”
Chapter3
Leela
Balthazar’sswift topic change made Leela’s head spin.
One minute, he had her pinned to the shower wall with a hot promise pressed up against her lower belly, and the next, he observed her with a clinical expression. She blinked, startled. Then glanced down to find him still hard and very ready for more.
Which meant this was a demonstration of restraint.
Because he wanted her to beg.
Fine.
She would just have to show him what he was missing.
Except his comment hung heavy in her mind. “What do you think they’re going to do next?”
“The Fates would have predicted Aidyn’s birth,” Leela said, thinking out loud. “The council is probably meeting now to determine her fate. It may…” She trailed off, swallowing. “It may be enough to finally push them over the edge.”
“Over the edge?” he repeated.
“Into war,” she whispered, her desire wilting with each passing second. “Hydraians and Ichorians are abominations—beings that were created through an abuse of power by the Seraphim of Resurrection. The council wants all of you dead.”
They just hadn’t acted on it yet, waiting for the right time to intervene.
The High Council of Seraph never moved quickly with their decisions. They were practical to a fault, waiting for the precise moment in history that they should insert themselves into a situation.
And they relied on the Fates to tell them when.
“Everything they do is driven by the seers of my kind,” Leela continued. “If the Fates predict anything nefarious where Aidyn is concerned—such as the ability to make more Seraphim in a lab, similar to Lizzie—the council may decide it’s finally time to clean up Osiris’s mess.”
Clean up,meaningkill them all. Because the High Council of Seraph wouldn’t attempt to reform anyone; they’d just slaughter the abominations and move on.
The only reason they hadn’t intervened yet was because of the Fates.
It’s not time yet.
To involve ourselves now is premature.
There is still hope that Osiris will reform.
Leela had overheard the whispers of those prophecies outside the chamber walls. She and Vera took turns spying on the council meetings, hiding in a nook on the outskirts of the coliseum where voices carried and no one ever looked.
Seraphim would never see spying on a council meeting as practical.
Because the notion that a Seraphim would go against her own kind was inconceivable.
Why would anyone question the council? They were founded in logic and purpose. Of course, they put the best interest of the Seraphim first and foremost in their decisions. To do otherwise would be unreasonable and serve no greater purpose.
But that was precisely the sort of ingrained logic that caused her kind to turn a blind eye to the truth.
The High Council of Seraph is corrupt.
She could still remember the first time she’d had that realization. It’d been after spending several centuries around humans, learning about their proclivities for war, sex, and violence. But as she’d watched the politics unfold throughout the years, she’d realized how it applied to her homeland. How the Seraphim Council used logic and practicality as a way to keep the angels in line.
It was strategic. Beautiful. Cunning. And dangerous.
