Azazel sat forward on the single-seater sofa, elbows braced on his thighs. “He’s a dominion, Mal. It’s his nature to be aggressive. Calm down.”

“He shoved Fee.”

Azazel gave him a sharp look. “And that isn’t like Cassiel.”

“You know him?”

“He used to be one of the messengers between the Beyond and the Underealm. He’s one of the most controlled of the dominions, a leader. His reaction to Fee’s inquiry is worrying. The fact he got physical is…telling. He wanted her out of there and fast.”

“You think he was protecting me?”

“I don’t know,” Azazel said. “But we need to watch our step on this. We need to think it through.”

Was he serious? “What is there to think through? They’ve obviously done something to Uriel. This has to be something to do with him looking into the Dread claims about being celestials. He went digging, someone found out and didn’t like it. They probably have him locked up somewhere.” I paced back and forth across the patches of sunlight that dappled the rug. “He’s probably hurt, and it’s all my fault. We have to get him out.”

“Fee, please,” Azazel said softly. “Take a breath. Calm down.”

“Calm down? How can I be calm when my friend is in danger?”

“Who’s in danger?” Cora said from the doorway. “What did I miss, and whose ass is in need of a kicking?”

“Uriel is missing,” Mal said. “Celestia has no record of him, which means someone is attempting to erase him.”

“This is because if his inquiries, right?” Cora said.

“I think so. It has to be.”

“So, what do we do about it?” she asked.

“There is nothing we can do,” Azazel said. He pulled himself up off the sofa. “The affairs of the Beyond are not our affairs.”

“Excuse me?” I stared up at him, not believing what I was hearing, ready to snap at him, but the dark smudges beneath his eyes and the pallor of his skin had me biting back my words. “Are you okay?” I stepped closer and caressed his cheek.

He smiled and gently caught my wrist, bringing my palm to his mouth for a kiss. “I’m fine, Fee. And I’m not trying to be callous. If the Beyond has removed Uriel from their database, there is nothing we can do. There is no way for us to get into the Beyond. We aren’t pure-blooded celestials. We’d burn up if we tried to bypass the foyer and push through. And even if we could, such an act could damage the balance between the Beyond and the Underealm. Demons descended from the original fallen rely on the connection to survive, and human souls rely on the system to find peace. We have no proof that Uriel has come to any harm. For all we know, the Beyond may have a recycling system for celestials. Uriel might be getting a new form, a new name. We have no clue. Cassiel’s reaction to your inquiry tells me we need to back off. Now.”

“So, what?” Mal said. “We just forget about Uriel? What about the information he might have dug up on the Dread? Don’t you think we need that?”

Azazel seemed to consider this. “Maybe there is something we can do. I vaguely recall a summoning spell to force a celestial to manifest, but it was a long time ago. It was supposed to be destroyed, but if I know witches, they would have kept a record of the forbidden spell.”

“I can ask Vi,” Cora said. “Maybe they have something in their archives.” She looked to me. “Raincheck on girls’ night?”

Oh, shit. “Yeah, definitely.”

She winked out.

“You should get some rest, Az,” Mal said. “You look wiped.”

“I’m fine.”

No, he wasn’t, and the kernel of anxiety in my stomach was pushing out roots. “Well, I could do with a nap.” I slipped my arm around his waist. “Care to join me?”

He hugged me to his side. “Now that’s an invitation I can’t refuse.”

“Well, that’s my cue to go be somewhere else,” Mal said.

He slid a hot look my way before he left the room, and despite my concern over Uriel, my stomach flipped.

I pushed Uriel to the back of my mind for now. There was nothing I could do about that situation right this minute, but I was damned if I was letting it go.

Chapter Twenty-Three

It was good to see Azazel’s quarters occupied again. The paints and easels were back, and he’d even hung up some of the portraits he’d made of me. It was weird walking into the room and seeing myself everywhere, not that we were about to spend any time in this part of his quarters. Azazel tugged me into his bedroom and then stripped off his clothes, his eyes bright with hunger.

“I thought we were napping?” I gave him a coy look.

“Oh, we will. After. Get undressed,” he ordered. “I need to be inside you.”

His need was a palpable force crackling in the air between us. It was evident in the jump and flex of his arousal and the tense lines of his shoulders. He was holding back, waiting for me to comply, and I was more than ready for him. I stripped off my clothes, hands trembling with excitement, and lay back on the bed, chest heaving in delicious anticipation as he climbed up, pantherine and powerful between my legs.

“I need to fuck you, Fee,” he said. “Hard and fast, and then afterward, we’ll do it slow, okay?”

He pushed down the waistband of his boxers to free his erection, huge and ready for me.

“Fee?” He worked himself for me slowly. “Is that okay?”

I licked my lips. “Yes, please.”

He pressed a hand to my chest, pinning me down, and I opened for him, already wet and hungry.

He grasped my upper thigh with his free hand and urged me to open wider. “That’s better. Fuck, you’re beautiful.” He rubbed the head of his cock against me.

“Oh, Az…”

“I fucking missed you.” He entered me slowly, pushing deep. I cried out as he filled me, pulsing and huge. He held himself there, grinding his hips against me.

“I fucking missed you so much.” He pulled out the tip, leaving me empty, and then filled me up again. “So much.” He did it again and again, hitting the spot that drove me wild.

“Mine,” he growled. The bed thudded against the wall with every thrust. “Come for me, Fee.”

His thumb found my clit, and he circled it, never breaking tempo as he thrust into me.

I let my body take over, reveling in the sensation, in the abandonment, in what his cock was doing to my G-spot and what his thumb was doing to my clit, and then fireworks were stealing my vision, and an electric charge had my body in its grip as every muscle in my body tightened on an orgasm.

Azazel let out a primal cry as he came. I hugged him to me as we rode the wave together, and then he rolled off me and tucked me against his side.

“I needed that,” he said. “Not having you with me was harder than I expected.”

“Because I was with Grayson?”

“No, just because you weren’t here.” He stroked my hair. “I missed you, Fee. Not just the lovemaking, but you. You light up this place. I’m so lucky that you’re my soulmate.”

He was silent for a long beat and then, “I was going to save this and ask with the human pomp and ceremony, but with everything that’s happened I’ve realized that life is too short to put things off and there is never the perfect moment.”

I propped myself up on my elbow to look at him properly. “What is it?”

He reached up to caress my cheek with his fingertips. “Seraphina Dawn. Will you marry me?”

I stared at his beautiful mouth, the mouth that had just uttered words I wasn’t expecting, and my heartbeat accelerated in confusion and elation.

Azazel continued. “You accepted the demon part of you and the Loup part of you with immense grace, but I know how much your humanity means to you. I want to marry you, but I want to do it your way, the human way.”

My instinct was to say yes. Yes, of course. But where would that leave Mal? I was mated to Grayson, which was almost like being married, soulmated to Azazel, which was intimate in a whole new way, but Mal and I didn’t have these extra connections. If I married Azazel, how would that make Mal feel?

Azazel frowned. “You’re worried…about Mal…” He pressed his lips together, his silver eyes reflective. “I understand, Fee.”

I touched his jaw. “I want to. I’d love to, you know that, right?”

He gave me an upside-down smile. “Then marry us both.”

“I can do that?”

“Why not? We make our own rules. We can pick a venue and have the cardinal come to Necro and officiate. You can have whatever dress you want and the hugest cake and the biggest party.” He paused. “That is how it’s done, right?”

My eyes welled, and I nodded, dislodging tears. Joy swelled inside me just like it had after Grayson and I mated, and then a needle of fear stabbed at my chest.

I ducked my head, pressing my forehead to his shoulder. “I’m scared.”

“Why?”

“I’m so fucking happy, and I’m scared something will take that feeling away.”

He sank his fingers into my hair. “Nothing will take it away, Fee. I won’t let it. I swear it. We’ll find the tulpa puppet master, and we’ll keep you safe. Everything else is business as usual, and that shit stays at the door. Let’s get married, Fee. Let’s make it official, human-style.”

I came out of hiding and met his level gaze. “I love you doesn’t express how I feel.”

“Then how about you show me?”

I spent the next half hour doing just that.

I left Azazel sleeping and slipped back to my room for a quick shower. It was almost nine p.m., and Cora still wasn’t back. I dressed and stepped out of the bathroom to find Cyril curled on my bed.

“Hey.” I sat beside him. “I missed you.”