This late at night, whatever time it was, he wore dark clothes with the same shimmering cloak around his shoulders Rune and I wore. I couldn’t pin the colors of the cloak because it wouldn’t stay one color, even in his stillness. I expected to see a sword attached to his hip, but I couldn’t see it from the cloak blocking the view.
“You son of a bitch,” he murmured in an exhale. “You finally found her.”
ChapterThirty-Two
Gently squeezing my hand, Rune let go and splayed his palm on my lower back. Rune stepped forward so he was almost between Dumah and me that gave me a better view of his face. With his eyes on the man, he cocked his head toward him.
“Dumah, this is Isa. Isa, this is Dumah.”
I widened my eyes, and my heart leaped to my throat when Rune saidDumah. I wasn’t well versed in much with religions, but I knew about Dumah from my parents.
Mom talked about the fallen angel who had been banished for not passing his judgment over the Egyptian deities. I had been a kid and enjoyed hearing the tales of good and evil that Mom told me at bedtime. She made the stories seem like these fictional fantasy wars, but there was always a lesson to be learned. She never pushed me to listen to the tales, and when I got older, she never forced me to go to church. I loved that she let me choose.
While getting older, I still liked to ask her to tell me the stories about the angels and demons. Dumah had been one she told me, and it was one I fell in love with fast.
It was a short story because he wasn’t a known angel. Mom always said there were billions of angels and they all had their own stories, so it was always hard for all of them to be told and for us humans to know about them. But she went to a Bible college and studied it, along with other texts that talked about God. So there had always been cross-referencing with other religions and their holy texts. Judaism was a big one she studied outside of the college and had the help of a Jewish woman she met—Esther—and became fast friends with. Because of her, my mom said she found more in that than the Bible.
And that was where she found Dumah’s story, and when I heard it for the first time, I felt connected to him.
Now I knew why.
My voice worked before my brain could think over my words as I rushed them out.
“How are you talking?” Heat crept up my neck and over my cheeks as he looked at me with those piercing eyes. I shrank into Rune. How the fuck did he not have thousands of them, as the stories had told? “I-I mean, the story goes of you being silent. That’s literally what your name translates to,” I rambled on nervously.
I wanted to kick my own ass for how nervous I was. It was exactly like when I met Rune and couldn’t think clearly. Dumah was an attractive man, but I wasn’t sexually attracted to him. But my mind couldn’t wrap around that because a little voice in the back of my head whispered that he found me a pathetic amusement.
Rune wrapped his arm around my waist and tucked me into his side, letting his warmth seep into me. I sagged into him and took a deep, calming breath as he offered me his confidence. He helped me, and I didn’t think he’d ever know how much he meant to me with the strength he provided me too many times.
Dumah kept his sharp, violet eyes on me. He never turned his gaze back to Rune since he gave me his undivided attention. I didn’t even think he blinked since we walked into the room. Everything about this man screamed lethal, and for good reason. He was an angel... a banished one, but a high-ranking angel no less.
“It is,” he confirmed in a deep drawl. “But only a select few hear me speak.”
He took a careful step toward me. Power rippled off him, vibrating through me and making me tremble. He stopped in front of me with his eyes still on me. He was as tall as Rune, so I had to tilt my head back to look up at his face. What I didn’t expect was for him to go to a knee and gaze at me with those once tired eyes now full of fire.
My breath caught in my throat, and my heart sped up. Rune released me from his hold and stepped slightly away, allowing me to have this moment. Whatever it was.
I dropped to my knees in front of Dumah because I didn’t deserve to be above him. I swallowed hard when his eyes flared with an emotion I couldn’t read.
“I had done this before, and I will do it again for you in this life. I swear my oath to you of my loyalty and will gladly continue to fight by your side. My armies are yours to use in your battles,” he said, his voice low and rough.
I may have shit my pants at his oath. A fallen angel... no, not just any fallen angel, but one that had control over legions was on his knee before me, swearing his fealty to me. I couldn’t believe I was here and this was happening.
All those years ago, hearing his story about how badass he was, and now I was here. With him before me, looking at me with fiery eyes and a set jaw as he waited for me to say something.
I finally sucked in a breath, and tears burned my eyes.
Why was I getting so emotional over this? His vows struck a chord in me that rocked my very being. Someone like him shouldn’t be on his fucking knees!
I threw my hands to his shoulders, and with all my might, I tried to pull him back up to his feet, but he didn’t budge. He stared at me with the same scary eyes and set jaw as I struggled again and again. I was sure I was nothing more than a pesky fly to him. But I didn’t want Dumah to kneel, even if I was kneeling with him.
“Don’t kneel!” I yelled. “I don’t deserve for you to kneel!”
His eyes softened just a smidge, but the fire was still there. He slowly stood and helped me, too, on his way up. He never swiped away my hands from him or laughed at me for looking like an idiot in front of him. He just stared down at me and was silent.
Waiting.
I stepped away from him with tears burning my eyes and fiddled with my trembling, sweaty hands. Rune stayed in his place, his gaze burning the side of my face. I swallowed around the lump in my throat and wiped the unshed tears away as I averted my eyes from Dumah.
