That was a relief. “Good.”
Eden moved away, agitated, but she couldn’t pinpoint the reason she suddenly felt nauseous and terrified and cold. Goose bumps flashed across her skin. Lost in her thoughts, she walked close to the edge of the barge and stared at the murky water.
“Did I do something?”
His voice was rough, yet tender and came from behind her. “No. No, you didn’t.” It wasn’t a lie. He hadn’t done a thing. So why did she suddenly want to run?
Man, her brain ached. The more she tried to force the memory, the more her temples throbbed. But it was right there, within reach, if she could just stretch her brain a little further.
Pain danced up her spine. She went to one knee. Seren was at her side, sweeping her hair over her shoulder, cupping her face, demanding she tell him what was wrong. Tongue tied in knots, she couldn’t put it into words.
“I’m taking you back to the cabin.”
She shook her head. That didn’t stop him from latching on to her shoulders and trying to portal her back to the cabin. She refused to go. He needed her cooperation, and she refused. She wasn’t going anywhere until she remembered.
Chapter 20
“You’re fighting me. Why?” Seren demanded.
So, he’d tried to move me without my permission.Eden yanked free of his touch. “I’m not returning to the cabin.”Not yet. Maybe not ever.She didn’t wither under his sharp gaze. Her spine straightened and she stared back at him, seeing him in all his glory. Yet, seeing more.
He was still, like a monument, just watching her as if waiting for her to come to her senses or realize something. Something she wouldn’t just disagree with but hate. Vehemently. And he was afraid.
She didn’t know how this knowledge came to her, but Edenknewit. Her newly honed instincts screamed Seren was hiding something. And she had to find out what secret the angel held before it killed her.
“You said you were sent to protect me,” she hedged.
“Yes.” His voice was a low murmur.
“By the Seraph Iaiél.”
“Yes.”
“She came to you and told you this?”
“I was summoned to the antechamber to the Council of Seraphim. There she waited.”
“When?”
“... The day before I met you.”
“That’s why you were angry. Weren’t pleased when you showed up at my apartment. You didn’t want theassignment. That’s what you called me. An assignment you didn’t want. Right?”
He sighed. “Yes. I can’t lie. I didn’t want the assignment.” Sorrow snaked through his gaze. “That is not how I feel now.”
It should matter that his opinion changed. It should, but it didn’t. He’d rejected her sight unseen. “Lowly human not good enough for you?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “It wasn’t that, Eden.”
“All humans are beneath you, right? Your prejudice isn’t yours alone. All angels feel this way, right?” She chipped away because Seren not wanting her even though he’d never seen her, hurt on a deep, personal, level.
His lips pressed together, keeping his reply locked down. She didn’t need his answer when she already had one. She looked away from his piercing, now intrusive gaze, in favor of the waves gently lapping against the boat as it made its way through the Puget.
Dear Diary,
Today I was rejected by an angel.
Now all she needed was Agone to do the same, and she’d have a dating trifecta. Man, angel, and demon.