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“Do I have updates,” he muttered, grunting then releasing a breath. “Sure. Our beloved Earthly Kiss Ass King is enjoying life while we perform actual work.”

“We?”

His breathing stalled for a second. “I know you think I’m preening in some mirror while you’re hanging out at the resort with your human paradox, pitch black feelings all hurt.”

“Fuck you, Seraph,” he muttered, glancing over his shoulder for signs of the tiny fleshling. “I don’t care what you’re doing or if you’re preening anywhere. I just need to know if you can cook.”

“Cook?”

He headed for the back patio. “What’s going on, Seraph,” he demanded quietly, shutting the door behind him. “Are those angelic tears I hear?”

“You’re the one crying over babysitting a tiny human, brother.”

Kaos stepped outside and walked down the steps. “Come say it where I can see you. Hot pants.”

He laughed quietly and took a deep breath. “I’m sitting on top of a three-story building, tagging demon mules. What about you?”

“Just trying to cover the asset without touching it.”

A pause and then a testy, “And that’s hard?”

“It’s an explosion of messy.”

“Hm.”

“What does that sound mean, Seraph? I can’t read your ruby mind anymore and don’t care to guess.”

“It means you may have to get your precious hands dirty, Dark-Fuck-Lord. You’re to cover this asset. That means shestays purehearted, untouched, and focused on the job—being a creative artist.”

Untouched.

“Define untouched.”

“She’s in her prime, she’s beautiful, and she’s a target for human demons. Your job is keeping them away from her.”

“You do remember what I am?”

“I know what you have control over. So, exercise it.”

Kaos sat on the steps drawing in a breath of the cool evening air. “Why take that risk?”

“A question for Raviel, not me.”

Kaos tasted the meaning in his tone. “So, you agree it’s a risk.”

He scoffed lightly. “Putting you over a female after having your soul ripped from one? Just alittle, yes.”

He considered that. “Maybe it makes me the least risky.” The fantasy fell from his lips, burning his ears with envy.

“Don’t be arrogant,” Kade said. “It makesmethe least risky. I’m the one who had to rip our souls from our chests. The only difference is, yours was shiny and new, mine was…”

“Decrepit?” Kaos offered before his ruby stepbrother could get any more dramatic. “I can’t remember what the bond felt like,” he confessed, the words equally hollow.

He got a quiet, low, “I remember it partly.”

Kaos raised his gaze to the sky, finding it filled with a million diamonds. He murmured, “Like a thing you know but didn’t experience.”

“Something like that,” he said on a breath that hinted of eternal fatigue.