Page 32 of Trick Of Light

“How were you kidnapped from heaven? I thought demons couldn’t get there.”

“Into Anahel’s heaven they can, as he is neutral.”

I shook my head because I remembered what Raphael had said about demons being unable to enter. “I’m sorry, but that’s not what I was told.”

He thought a moment. “Perhaps whoever told you that demons could not enter was unaware that because Anahel made his realm neutral, and it has remained so for eons, that the protective wards have eroded.”

That was probably why the celestial builder, Mammon, had decided to erect his bridge there, across the sea to the third heaven—because he could. I was starting to see how Anahel’s neutrality was bad. It probably accounted for the man who’d tried to whip me in the street, and had allowed demons to take Vaya from his love. “So these demons, they stole you and brought you here.”

“Yes.”

“And does the baron who lives here… Does he hurt you?”

“No. I was brought here because I can heal all who sit in this bath with me. My aura purifies the water and everything else,” he said, his eyes sad.

Glancing around the room, I realized that in another corner was a bed and a desk, in front of a window looking out at the mountains. “You never leave this room?”

“No.”

“It’s a prison.”

“It is.”

“And they make you heal the guys the baron violates?”

“Sadly no. I’m here to heal whatever injuries occurred before the baron begins,” he whispered. “The baron prefers to be the only one to inflict damage.”

“Like he will with me.”

“Yes.”

“And after? Do you ever see them again?”

He shook his head quickly, and I saw the tears.

“Can you bring them back from the dead?”

“No,” he barely got out, and I saw the pain on his face. “I cannot. I was not granted this power when I was made.”

Why would he, he was made in hell. Bringing someone back from the dead to a fate worse than death itself made zero sense. “I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I know you wish you could. I see it in your eyes.”

“I do, and I do not,” he confessed.

“Because if you could resurrect them, what would stop the baron from raping and murdering them all over again.”

Dropping down into the tepid water, submerging himself, when he surfaced, he wiped his face with graceful hands.

“Who’s the angel you were kidnapped from?”

“Remiel,” he breathed out, the name sounding like a prayer.

And that was interesting. Hearing a name twice, to me, always meant something. I didn’t believe in coincidences. I never had.

“I was just recently in the third heaven myself.”

He gasped, and those gorgeous eyes of his, framed in incredibly long silver lashes, opened wide. “You lie.”

“Why would I lie?”