She frowned. “I’m the first to be tasked with this mission.”

He shook his head. “No, angel. You’re not. The same warning was delivered over three centuries ago. You know what I think?” He didn’t give her a chance to negate him. “I think Osiris harming you is precisely what your council is hoping to achieve so they have cause to intervene.”

It seemed logical enough to him. Send a pretty little Seraphim down to deliver a message, then retaliate when she’s tortured and maimed. Though, under that same theory, they should have reacted the first time around.

Her lips flattened while her eyes flashed with possibilities. “You’re certain they sent someone three centuries ago?”

“Give or take.” Sethios shrugged. “Time is irrelevant, but a messenger did arrive with a similar message that my father didn’t appreciate. After spending an inordinate amount of time torturing the Seraphim who dared dictate to him, he filleted the man alive and presumably sent him back. Or he may have left the poor sod buried in a hole somewhere. I didn’t stick around to find out.”

The only way to disable a Seraphim was through burial, something his father taught him that day. He’d dug a hole in the earth and compelled the angelic being to enter it. His terror had been palpable even as he complied. It would have given Sethios nightmares had he not already been well acquainted with his maker’s antics.

“Trust me, angel. You don’t want to deliver that message.”

“Why should I trust you?” she demanded, glancing pointedly at her still-kneeling position.

“You shouldn’t.” He released her from his compulsion, except for the misting. She immediately jumped to her feet and moved several paces away.

He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Look, I won’t force you to remain here. Staying alive matters more to me than worrying about your actions. But I promise you, conveying the decree to him won’t end well for you.”

He brushed his hand over his bare abdomen and glanced at the alley’s street name for reference. As he didn’t recognize the name, it meant he was nowhere near his condo. He’d have to compel her to mist him one final time unless he could convince her to work with him.

“Aren’t you the least bit curious why we’re wrapped up in a prophecy together?” he asked, thinking out loud. “I don’t believe in coincidences, and as you’re the only recent change in my life, this is all connected somehow.”

“Tell me about your prophetess.”

“Skye? She’s one of my father’s most prized possessions, and she’s never wrong.”

Her eyebrow inched upward. “Then you wish to terminate Osiris?”

“Destroy would be a more apt word.” Sethios had no love for his maker.

“But he created you.”

“And he also just threatened to turn me into a walking puppet,” he pointed out. “I’m useful to him, but only when I’m obedient. And apparently, according to the seer, I’m no longer capable of compliance. Or, at the very least, I’m on the edge of betraying him. And if Ezekiel is to be believed, you are the reason for my pending betrayal. I’m dying to know why that is, angel. Any ideas?”