Page 144 of Princess of Bael

Ezra knelt beside me what felt like hours later, but was more likely only minutes, his hands running over me. “The veil is falling, Kayla. We need to move. Right fucking now.”

Ezra

A trap.

That was the only explanation for that fuckup of a descent.

And there were very few beings in the realms who could pull off a stunt like that.

Not the assholes with the cuffs, but whomever they worked for. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to question Yaz about the origin. I wasn’t even sure he’d be of much use to us now anyway.

Because whoever we were up against possessed an insane amount of power.

Power that rivaled my own.

I didn’t want to assume an Archangel was involved, but a new theory grew in my mind that supported that suspicion.

Maybe my original notion that someone had tampered with Kayla’s cuff in Heaven was correct. But they hadn’t just set it up to harm her—they’d mimicked the power to create more like it for their minions.

What if that had been the true purpose of the attack on my home? A way to force me to ascend with Kayla at my side, thus making her vulnerable.

Raphaela had claimed Kayla’s cuff had just fallen off.

What if it hadn’t?

What if someone had somehow manipulated it into dropping?

Kayla had been too consumed by me to notice. She’d gone days without her cuff.

Who knew what had really occurred while we’d slept? We hadn’t been all that more aware during our intimate session afterward, either.

But we should still have more time now—at least a few human months, by my count. Yet I could feel the veil shattering.

Had we somehow lost time? Was the fluctuation due to Kayla’s injury?

Or had the Archangel of Time misspoken?

A ripple of energy thundered across the earth as power shifted into chaos.

My head spun with the wrongness of it all, the scales no longer able to maintain any semblance of balance. Kayla was my anchor, the center of my existence. And she was barely able to stand.

Those fucking shadows had sucked the life out of her.

I still didn’t understand how that was even possible. And it was making me hesitant to try to teleport again now. But there was no other option. Kayla didn’t have her cuff, and the breach in the veil was nowhere near our current location.

This had clearly been meant as a distraction, a way to deviate us from our course.

So did that mean they didn’t want us to go to Hell?

Or were they merely anticipating our descension in general?

“Ezra,” Kayla said, grabbing my wrist. “I trust you.”

I blinked down at her.

“I trust you to teleport us again,” she clarified. “I trust you to protect us. And I trust you to right the scales. Let’s go.”

“It may be another trap,” I warned her.