Page 39 of Galen

“You doin’ okay?” Raiden asked. “You freaked when seeing Lazarus earlier.”

“I’m fine.” And I was. For the most part. “I’m still struggling to accept everything, but I’m getting there. Good news is I no longer think you’re all kidnapping me.”

He chuckled. “That’s good to know. We don’t want you bein’ afraid. We just want to protect you.”

“So what happened with the ring? Did the angel—er, Lazarus, tell you anything?”

“Nope.” Raiden grabbed a beer and raised a brow. “Want one?”

“No, thanks.”

He shrugged and twisted the cap off before taking a swig. “Lazarus doesn’t tell us much. Irritating as fuck, but it’s how it’s always been.”

“What about Ravenwood?” I asked. “Alastair said something about not being able to get in because of the warding?”

“Yeah. We were tryin’ to find answers. The ring is powerful, but we don’t know anything about it or where it came from. We thought there might be some kind of clue in the mansion.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Excitement swirled in my chest. “I do this for a living. I’ve tracked down countless items over the years. Knowing an object’s backstory and origin can make it more valuable, so it’s kind of my thing.”

“Galen won’t like you getting more involved than you already are.”

“Well, Galen isn’t the boss of me.”

“Easy there,” Raiden said, amused. That smile fell a bit. “You don’t want to piss him off. Believe me.”

“Why? Will he turn into the Hulk?”

“Something like that. When Galen gets pissed, likereallypissed, he’s like four Hulks. Anger takes him over, and he’s damn strong. Stronger than all of us combined. And calming him back down…” Raiden shook his head. “Let’s just say, the last time he lost control like that, Lazarus threw him in a cage and almost killed him.”

My gut coiled. “Why would he kill him?”

“Because Galen’s mind was taken over by rage.” Raiden swept a hand over his cropped black hair. Reliving the memory visibly upset him. “When he gets like that, he’s like a beast. The longer he lets the rage consume him, the harder it is to bring him back. He’s better about controlling it now. But that wrathful anger is still inside him. Always will be.”

I tried to picture the Galen he described. Tried to imagine him overtaken by a ruthless anger, his mind little more than a beast.

“I’m more like him than you know.”Was that what Galen meant? That he was like his father because of his rage?

But then I remembered how gently Galen had held me in his arms the night I almost died. I remembered the care with which he checked my bandages. The gentleness in his voice after I passed out earlier and he carried me to bed.

No. He wasn’t heartless. Or cruel. Wrath might be part of him. But kindness was too.

“Do you wanna watch a movie?” Raiden asked. “I can make some popcorn.”

“Sure.”

Again, I was hit by how human he seemed. There I was in a mansion, a home to immortal angelic warriors, and I was about to watch a movie with one of them like we were just two normal guys hanging out. I didn’t know what I expected, but that certainly wasn’t it.

Raiden popped three bags of popcorn and dumped most of them into one massive bowl. He poured the rest into a smaller bowl before handing that one to me. He grabbed two more beers, I poured a glass of iced water, and then we left the kitchen.

“We’re not going to the entertainment room?” I asked, confused as we walked right past it.

“Did Gray not tell you we had a movie theater?”

“What? No fucking way.”

“Yes way.” He flashed that boyish smile again and continued down the hall.

He took me down another corridor and opened a door on the left. I stared in awed silence as I entered the room. The screen was huge, just like the ones at real theaters, and the seats were plushy recliners. Enough for all seven of them.