Primal Sin (Primal Sin, #1)

by Ariana Nash

He only half listened to the rallying words, pretending to contemplate the battle to come. In truth, he contemplated only one thing: how he would take Mikhail’s wings, cutting them clean off with two great arcs of his blade.

Mikhail’s lethal beauty was also a weapon. He was so fucking pretty even his enemies would do him, then try and kill him afterward.

Maybe Mikhail’s smile was genuine. Severn could only hope. If the angel was capable of feeling anything at all, it would make what was to come so much more satisfying.

He’d been doing this for what felt like forever. Sometimes it felt as though he’d lived a lie longer than he’d lived the truth.

But making lies true took great power, and as Severn walked the upper hallways, weaving his way through glass corridors toward his own chambers, every step felt a little heavier, and every beat of his heart thudded harder.

Killing was a lot like fucking. Although for a long time, Severn had been doing a whole lot more of one than the other.

An angel had performed an allyanse on Severn—he’d shared his soul. Not only was it rare, but it shouldn’t have been possible.

Life to life, soul to soul. A bond usually reserved for angels coupling for life. Oh, the irony. Severn wasn’t an angel. And he most certainly wasn’t lifetime partner material for an angel, or anyone.

Severn was stuck as angel, and now he’d been mated to his nemesis, because why the hells not?

angels were emotional planks and wouldn’t know a relationship if it kissed them on the lips.

“Severn…” Solo said, stopping a few feet from him. The warrior’s hardness softened, and the angel’s lips turned down. “I should have seen it…” Bizarrely, the warrior came in close and threw his arms around Severn, embracing him hard enough to knock the air from Severn’s lungs. “Love is precious, brother.”

Mikhail, the greatest guardian angel of their time, ruthless, powerful, and entirely incapable of emotion, cared for Severn. The irony was so acute, it was almost painful.

“I’d have killed every last demon on the killing field to save you.” He looked down. “It is surely a madness and no doubt the reason why I’m in this cage, but it did not feel wrong…” He met Severn’s gaze through the bars. “It does not feel wrong.”

His angel was a winged emotional disaster, and Severn loved him for it.

Severn watched how they avoided getting too close to him or Mikhail, afraid they’d catch emotion, which would have been hilarious if it weren’t so sad.

He looked at himself—at Konstantin, the incubi lord who had sacrificed everything for the chance to kill a guardian angel. The angel who stood beside him, hands entwined.

His proud face was cold. His jaw set. Eyes hard. Because he was hurting, and when Mikhail was in pain, he wore that look like armor.

It was a sin, a terrible, primal sin. Mikhail had fallen for a lie.

The demons were trying to cut his lies free, and he knew Mikhail would not come to save him. Not this time. Mikhail would come. But not for love. He’d come for revenge. And he’d kill them all.