All eyes shifted to Arik. “The contract says angel no more,” he began. “What if it doesn’t mean a fallen angel? What if it’s exactly what it says?”
“What, like someone who used to be an angel?” Than’s voice was thick with skepticism. “I’ve never heard of anyone being demoted without falling.”
Ha. Smug bastard. Arik had one up on Mr. Five Thousand-Year-Old Horseman. “I have. One of my in-laws, Idess. You might have met her at the hospital. She was Memitim, some sort of guardian angel, and she gave up her wings to be with Sin’s twin brother, Lore.”
“Interesting,” Ares murmured. “This could work. It certainly can’t hurt.”
Arik didn’t bring up just how badly it could hurt. If the marriage ceremony didn’t break Limos’s contract and Arik tried to remove her chastity belt, it could hurt a whole lot. But if it did work… he nearly groaned out loud at the visual in his head. He’d never really thought he’d get married, not when his job didn’t allow for much dating, and not when his only marriage model—his parents’—had turned him off the idea.
But he’d also come around a little after seeing how happy his sister was with Shade. And Kynan didn’t seem to be suffering in his marriage, either.
This marriage to Limos might not be happening the way he’d have chosen it, but she’d become as much an important part of his life as Runa, and marrying her was about more than saving her from a fate worse than death and saving him from demons who wanted to torture him. This was about giving himself over to someone without reservation, something he’d never been able to do.
He’d always had to hold things back from women—his past, his job, even his temper. The result was short rlt ontelationships in which he didn’t allow himself to grow attached. But Limos knew everything about him, she could definitely hold her own against him, and he’d absolutely grown attached.
“What about Pestilence?” Than asked. “Other demons might lay off you if Satan no longer needs you to speak Limos’s name, but our brother owns your soul. He’ll want you dead more than ever, if for no reason other than to see Limos suffer.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Arik met Than’s cool gaze with a steady one of his own. Arik wasn’t backing down from this. “I’ve committed to your sister and given my word. I’ll deal with Pestilence when the time comes.”
Than stared for a long moment, and then, finally, he nodded, and Arik felt like he’d passed some sort of test. “So where are we having this shindig?”
“Greece is nice this time of year,” Cara said, stroking her hand over the squirming ball of black fur next to her.
Limos kicked up her bare legs across Arik’s knees. “It is. But Than’s place is bigger, and I want a huge wedding.”
The little goat demon slipped under Thanatos’s ankle-length coat and tried to climb his leg. Smiling, he scooped up it up and tickled it under the chin. “I would have taken you for a shotgun kind of girl.”
“Funny, Than,” Limos muttered. “You’re always pointing out what a girl I am, and yeah, I want it all. A dress, a cake, and a ceremony. But we kind of have to do it fast, since everyone wants Arik dead. And also,” she said, “it’s Christmas time, and Than’s place is a winter wonderland.”
Arik raised an eyebrow. “You guys celebrate Christmas?”
“Not as a religious holiday.” Somehow, Limos had practically crawled into Arik’s lap without him noticing, and now she twisted around and wrapped her arms around his neck. “But yes. Presents and parties and pretty decorations… I love it.” He loved how well she fit against him. “Reseph loved it, too. It was his favorite human holiday.”
“Nah,” Ares said. “He liked Halloween more. He lived to scare the shit out of people.”
Than shook his head. “New Year’s Eve. He planned out his party strategy months ahead of time so he could hit a big city in every time zone and get dozens of New Year’s Eves in one night.”
The Horsemen tossed around stories of Reseph’s antics, and for a few relaxed minutes, Arik got an idea of how it must have been for them before their brother’s Seal broke. And for the first time, he saw how much they had lost.
Eventually, an awkward silence fell, and Hal, the hellhound on the floor, whimpered as if feeling the strain. Finally, Ares cleared his throat and brought them back on track. “I don’t even know how to go about planning a big wedding,” he grumbled. “We did the simple beach thing with just Than and Limos.”
Cara grinned. “Limos and I will handle it. You come with me, and we’ll get you ready.” She patted Ares on the chest. “Gather your Underhers aworld General buddies, and I guarantee their mates will help out.”
“They aren’t my buddies,” he sighed, but Cara ig-nored him.
She grabbed Limos’s arm and pulled her to her feet. “Come on, Li. We’ll have a wedding by the end of the day.”
Twenty-five
“Arik, are you crazy?”
Arik smiled at his sister as she looked around Than’s place, where servants from all the Horseman households were scrambling to set things up for what promised to be a huge party.
“Maybe,” he said, and hell, it might be true. What was definitely true was the tension between Runa and him, the unspoken crap about how he’d been avoiding her calls.
“I just don’t get it.” Runa rubbed her arms through her cream Angora sweater. “Limos sent you to hell, and now you want to marry her?”
“She didn’t send me to hell. It was sort of a misunderstanding.”
Runa gave him a look that she usually reserved for when one of her triplets was misbehaving. “A misunderstanding is when your mate missed recording your favorite TV show because he was listening to a football game instead of you.” She glared over at Shade, who gave her a sheepish grin as he shoved trestle table benches around. “A misunderstanding is not when someone lands you in hell for a month.”
“That’s behind us,” he said. “This marriage is the only way to save her.” And, if it worked, himself.
“So this is a marriage of convenience? You don’t love her?” Runa sounded almost relieved, and he so wasn’t sure how to answer that.
He had fallen for Limos, but he couldn’t say it out loud. Not yet. When he said it, it would be to Limos. He might not have thought he’d ever get married, but now that he’d made the decision, he’d take it seriously, and his wife would be his partner in every way. She would be the first person to hear the important things, like how he felt about her.
“She saved my life,” he hedged. “She was prepared to make a huge sacrifice for me, and now I can do the same for her. I want this, Runa.”
His sister took a deep, long breath before turning her gaze on him. “Okay, then.” She folded herself into his arms and squeezed him tight. “I’m happy for you.”
Hugging her back, he kissed the top of her head. “I figure marriage hasn’t hurt you, so there’s hope for me, I guess.”
She pulled back to look up at him. “Wow. That’s the first time you actually sound like you approve of me and Shade.”
He snorted. “I still don’t like the bastard, but I’m not stupid. He’s good for you, and there’sed. st time yo no one I trust more to keep you safe.”
“What about you?” Runa’s voice went low and serious. “Are you safe? Will this marriage put you in any kind of danger? If her Seal breaks—”
“If her Seal breaks, we’re all in a lot of trouble.” He smiled, hoping to reassure her. “Limos found her agimortus, and she’s keeping it on her until we can secure it somewhere it’ll be safe forever.”
That, of course, was an issue of contention between the Horsemen, the R-XR, and The Aegis. They’d all done a brief teleconference an hour ago to discuss the best course of action, and naturally, everyone thought they were the best people to safeguard Limos’s little cup.
“What about Pestilence?” she asked. “He is her brother, so what if he decides he wants to hurt her through you?”
“Stop,” he said softly. “Everything will be okay.”
He prayed he sounded more confident than he was. Runa didn’t know Arik had been soul-sucked by the a**hole, and if he had his way, she never would. She was strong enough to handle it; he’d never doubt her strength. But if she knew, she’d never stop worrying, and after all she’d been through, she deserved a life free of the ugliness in his.
“What about you? Are you okay?”
She didn’t need to expand on that. She was asking if his time in hell had affected him. “I’m okay.” At her skeptical look, he rolled his eyes. “Seriously. I know I should be a drooling mess on the floor, but I think the Seminus demon who patched me up might also have patched my mind, too.” A vampire walked by, his arms loaded with a case of Dom Perignon. Damn, these Horsemen didn’t screw around, did they? “Hey, ah…”
“Don’t.” Runa stepped back. “Don’t ruin this with talk about our past.”
He hadn’t planned to, exactly, but this was related, and he swallowed against the sudden dryness in his throat. “I just wanted to say that I was sorry for avoiding you lately. What I did to you—”
“Wasn’t your fault. Stop it, okay? And don’t ask for my forgiveness, because there’s nothing to forgive.”
“Are you sure?” He glanced around the room, the way he had a hundred times since arriving, to make sure he kept track of everyone who came in and out. You could take the soldier out of the battle, but the wariness always remained. And in this case, the battle was still going on. “Did your nightmares return?”
She’d been plagued by nightmares about both their childhood and the part she’d played in their mother’s death, and regret had eaten her alive for years. Until Shade had released her from all of it.