Lover's Wrath: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance (An Angel and Her Demons Book 3), Lacey Andersen [best books to read non fiction TXT] 📗

before the dark cloud. Close enough to touch her demons. She felt Daniel’s gaze upon her. It took everything inside her not to look in his direction.

“Kneel before me,” Caine said. “And let me pluck their plan from your thoughts.”

His words weren’t a command. She glared at him. “Not a chance in hell.”

“Such an attitude,” the voice came from the darkness, and her eyes flicked to the red-winged archangel.

Every instinct within her screamed. She hadn’t expected to find him here. The Immortals had thought he’d be leading the battle, but they should have known better.

“Coward,” she hissed at them. “Hiding in here when there’s a war to fight.”

The archangel smiled, his expression slimy. “I live only to serve the great Caine.” His tone was filled with mockery.

“I told you to kneel,” Caine said, but she could almost feel him smiling as he said it.

“No fucking way!” she shouted at him, itching to call her soul-blade into her hand, to sever the heads of these two monsters.

“Why not just command her to?” The archangel said, but she got the sense their words were rehearsed. That they were playing with her.

“You know what might be more fun?” Caine asked. “We should let her make the choice—this foolish cause of hers, or the loves of her life.”

Her heart pounded. The dark liquid’s chill was everywhere, bleeding from her blood to something deeper, perhaps her very soul. Her teeth began to chatter and her limbs began to shake.

“Just face me like a man!” She shouted. “I’m tired of your games and bullshit.”

“Mark,” Caine ordered. “Hurt the angel.”

Despite her every intention, she turned. Mark had the same subtly handsome face, the same gentleness to his features. Although his glasses were different, the way they framed his deep blue eyes was as familiar to her as her own.

He showed no emotions as he drew the sword deeply across Daniel’s hand, drawing dark red blood.

Daniel jerked in the stocks. His jaw clenched and pain shone in his eyes, but he said nothing.

“Stop this,” Surcy said, and she didn’t have to fake the emotion in her voice.

“Only you can stop this.” The humor in Caine’s voice made her want to tear out his throat.

“Mark, Tristan, you were once demons, fighting for our cause. Daniel is your best friend. You can’t do this. You can’t hurt him.”

Tristan raised a brow, his stoic face expressionless. She looked into his mismatched eyes, craving to see recognition in his gaze more than she needed air, but there was nothing. A wicked déjà vu flowed through her but she pushed the feelings aside. She would deal with them later.

“Kill him,” Caine ordered.

Her soul-blade leapt into her hand, and she caught Tristan’s blade with her own one second before it touched the back of Daniel’s neck. Tristan pressed down harder. She fought against his strength, even as the blade lowered, cutting a line of blood into the back of Daniel’s neck.

“No,” she sobbed.

Inch by inch, Tristan forced her blade deeper.

Daniel cried out.

Surcy did the only thing she could think of to end Daniel’s suffering. She sent her soul-blade away.

The power of Tristan’s strength sent his sword down in one quick, fatal motion. Daniel was dead. His body still hung there, lifeless, held up by the stocks around his wrists.

She couldn't look at his severed body. A sob exploded from her lips as she turned away.

“One down, two to go,” the archangel said, laughing.

Overhead, a dragon’s roar echoed with rage. Whether it was for her loss or his pain in the battle, she didn’t know. She kept her focus on the archangel.

“Why are you doing this? Fight me!”

“Oh, but that’s what you want, isn’t it?” Caine said.

She stiffened, but tried to hide her thoughts. Did he know what they had planned? Did he know that the Immortals had discovered a simple way to destroy him?

“I could order your demons to walk straight into the Soul Destroyer. I just have to wish the portal to open and it is so. They can't refuse a direct command. Then they will be gone."

“No,” she denied him, her stomach turning. “You can’t.”

“Go to the Soul Destroyer,” Caine ordered Mark and Tristan.

They obeyed him without hesitation, coming to stand close to it. Instantly, the portal seemed to open. Darkness moved from it like a black fire, licking at their legs and feet. Their dark wings shook upon their backs, but they remained in place.

“Let me see their plan, or I will forever destroy the two men you hold so dear.”

Tears filled her eyes. With the slightest order, Mark and Tristan could be lost to her forever. She couldn’t make a mistake now. Too much was riding on her getting this right.

As tears ran down her cheeks, she collapsed onto her knees. “Do it, if it will keep Mark and Tristan safe.”

The darkness pulled back from Caine and she saw the face from her nightmares. His haunting beauty whispered of death and danger. He placed his big hands on either side of her head and tore into her mind like a savage.

Surcy screamed, the violating feeling making revolution blossom within her. For one long minute, he peeled through her chilly thoughts. He froze.

His confusion was like a perfume that filled the room. He slowed in his exploration of her thoughts, focusing on the moment the Goddess of Life filled the bottle with its dark liquid. The substance had only been used twice before in the history of forever.

“No,” he whispered.

And then, he was shooting out of her mind.

“No!” he shouted, staring at his hands as the dark veins appeared, spreading onto his fingers, wrists, and up his arms.

Spinning to his archangel, he shouted. “You’re the only one powerful enough to take this poison from me. So take it!”

The archangel smirked and stepped away from him. With a simple gesture, Mark and Tristan flew across the room, slamming into the stone.

“What are you doing?” Caine shouted, true panic in his voice. “If I die, you go with me. They’ll execute you as