Groaning, I climbed out of bed and padded into the living room. Az was on the sofa with an open book propped in his lap. The sight of him clenched my belly. He looked so normal like this. So non-threatening. And yet I knew he would rip apart an angel just to keep me safe.

“Az,” I said.

He glanced up, and his eyes stormed across me. For a minute, I could do nothing other than stand frozen beneath his gaze. That zing went through me again, hot and sharp. Every single part of me felt bared before him. And he accepted it all.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Mia,” he murmured before patting the sofa. “Come sit. We need to talk.”

My stomach flipped over. Talk? That sentence never ended in anything good. Especially when it came to relationships. Of course, Az was a demon. He was above the stupid games of mortal men. Probably. Unless I’d read him totally wrong. His fury toward Rafael had made it seem like he cared for me as far more than just a fake girlfriend, but what if I’d jumped to conclusions? Maybe he didn’t see me as special at all.

But he ripped up our contract…

I shuffled over to the sofa and settled down beside him. When he stared into my eyes, another shot of that zing went through my core. Surely he felt that, too. Didn’t he?

What did it mean?

He ground his teeth and glanced away. “Rafael is a bastard, but he was right about one thing. As long as I’m in your life, you’ll be in danger.”

I stiffened. “He was just saying that to scare me. It didn’t work, Az.”

“No.” He shook his head. “Angels don’t lie, not even fallen ones. Anything he said to you was the truth. Look at what you’ve been through in the few weeks you’ve known me. You’ve almost been killed. More than once.”

My heart squeezed tight. Tears filled my eyes, and I glanced away. “Yeah, but as soon as you take care of Noah…Rafael, I mean…all of this will be over. I won’t be in danger anymore.”

“Mia,” he said with a hollow sigh. “Rafael and Michael are on their way to Hell. They’ll tell Lucifer about all of this. You can’t be near me when he comes to New York.”

“You think he’ll come here?” I asked in a small voice. Despite everything I’d said, the idea of Lucifer waltzing through New York City made my gut twist into knots. He was, you know, Satan. What was to stop him from outright killing people in the streets? As far as I could tell, nothing but that stupid game he was playing for souls.