Free Phoenix Contract: Part Five (Fallen Angel Watchers) by Melissa Thomas

you want from me, Aiden?”
    “I want proof that something inside you is human! That Matthew’s death hurt! That you’re not a complete monster!”
    Magnus flinched. The Celt’s entire body rippled under the assault of her shout, like a gust of wind disturbing the surface of deep water. A flash of golden eyes and a bestial growl signaled the anger she’d provoked. She’d made only the barest impression, but that tiny little crack in his armor was the something she’d been seeking.
    “I miss Matthew.” The quietness of his reply followed her shout like an echo. “It made me sick to see his body desecrated like that, even though it was necessary. I think of things to say to him the next time I see him, but then I remember that there won’t be a next time. He’s gone, and it hurts. Is that what you’re looking for? What you wanted to hear? Are you happy?”
    “No, I’m not happy,” Aiden snapped, sniffling. Unshed tears knifed her heart. “Everyone I’ve ever known and loved, my only family and my friends, are all dead, and I’m in a huge amount of trouble. I need help, and all I have to turn to is a man who’d stab an innocent girl in the heart!”
    One of those ominous silences they shared so often fell. A sizable delay ensued before Magnus spoke again. “You’ve seen the past,” he concluded.
    “I know that you killed Gregory’s heir five hundred years ago. Not just know, I saw you do it,” she said, placing a heavy emphasis on her certainty.
    “I’m not denying it,” Magnus said, drawing a look of disbelief from Aiden.
    She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, denial or excuses, but a bald-faced admission of guilt? From Magnus? Not in a million years.
    “I’m so angry with you right now that I could just...” Her fingers flexed with implied violence. Somehow, Aiden never completed her verbal threats. She wasn’t sure exactly what revenge she desired to extract from Magnus even if she were able to do so.
    “I figured you would be,” Magnus said, amused irony threading that rich brogue. “You did promise that there’d be a reckoning.”
    Aiden negotiated another mental hiccup. “Wait a second, you’re saying that you knew -”
    “Of course,” he replied blandly. “For me it happened five hundred years ago. I’ve had a long time to anticipate this confrontation. Although, nothing has happened as I envisioned it might.”
    “This whole time, you knew ?” Aiden circled the idea, coming back at it from a different angle as the implications unfolded. “So in other words, it really happened exactly as I saw it? It wasn’t just a vision. I was there, five hundred years ago, and I could have changed things...” The wasted opportunity was staggering.
    “There’s nothing you could’ve or should’ve done,” Magnus said. “Events unfolded as they were meant to, and nothing good comes from meddling with the past.”
    “You’re arguing that you were meant to murder that poor girl!” Aiden snapped, directing all of her recrimination and anger toward Magnus.
    “You feel betrayed,” Magnus said with such perfect understanding and acceptance that Aiden longed to beat him over the head with something hard in order to get through that thick skull of his. Preferably a brick, or a bat...
    “I never presented myself as anything other than what I am,” Magnus continued.
    “A cold-blooded killer,” Aiden snarled.
    “My blood is plenty hot,” Magnus said with that particular tone that told her he was smirking.
    “What about Matthew?” Aiden demanded. “Did he know? Did you betray him too?”
    “Matthew and I were friends!” Magnus snapped, reacting defensively and finally giving her what she wanted from him. “Matthew understood me. He had his secrets, and I had mine. It was never a matter of right or wrong or betrayal. I’ve always kept my promises to him.” Or tried to...
    The specter of the broken promise reared between them, casting shadows and aspirations. For Magnus, it