Free Heaven and Hellsbane by Paige Cuccaro Page B

mine,” Liam said, stepping between the demon and Eli. He made a wall of himself even though the wall was barely five feet high. Okay, so maybe he was more of a hedge.
    “Wait. Wasn’t Amon just begging for Eli to shish kebab him with his sword a second ago?” I said.
    Eli exhaled like I’d asked if snow was white and glanced back at me. “He begged that I end him. Your sword, your power, sentences the Fallen to the abyss. My sword…ends them.”
    “Oh. Yeah. Right.” Maybe I was missing something. “So, what’s the difference?”
    “The abyss is punishment,” Liam said. “Eternity in darkness, their bodies and minds feeding upon themselves. ’Tis a hell worse than any dreamed by men or debated by science.”
    “The point is that they exist. They continue—even in the abyss they think, feel, and suffer…forever,” Eli said.
    “Well, yeah, that’s kinda the definition of immortal,” I said.
    “None of us is truly immortal. We do not age or suffer illness,” Eli said. “We have no natural end. But the blade of an angelic sword can end our existence, as it is. We return to the divine ether, to the spirit and power from whence we were formed. What we were…ceases.”
    I looked to Amon, tears drying, though his wide-eyed, handsome face was still etched with sorrow. “And you don’t want to end him because…?”
    “He doesn’t deserve it,” Eli replied.
    “What the bugger-all do you know, ya feckin’ wingless fairy,” Liam said.
    “I know his sin.” Eli’s voice was cold steel. “I know the pain his defiance wrought on the humans he used to satisfy his wicked desires.”
    “I loved them,” Amon said, his head low. “I loved her …I loved Beatrice with all that I am.”
    “Then you should have left her untouched, uncorrupted,” Eli said. “You would have done her less harm.”
    “Her?” I so did not understand angel sexual preference.
    Liam huffed. “Said I was gay. ’Tis all the same for angels.”
    Eli continued as though he hadn’t heard. “She was inconsolable after your banishment. She…” He exhaled, jaw tight, hands flexing, and then he looked away.
    Amon lifted his gaze to Eli, back stiffening. “She what?”
    In one swift movement, Eli drew his sword, pulling it from the invisible sheath at his side. He pushed Liam aside before the small man could see him move. Eli leveled the point of his sword at Amon’s neck, light reflecting off the metal beneath the demon’s chin.
    “If my blade could banish you to the eternal torment…”
    Amon’s expression flattened and he held his ground. “She what? Tell me.”
    “She took her own life,” Eli said.
    The demon stumbled back, his face going ashen, mouth agape—wordless.
    “She believed in death you would be reunited. She orphaned her child… your child.” Eli stepped closer, pressing his sword’s point against Amon’s flesh again. “Why would she believe such a thing unless you lied to her?”
    Amon shook his head. “No…no. I wouldn’t.”
    Liam shoved his way between the two men, slicing his sword against Eli’s, knocking it away from Amon. “Are ya deaf? He loved her. The daft bird never knew what he was. Didn’t know there was a special hell for fools the likes of him. He never told her. Was her human beliefs that twisted her reasoning. Not Amon.”
    “And now you’ve decided to take out your resentment on those of us who’ve proven stronger than you. Is that it?” Eli asked. “You resent us, your brothers who have controlled our desires and resisted temptation despite our nearness to humans.” Eli lowered his sword and leaned forward, his chest uncomfortably close to Liam’s face. “What are you doing with the magisters’ swords?”
    Confusion creased a mirroring expression across both Amon’s and Liam’s faces. Amon visibly swallowed and lifted his chin. “You’re wrong, Elizal. I’ve harmed no one since returning from the abyss.”
    “You fecks think it was us?” Liam asked, his green