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I eye her shoes and the way her ankles wobble with every step on the cobblestoned road. The decision to walk here was deliberate. I want the people of Wrath to see me and know that Aziel’s daughter isn’t in hiding, as some rumors may suggest, but Jassy isn’t going to make the walk back.

“Yes.” I extend my hand, intending to teleport us. “Come on.”

Jassy clutches my forearm, her grip tight, and I pull in my power and teleport us back to the office. I expect to return to the sound of muffled conversations and shuffling feet, but we’re faced with pure chaos instead.

I know exactly what this means.He’s back.

Chapter Twenty

CASSIA

I TAKE HALF a second to kick off my walking shoes and slip on my uncomfortable work heels before storming toward Aziel’s office. I’ve been waiting for this moment, and I won’t let it slip through my fingers. I have to strike fast.

Demons move out of my way, parting the moment they notice me. It’s in their best interest.

I don’t hesitate to shove open Aziel’s office door.

My eyes lock immediately with the bastard. Rexton stands opposite Aziel’s desk, the lying, conniving demon unfortunately alive and healthy. I was hoping to find a corpse waiting for me.

Rexton looks precisely as he did the last time I saw him. He’s fucking huge, easily towering several inches above me, and he’s unnervingly intense. His stare would put several of Aziel’s generals to shame.

I refuse to let it intimidate me, and I make a show of looking him over, sizing him up.

His black hair has been trimmed, probably for his wedding to Princess Amelia, and his black eyes are laser-focused on me. What has Aziel told him? Has my father warned that I’m out for blood?

Rexton shifts. I eye his frame. He’s muscular, but I’m at my full strength. I can pin him. I can force him to submit. I can make him cry. Beg. I can strip him of his dignity.

The people of Wrath will never respect him. I will win.

I take one step closer, then freeze.

Rexton is weak. Rexton issupposedto be weak.

Why the fuck is power rolling off him in suffocating waves? It most definitely doesn’t belong to Aziel. My father’s power doesn’t affect me. It never has, not even when I was a child, and I can think of only two people strong enough to have me wavering. Both are generals in my father’s army, and I avoid them like the plague.

I take a step closer, self-doubt getting the better of me. I’m confident I can take the Rexton I met in Greed, but this man is at a different level. Is he stronger than I am? I can’t quite tell. We’re equally matched, for sure.

“How?” I ask.

Rexton faces me directly, giving Aziel his back. It’s disrespectful, but Aziel doesn’t seem bothered. That’s not a good sign. Rexton has been back for less than an hour, and already, he’s taking liberties most demons wouldn’t dare dream of.

“Hello, Cassia,” Rexton says. “How what?”

How are you so fucking strong? How did you hide your power for so many years? Did you have a tonic? Was it the same one David secured for me? It must’ve been something similar. Did Silas supply it for you? How did you kill Mammon? Was it fast? Did you make her suffer?

I have so many questions, but the answers aren’t important. Not now.

I don’t have time to waste. I have to destroy Rexton before he slithers his way into the minds and hearts of Wrath. I have to do it now.

I teleport behind Rexton, fully intending to grab and teleport him to the middle of downtown Wrath. Besting him doesn’t mean anything if there isn’t an audience to witness it, and downtown Wrath is the busiest place I can think to bring him to.

My plan almost immediately goes to shit.

I’m not sure how Rexton senses my move, but in the split second it takes me to appear behind him, he’s already prepared. His fingers close around the front of my throat before I have the opportunity to catch my bearings, and my back smacks painfully against the ground a heartbeat later.

Aziel does nothing to help as Rexton pins me to the ground with his hips, his hand still curled around my throat. I can’t fucking breathe, let alone teleport in this condition. I claw at Rexton’s hand instead, my legs kicking fruitlessly in an attempt to shove him off me.

It has no effect.