Joriel snorted. “I’m not your hero, snow angel. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that I’m on your side.”
“Whose side are you on?” I asked, studying his face like it could somehow give me all the answers I was looking for in life.
“My own,” he answered.
“Is there a reason I can’t be on your side too?”
“You can be on whoever’s side you want to be, but I’m not going to trust you to have my back any more than you should trust me to have yours.”
“How long have you been here?”
Joriel opened his eyes and looked at me like I’d just said something exceptionally stupid. “How long haveyoubeen here?”
“Touché.”
Silence stretched on between us while Joriel closed his eyes again and I watched him.
“When I told you I was an angel of the first order, you knew that I should have my wings out,” I said, finally breaking the silence. “How did you know that?”
“I was once an angel too.”
Every muscle in my body tensed. “But you’re not anymore.” That much was obvious just looking at him—angels don’t bleed black. What he was now was still a mystery though. Fallen angels have red blood like a human. Unless he was one of the twelve original Fallen who’d become the grand princes of Hell. Maybe they had black blood? But if Joriel was a prince of Hell, why would he be chained in these caves?
“Don’t worry,” he said with a humorless smile. “It’s not contagious.”
“What happened?”
“If I tell you, will you leave?”
“Fine.” I made no promises that I wouldn’t come back or about how long I’d stay gone. Not that I’d have a way to honor it if I did. There was no way for me to measure time here.
“I sold my soul to the Devil.”
“What does that mean?”
He laughed without a trace of amusement. “It means I’m as cut off from Heaven as a demon.”
“But you’re not a demon.”
“I’m not,” he agreed. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not a monster. There’s darkness running through my veins, eating away at what’s left of me.”
“I don’t—”
“You promised you’d go.”
I nodded, climbing to my feet. No part of me wanted to leave him, but I had promised. Walking away right now didn’t mean I was giving up.
The walk through the tunnel was starting to look familiar. At first glance, the caves all looked the same, but now that I’d been here for a while, I was starting to notice the little details. Some of the passages had torches spaced closer together, and in others they were farther apart. The air felt different depending on where I was too.
When I got to the tiny offshoot that I’d claimed for my own, I sat down, leaning back against the wall. It was more comfortable than lying flat on the ground.
There were a million questions crowding my head, so many things I wanted to ask Joriel. But he wasn’t going to answer me. He’d made it clear he didn’t trust me, and I couldn’t really blame him. We were in Hell after all. What reason did he have to trust me?
* * *
“Hey,”I said, dropping to the ground in Joriel’s cave.
He glared at me without answering.
