Chapter 8 #2
“If we spoke the angelic language for everyday conversation there’s no telling what kind of magic we’d wind up casting,” Sam informed me. “Here. I’ll teach you the one for summoning. Just imagine the outfit you want while you say the word.”
Sam said a word, then had me repeat it.
I had a hard time imagining an outfit, so I opted for a simple dress. Still, all I could think about was how I was currently clothed with one angel wing and one demon wing.
My mental image faltered as I attempted to master the strange foreign syllables. After I’d said it a third time, this time with the correct pronunciation, a beautiful tight-fitting dress swirled over my curves and fanned out around my hips.
One side black. The other white.
Naturally.
“I feel like a zebra,” I complained as the twins guided me out of the gardens.
Azra hooked an arm around my waist and drew me in close to him. “Then you’re one sexy zebra,” he said with a wink.
The golden city the twins had brought to life spanned all around us, glittering with an ethereal sense of brilliant light.
Only, the ground had changed since I’d bonded with Azra. A dark crack radiated from the gardens and spread throughout the city, reminding me of the dark streaks of corruption that had bled from my shoulder.
Was I corrupting the Angel Campus?
“The Music Hall is over here,” Sam instructed as he guided us down an alternate path.
“Music Hall?” I asked, noting that the black cracks didn’t follow us out that way.
“Angels are kind of known for their singing,” Azra informed me. “With the right song, powerful magic can be released.”
Sam hummed in agreement as we passed a large building with griffon statues. “I think that’s what’s missing in the gardens. Ambrosia can’t bloom without being summoned by the right angel.” His gaze leveled on me. “You used to sing in Purgatory. It’s how we found you in the first place.”
I stopped in my tracks. “Wait a second. You want me to sing?” I wasn’t sure if I could hold a note. I’d never even tried, and I imagined it wouldn’t be pretty if I did.
Sam smiled. “My brother has done a suitable job awakening your angel, Lilith. I suspect you’re far enough along to attempt a song.”
Glancing between the brothers, I waited to see if there would be any animosity or jealousy, but I couldn’t find any.
Sam had seemed so upset that I’d attempted a bond with Cole, so shouldn’t it have bothered him that I’d also attempted a bond with Azrael, his twin? What made his twin better than him?
Seeing them side-by-side in the golden light of the angelic city made them seem so ethereal.
Their massive white wings swayed with an invisible wind and their violet irises watched me under snow-white eyelashes.
Their dark hair framed their perfect faces, and both of them boasted sharp jawlines that made me want to take turns kissing them.
And now that I knew who they truly were, Purgatory’s Torturers, I should have been afraid of them.
But I wasn’t.
Being at Azra’s mercy had taught me what kind of mates they were to me. They were skilled in interrogation and eliciting confessions, something that my soul needed on the deepest of levels.
I wanted the pain they could give.
And in return, they awarded me with pleasure.
“You’re staring,” Azra informed me in a loud whisper.
Sam grinned. “What’s she thinking about, brother?”
Clearing my throat, I broke between them and shoved my way to the open doorway framed with marble. “I’m not thinking about anything.” Turning, I shot up a finger at Azra who’d just opened his big mouth. “Not. A. Word.”
Azra simply grinned that sinful grin of his, making me want to throttle him and kiss him at the same time.
Damned unruly mates.
Marching into the building, I followed the hallway garnished with gold and silver frost. Impressive arches swirled across the walls and golden motes glittered with magic.
Whatever project Samael had been up to, it was clear that it was releasing a large amount of magic.
The twins silently followed me as I scaled a long, winding staircase that edged around the side of the building. Once we were at the top I was able to overlook the city that bled into the area of the ruins that the twins hadn’t repaired yet.
The golden paths broke out and gave way to Hell’s harsh landscape.
It didn’t escape my attention that parts of Hell still frosted over.
Without my mother, things were only going to get worse.
As a Princess of Hell, I couldn’t leave without the entire Underworld freezing over, although Jess was working on a fix for that little problem of mine that kept me grounded.
Or under-grounded, as it were.
“One problem at a time,” Sam told me as he slid his hand around my waist. “While I can’t read your thoughts, I can see you’re thinking about your mother, about Lucifer, and about all the lives you’re trying to save.” The way he held me was different than Azra. His touch was stronger, yet calmer.
Azra watched with a sense of intrigue as he leaned against the window on the other side and crossed his arms. “I think she enjoys comparing us, brother.”
Sam grinned when my face threatened to redden again.
“It’s only natural for her to compare us.
We’re twins, and yet we’re both her mates in different ways.
” He sighed. “On that point, I’m not going to rush into a bonding like you, Azrael.
Just because you were lucky doesn’t mean it’s not still dangerous.
” Despite his words of caution, his body spoke otherwise, his hip leaning into mine as he curled his arm around me.
I tucked my wings and made sure not to nick him with the demon talon on my left side. “I know you were upset earlier,” I began, remembering how he’d vanished into the sky after saying something rude in a language I didn’t understand. “It was because I’d tried to bond with Cole, right?”
He glanced up at Azra and frowned.
Azra raised his hands in surrender. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t say anything.”
Sam’s nostrils flared before he turned back to me. “This isn’t about Cole,” he told me.
I narrowed my gaze. “Are you sure? Because it sounds like it’s about Cole. You don’t seem upset at all that I fucked your brother.”
The ground trembled in response to my curse and I fell into Sam’s chest, my body pressing up against his hard flesh.
He chuckled as he steadied me. “Careful, beloved. You’re on Holy Ground.”
“It didn’t do that earlier,” I complained, but I didn’t pull away. Sam’s scent was warm, woodsy, with a hint of vanilla.
Sweet. Seductive. Relaxing.
Sam didn’t pull away either. His violet eyes watched me with new intensity. The sensual tension between us had only grown stronger now that we’d been given hope.
I didn’t want to be tempted. Not if he thought it was still dangerous. I didn’t want to do anything that would put him in danger.
And he was absolutely tempting.
“She’s right,” Azra confirmed, glancing out the window again.
He leaned and looked back the way we’d come toward the garden.
He tapped the window with his finger. “See that? There are some black streaks across the ground.” He glanced at me with a mischief gleam in his eyes.
“It seems I rocked your world… literally.”
Sam scoffed. “Don’t flatter yourself, brother. It’s probably just some effect due to a mate-bond with someone as powerful as Lilith, who is still a Princess of Hell. We don’t know what kind of impact she’s going to have on the work we’ve done to the Angel Campus.”
I ran my fingers over the hard lines of his chest, unable to resist following them.
He glanced down when my touch went toward his waistline.
“Maybe we should ask Kaito?” I suggested, trying to distract myself from the other hard lines that were straining at Sam’s crotch.
“He might have some ideas about getting the ambrosia to bloom, too.”
“He’s a demon,” Sam countered as if that negated anything Kaito might have to say.
I frowned, using Azra’s tactics of punishment as I removed my finger from Sam’s skin. “I’m a demon, too.”
“Part-demon,” Sam corrected. He brushed a lock of hair from my face. When I flinched away he stopped.
With our moment broken, he waved a hand down the hall. “Regardless, I still have something to show you, Lilith.”
Azra rolled his eyes. “Don’t be such a stiff, brother.” He swept in and brushed a kiss on my cheek, surprising me with his tenderness. “I’ll send a message to Kaito, beloved. You can stay with sourpuss here and see if you can talk some sense into him.”
“Azrael,” Sam growled, but Azra had already shoved open the window and winked at me before falling out backwards.
I rushed to the edge of the window and the wind caught my hair, flailing it up as I watched Azra catapult toward the ground. He released a delighted whoop! before twisting and spreading his wings, gliding in a perfect arch upward and toward the Academy.
“Show off,” Sam growled.
When I turned, I found his back to me. He was so beautiful from any angle it was hard to resist the urge to trace every muscle with my tongue and find what spots might be sensitive. Perhaps the muscles closest to his wings?
Thankfully, he couldn’t hear my thoughts and urged me to follow him. “The Composition Room is this way,” he told me, barely turning his chiseled jaw over his shoulder to speak before he marched off.
It was the equivalent of a tantrum for someone as calm as Sam.
Smirking, I scampered to catch up to him, determined to find a way to make this work.
One brother down.
One to go.