Reversal of Fortune [malexmale]

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

I woke with a sharp gasp.

Ice cold water flooded over my head, burning my ears and face as it ran in a waterfall around me. My vision was blurry as I blinked rapidly through the water, panting hard as the cold sank into my bones, water soaking my clothing so it stuck to my skin. My hair clung to my face as I coughed. I tried to move my arms to wipe it away, but they appeared to be bound behind me with something heavy that kept me anchored to the floor on my side.

I felt stones beneath me, familiar rough rocks that scraped my skin when I moved, when I lifted my head to sputter.

"Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead." I grimaced at the sound of Uriel's voice before peering up through my wet hair to see Uriel standing over me with a wicked smile, still dressed like a punked out pirate, his arms folded over his chest and his black eyes gleaming. I didn't need to look around to recognize the damned cell I had spent weeks in being tortured not too long ago.

"Good to be home, hm?" Uriel asked me, walking over to me. He reached down and grabbed me by the arm, yanking me up. Horrid pain shot up my injured leg as he forced me into a sitting position, and I actually gasped at the agony. Uriel tsked condescendingly as he shoved me back against the wall.

"Oh, whoops, forgot about that bum leg of yours," he crooned, reaching over to pinch at my chin, but I turned my head away from him, making him sigh, "That Xios did a number on you, didn't it?" I shot him a glare, but said nothing. I wasn't going to ask how he knew. It didn't matter. He'd clearly been spying on me since our encounter in Yomi, which made sense why I'd felt so eerie the entire time. I'd assumed it was Yiuwa watching me.

"That's alright," Uriel said with a shrug, then crouched down in front of me so he could look me in the eye with a grin, "It'll make holding you so much easier this time. Last time, you were a slippery little bastard. It helps that you're not all shadowy anymore." He paused, then reached out to brush his thumb under my eye.

"Your eyes are so green, and they glow. Kind of familiar. You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the Hades family curse, would you?" He asked. I said nothing, and a slow smile spread across his face as he dropped his hand away from my face.

"Interesting. You dipped your finger into quite a few cakes, didn't you, Ro?" He asked. Again, I didn't speak and he rose slowly to his feet, looking down at me.

"I hope you're ready, because this time... There's no way out for you. And it's so close now," he murmured, brushing his thumb by his bottom lip, "Any day now, the Shifter will come to slowly kill you and I'll be here to watch. It's going to be beautiful, watching the light in your eyes die. Or maybe I'll pluck them out beforehand? Stick them in a jar on my desk."

"Think you'll be able to live with that guilt?" I asked. Uriel narrowed his eyes.

"I don't feel guilty."

"You're a shadow," I responded calmly, summoning my control so I could sit up and look him right in the eye, "Shadows are born from the darkest part of themselves. You abandoned your father, your family. You hurt your brothers, especially Michael. You know how much betrayal stings him after what happened with Lucifer. And you love Michael, don't you? Among all of your brothers, Michael was the one you admired the most."

"Oh yeah," Uriel said dryly, "I admire his librarian fashion sense, his herbivore diet. Nothing turns me on more than an old man."

"You admire his convictions, his loyalty, his devotion," I replied casually, making Uriel's eyebrows slam down, his lip curling, "And you'd have to be blind to know he isn't beautiful. It pisses you off that Michael passed you and the other angels up for a demon. A cursed demon, no less. And it enrages you further to know that your father wouldn't punish him for his love, it infuriated you that even God loved Michael the most."