Chapter 3
Alive.
They’re alive.
I had to place my fingers on the first male’s neck to be sure, but a steady heartbeat pushed back against my touch. I hadn’t been too late.
Spinning around, I searched the wall until I found something to use as a sconce. Shoving my torch into the crevice, I made way to the males splayed out on the floor.
They weren’t in cages.
This room had been their tomb.
Both of them shifted at the sound of my whispers, giving me nothing more than a weak stirring of their wings in response.
Kneeling, I brushed away one of the male’s dark silky hair, revealing a face carved from marble. Utter perfection made up his features as I attempted to wake him.
I softly touched his cheek again. “Hello?”
Both of them stirred at the sound of my voice, but didn’t open their eyes.
The building shuddered again all around us, the mass above us making an awful groan, as if in protest of my disturbance. Dread turned my belly cold and I reached out to the angel closest to me. “Hey, wake up. We have to get out of here. It’s not safe.”
The first male rolled onto his back, his massive wings stretching wide behind him like a painting. He wouldn’t open his eyes even though he yawned, smacking his lips before his chest resumed a slow rise and fall.
They weren’t dying.
They were fucking asleep.
“Hey!” I shouted, louder this time.
Ignoring me, he kept on sleeping without a care in the world. The brief crease of his brows suggested that I was the one intruding.
“What’s gotten into you two?” I asked, brushing the hair from the male’s face closest to me. The other still rested face-down with his head on his arm. I hadn’t been able to move the first one, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to attempt the second.
Unable to decide how to wake them, or what to do if I couldn’t, I found my gaze raking over their otherworldly features. I’d been around my fair share of supernaturals, but…
Gods.
He’s beautiful.
His body was honed down to hard muscle and taut lines, beautiful in a way few males could be.
High cheekbones paired with winged brows and a sculpted jawline that was positively kissable.
Lips that were almost too lush, but not quite.
A dent in his chin that finished up the exquisite lines of his face, all of it topped off with inky, short black hair that spilled over onto his forehead when I removed my fingers.
Yet, his features ran dark with mottled bruises, some of them older than others.
I wanted to murder whoever had marred such perfection.
Now, if only he’d open his eyes so I could see their color—and show me he was awake.
I caught the outstretched arm of the angel next to me and pulled, ready to drag them out of here if I had to.
Only, he didn’t budge.
Frustrated, I pulled harder. “Come on,” I pleaded.
A single Virtue stirred through my bonds, finding me in the pits of Purgatory buried underneath the layers of Hell.
There was only one Virtue that could do that.
“What do you want, Cole,” I said through gritted teeth as I pulled on the angel again.
He didn’t budge.
You can’t save them, Cole said, his voice rumbling in my mind.
“Watch me,” I snarled.
A sigh followed.
Fully grown angels are too heavy even with your physical strength, he said, his voice soft—for him. It was almost sympathetic, even. You have others counting on you. Your mates, your friends. You can’t risk them for these angels you don’t even know.
I tugged on the male’s arm again, attempting to move him, but Cole was right. As a supernatural tribrid, or quadbrid, even, I had supernatural strength that should have made moving a couple of males a piece of angel food cake.
Nope. Not these heavenly dudes.
These angels were much heavier than they looked.
“What do they eat, entire bulls for breakfast?” I lamented.
To my surprise, Cole decided to be useful and provide me with information on angelic biology—which made me wonder where he’d learned such details.
Look at their wings, Lily. Those feathers aren’t for show and beneath them lies a framework of bone, sinew, and muscle.
They can’t move like this, not until they awaken the angelic magic that makes them lighter than their physical bodies demand.
You can’t save them. You don’t even know them. Leave, so you can save the rest of us.
Cole was wrong. I did know these two angels. I didn’t recall those memories—not yet. But that other part of me, the one I still struggled to accept my angelic part… my soul? She knew these two angels and she was crying for them to wake up.
They were my Virtues. My touch alone should be enough to stir them, and it worked to an extent, but maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough.
I brushed the male’s cheek with the back of my knuckles, softly at first, then again before I kissed his cheek.
A flutter swept through my core, and he moaned, but still, he wouldn’t wake up.
Frustrated, I stroked the wing of the other angel. He flicked the lovely feathers, as if irritated, then folded his wing back over his body and rolled onto his side.
He didn’t wake up. He did, however, give me a perfect view of his face, one that I had just seen on the other angel. Either they were twins or all angels looked remarkably alike.
“It’s time to go,” I said, touching his cheek.
He didn’t do anything other than sigh.
“Shit,” I whispered. The ground rolled under me against the curse and I shoved upright, panic flooding me.
Then, that gave me an idea.
“Damn it!” I tested. The ground rumbled again, but not too badly. Heaven did love its damnation, so I tried again.
“You’re an ass wipe!”
Still a minor rumble.
Damn, I’m going to have to really go all out here.
I held onto my crown as I shouted at the top of my lungs. “I’m a Princess of Hell and I like to be fucked in the ass, you motherfucking piece of shit piece of Hell!”
Both angels shot up, the first with brilliant amethyst eyes that locked onto me.
Then his gaze fell, a panty-melting grin stretching across his face. “Oh, you brought my flask. I was looking for that.”
Before I could reply, he snatched the flask from my hip and screwed it open, downing it in a few short gulps. When it was empty, he frowned and tipped it upside down, shaking it.
“You idiot!” I shouted, stomping my foot. “That was my fuel! Now we’re going to die in the dark because we can’t find the fucking door.”
The ground rumbled violently again and we all looked up.
“We have plenty of light,” he grumbled, snapping his fingers, frowning as if something was supposed to happen when he did that. “Hmm,” was all he said.
The other angel cleared his throat as he rubbed his eyes. “I think my brother meant to apologize, and thank you for waking us up, Lilith.” He yawned, then slapped his brother on the back of his head. “Always drinking, Azrael. Aren’t you excited Lilith has returned?”
The one named Azrael glanced up again at me, eyes wide. “Lily?” he asked, leaning in until we were nose-to-nose.
His hotness could not be ignored, nor could the intense connection that drew me to these two angels and I swallowed past the lump in my throat.
He kissed the tip of my nose. “I fucking missed you, sweet cheeks.”
Sweet cheeks?
That seemed to be one too many f-bombs for Purgatory to handle and a crack reverberated throughout the air. Light broke through the dark sludge of the room, screeching down the walls as Purgatory threatened to disassemble.
Debris crashed on the other side of us, making me scramble to my feet as both males joined me, taking my hands in theirs.
The response was instant, a rush of power billowing through me, shooting from my wingtips like electric fire as a golden dome formed over our heads, protecting us from an onslaught of crushing stone.
“There it is,” Azrael said with another one of his panty-melting grins. “Light,” he supplied, when I blinked at him.
Oh. Right. They were angels—as was I, of a sort.
We didn’t need fire.
We had an eternal light inside of ourselves, one that burned with the light of creation and life.
I wasn’t sure how I knew that; it felt like a lesson I had been taught long ago, but forgotten.
Glancing up at the other gorgeous angel, I wanted to hear his voice again. It felt like I knew him, both of them. Perhaps he was the one who had taught me these things.
But, how?
Samael, my own voice whispered inside my head. His name is Sam. And his brother… you called him Azra.
When I repeated the names out loud, the other angel looked at me and smiled, not a mischievous grin like his brother, but adoring and no less heart-stopping.
“There’s my little angel,” Sam whispered.
Azra returned his brother’s smack upside the head. “You said not to trigger her memories when she found us. Past lives don’t mingle, or some shit.”
“I can’t help it if I’m memorable,” he countered, glowering at his brother.
“Maybe you should try being less of a fucking dickwad and instead be more worthy of Lilith. Then she’ll remember you, too.
” He huffed his annoyance. “Purgatory doesn’t count as a past life, so she’s allowed to remember, but rushing it might overwhelm her. That’s all I meant, asshole.”
Debris crushed down on us, all of Purgatory seeming to disassemble all at once.
“Guys!” I said, squeezing their hands, drawing out the golden light from their bodies to fuel the thin shield separating us from life and death. “No more cursing!” That seemed to be what had pushed Purgatory over the edge, and it was a tactic I was now regretting.
They both groaned as I drew more power than their souls seemed to be willing to give.
“Greedy little thing,” Azra said with a wry grin.
“The collapse will be our freedom,” Sam informed me, shielding me with his wing as golden light flowed from his body to mine. “You were clever, little angel. Take what you need from us to keep yourself safe.”
He didn’t care about himself.
Neither of them did.