Iniquity (The Premonition, #5)(107)

Reed is in front of me in an instant, cupping my cheek. “Are you hurt?” he asks. He checks me for wounds. “Did they hurt you?” His angelic face frowns in concentration. I’m speechless, unable to move. All I can do is shake my head no. He picks up my bag from the ground and hands it to me. I hold it for about a second, and then drop it. Reed frowns. “I know I’m technically not supposed to kill your clients unless they show definite intent to murder you, but he hit you, so to me that’s intent.”

I find my voice. “What are you doing here?” I don’t sound like me.

“What do you mean?” he frowns. “I’m guarding you.”

I blink. “Why?”

“It’s my job.”

“You’re job?”

“You don’t know?” he stares at me, his face becoming hopeful all of a sudden.

I shake my head. “Know what?”

“You don’t know that I’m your guardian angel?” he asks. Little brudder drops from my hand, falling with a clank on the concrete.

My eyes fill up with tears. “Did Xavier die?” I try to hold back my sob.

Reed puts his hands on my shoulders and says softly, “No. He’s alive. He has been reassigned. I won the position.”

“You won it?”

“I had to fight for it, but in the end, the job was awarded to me. Nobody told you?” he asks.

“No,” I whisper.

“So that’s why you haven’t come to see me?” His beautiful lips begin to turn up in the corners “Come to see you? How long have you been here?” I choke.

“Months, Evie. I’ve been here months, just like you.”

“Who knew?” Anger flourishes inside me.

“Atwater.”

“Why wouldn’t he tell me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why didn’t you come see me?”

“There are new rules for being your guardian angel, Evie. I’m not allowed to interfere with your life unless you seek me out or you are threatened. You didn’t seek me out.”

“I didn’t know you were here.”

“So…you still love mm—” I lean forward, covering his lips with mine. I meant it to be gentle, but he reacts almost violently, threading his fingers in my hair and kissing me as if there will never be enough of me for him. He holds me to him, dragging me with him midway down the alley. He pushes in a locked steel door as if it were made of paper. Kissing me as he guides me inside, I vaguely realize it’s some kind of bike repair shop by the old tires hanging on hooks on the wall. Judging by the dust in here, I don’t think anyone has gotten her bike fixed in awhile.

Reed pushes me against a large workbench. Our lips remain together as he lifts me up on the edge of it while I strip away my jacket. The intensity of desire his hands elicit when he touches my skin is agony and ecstasy. I shudder with need for him, as his kisses tease me with paradise. He peels my shirt from me. I lift his over his head.

My feathers dust the workbench when they unleash from my back. He groans as his hand cups my jaw. He covers my parted lips with his. Trailing kisses down my neck, he pauses when his lips come to my heart. It no longer has his mark on it. He rubs his thumb over the place where it had been. “I grieve that I no longer carry your wings on me,” Reed says. His eyes reflect hollowness. “But not seeing mine on you is agony to me.” My heart responds to his words, bludgeoning the walls of my chest trying to get to him. “You’re mine, no matter if you have my symbol on your skin or not,” he growls, possessively. The primitive way in which my body quivers is telling. There is no need for words between us now. He shows me how fiercely he missed me with every feverish touch of his body against mine.




Reed brings my shirt to me. Reaching out to take it, I pause when his other hand touches my necklace. Reed’s warm fingers lift it from my skin. Dangling like charms from it are his ring, the boatswain, and Xavier’s ring.

“You have my ring.”

I unlock the clasp and take his ring from the chain. “I kept it safe for you, hoping that one day I could give it back to you.” He slips it on his finger while I close the clasp of my necklace. I retract my wings before slipping my shirt down over the key to Sheol to hide it from sight.

“You have Xavier’s ring as well,” Reed says. “Do you hope to one day give it back to him?”

The tension in his voice makes me look at him. “I don’t know,” I say breathlessly. “I only know that I couldn’t leave it in Sheol.”

Reed twists his ring as if he’s lost in thought. “Do you want to come over to my house? I want to show you something.”

“You have a house?”

“It’s not actually mine. It’s more of a headquarters at the moment.”

“Where?”

“I’ll show you.”

“Oh, so it’s a surprise?” I ask.

“It is.”

His talk of home makes me remember my home and the fact that I was supposed to be there over an hour ago! “I have to go, Reed!” I say with my eyes growing wide. “They’ll be worried about me. I’m usually never late. Oh no! Declan! I forgot about Declan!” I try to pull my jacket on, but the sleeves are inside out. I shake my arm until I can get it into the sleeve. Rushing over to Reed, I go up on tiptoes and kiss him quickly on the lips. “Do you know where I live?”