Page 119 of Princess of Bael

“I very much care about how you feel, little warrior. We’ve been over that several—”

Power rippled through the air, cutting off Ashmedai’s response and causing me to grab Kayla by the waist. I tugged her to my chest, my wings enveloping her in a protective cocoon as my mind fought to catch up with the prickling sensation unfolding around us.

Something powerful had just rocked this realm.

Something deadly.

“That happened faster than anticipated,” Ashmedai muttered, his own wings having wrapped around Trudy in a manner similar to mine with Kayla.

Another wave of energy sizzled across my skin, the sensation leaving behind a dark kiss of friction. Someone was tapping into a hell of a lot of power somewhere.

“We need to find the source.” I captured Kayla’s face between my palms. “Can you sense them at all? Anything that may help?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“Because you’re my mate, and that makes you just as sensitive to the power imbalance as I am.” I couldn’t quite keep the irritation out of my voice. She needed to accept that we were partners in this now.

Had I been an asshole in the past? Yes.

Would I be an asshole now in forcing her to accept us? Also yes.

“Can you sense anything?” she countered.

My jaw clenched. It was a fair question. But it only added to my frustration. “I’m struggling to focus on it,” I admitted. “It feels… chaotic.” Which was why I’d grabbed her. Why Ineededher.

Something about our bond felt vital to the process. Which was ridiculous because I’d never needed anyone else before. I was the Archangel of Justice. I upheld the scales.

Yet I felt entirely unbalanced and off-center. As though I needed an anchor that wasn’t quite there.

Kayla pressed her palm to my face, partially mimicking the way I held her now. However, her opposite hand went to cover mine against her cheek. Then she closed her eyes.

I released a long breath, her touch grounding me in a way I didn’t understand.

Everything had just felt so urgent and broken and disconnected. I’d reacted without understanding my actions. She’d become my lifeline. My anchor. My source of balance.

Holding her helped me concentrate on the insanity spiraling around us, the wavering energy pushing and pulling at the realms, and the wrongness of the power fluctuations.

I closed my eyes, my soul searching for the source of all that dizzying static electricity. The culprit fucking with the levels of existence. The heart of our problem.

A shattered Divinity.

I searched for the fractured pieces of Kristina’s essence.

It was as natural as breathing, locating the various strands and following them to their unexpected ends.

“They’ve opened a portal in the underworld,” I heard Ashmedai saying. “It’s leading straight into Heaven.”

Ezra

An impossibility,I thought, frowning.

But I ignored that and continued chasing Kristina’s power. It felt close.Tooclose.

Which caused my brow to furrow.

“They’re here,” Kayla breathed, clearly sensing a thread similar to the one I continued to tug on.

It wasn’t exactly Kristina’s essence, but a tainted version of it. And it wasn’t an aura I picked up on, just the magic being weaved into the air.