“The usual meaningless court flattery. Nothing that would lead to such a convoluted scheme to pass on a gift.”
And the gift itself, Jason thought, was unusual for an immortal, most of whom would woo a woman with jewels or unusual treasures. As for this particular woman, he found the idea of another man courting her incited in him a dark violence he’d spent a lifetime learning to contain.
“Don’t lie to me, Nene!”
“I’m not! Why won’t you listen? He’s a friend—”
“Is that why you disappeared with him for an hour?”
“I was showing him the atoll while you spoke with his father!” A sobbing sound of frustration. “I hate this ugly jealousy of yours, Yavi. It’s killing us.”
His mother’s prophetic words ringing through his mind, Jason turned to Venom. “See if you can dig deeper without it reaching the wrong ears.”
Venom bent to put his empty cup on the table before flowing to his feet with a supple grace that was a thing of beauty to some, an indication of danger to others. “I think I’ll jump off the balcony, scare the guards hiding outside.” With that, he was gone.
Jason stepped closer to Mahiya. “You should not have taken that risk.”
“It was a considered one.” Her tone was resolute. “I would do it again in a heartbeat. I will not barter for my life with yours or Venom’s.”
Gripping her chin, Jason looked into an unflinching gaze bright as a jungle cat’s. “I do not wish to scrape up the remains of your broken, violated body.” It was a confession from a part of his self that hadn’t seen the light in an eon. “So you must allow me to keep you safe.”
Mahiya had been ready to fight arrogance, found herself bewildered by the quiet request so potent with emotions unspoken. “I won’t take any unnecessary risks,” she said, closing her fingers over the bones of his wrist, his skin hot under her touch. “I promise.”
“You are the weakest one of us, Mahiya.”
“But,” she whispered, asking him to understand, “I am not weak. I cannot be that and survive.”
Her black-winged lover said nothing for a long, motionless moment before releasing his hold on her. She forced herself to let go of him, feeling bereft. “Come,” she said. “Eat with me before the food goes cold.”
Jason caught her wrist when she would’ve moved to the table. “You don’t treat food as other immortals do.” His thumb moved over her knuckles. “Tell me why.”
Snakes hissing all around her, fangs sinking into her skin, poison in her bloodstream.
Mahiya’s fingers curled into her fist, but she held her ground. “No, Jason. I will not allow you to steal all my secrets while you hoard your own.” He knew so much about her, while she did not even know where he made his home.
His fingers flexed, and he tugged her closer, until they stood toe to toe. “Do you know the story of Yaviel and Aurelani?”
It was the most startling of questions. “Of course.” Theirs was one of the great angelic romances. “They were born of warring families from different sides of the world. Yaviel was a singer turned artisan, Aurelani a scholar gaining renown.” Both families had been painfully proud of their children, but when the two fell in love, centuries-old hate had overwhelmed the tenderness of their devotion, and they’d been torn apart.
“It is said Yaviel survived torture to break into Aurelani’s home to steal her away and that they disappeared to build a life together, far from the vicious power of their families.” The romance of it had made her girlish heart sigh. Even now, as an adult, her soul ached at the idea of being loved with such devotion. “Yaviel’s musical instruments continued to appear in the Refuge, so there were some who knew where the lovers lived, but it was a secret never betrayed.”
Jason’s voice was rough as he said, “He called her Nene, and she called him Yavi.”
A chill over her skin, a vision of suffocating darkness.
“Nene couldn’t abide the cold, and Yavi loved her so that he found them an uninhabited atoll in the warm waters of the Pacific, far, far from any sky roads to civilization.” His fingers tightened on her wrist, but she didn’t move, didn’t dare breathe. “Trusted friends came and took Yavi’s creations to the Refuge, where they sold for amounts that meant he could buy his Nene whatever she wanted. She loved amethysts, and he showered her with them . . . but what Nene loved most was her Yavi.”
A tear trickled down her cheek though he’d said nothing awful, yet the sadness in him, it was a heavy weight she thought might crush a lesser man. “She must have loved you, too,” she whispered, seeing in his face the history of two different clans who had eventually ended one another in a rage of violence.
“Yes.” Haunted eyes meeting hers. “I was well loved by my parents.”
Mahiya wanted to ask him why he used only the past tense, why he carried such black sorrow within, what had happened to Nene if Yavi was dead, but she couldn’t hurt him when he was already so terribly hurt deep inside. “I never ignore food, because I know what it is to starve.”
The profound sadness in Jason changed, became a black blade licked with flame. It took a great deal for an older angel to starve, but an angel of Mahiya’s age remained vulnerable. “When?”
Mahiya swallowed, her fingers curling on his chest. “After Lijuan had me escorted back from her territory. Neha threw me into a windowless cell up at Guardian, and then she locked the door.”