[Corine Solomon 5] Agave Kiss by Ann Aguirre Read Free Book Online Page A

murderer, he had been kissing me good-bye. Obviously, things had changed between us during our time together in Peru. But however sweet and tender those moments, I’d known from the beginning that he wasn’t a viable option for a happily ever after. Most notably because he was Nephilim—half angel—and bound to serve. Unlike humans, he lacked free will.
    It felt a little wrong to summon him to do my bidding, but I told myself it wasn’t for me. This is for Booke. So I took a deep breath and spoke the words: “Kelethiel, my true friend, son of Uriel and Vashti, on the strength of your sacred vow, I call thee!”
    And nothing happened.
    The last time I called him, I’d pulled him out of Sheol itself, a feat that boggled the mind, now that I’d actually been there. Maybe you got the words wrong. I tried again, a couple of variations, but still nothing. I supposed the curse might be hindering him, but I didn’t see how a decaying spell, cast by a mortal practitioner, could block an ability that had crossed dimensions before.
    Confused and disappointed, I opened the bedroom door, Butch trotting at my heels. After setting out a dish of food for the dog, I ate in silence along with Shannon and Booke. At least the food stayed down, as had lunch. They could tell I wasn’t in the mood to chat, so they kept the conversation alive on their own. Shannon asked a lot of questions about the war and the Blitz; it was intriguing to get a firsthand account from someone who was still coherent.
    As Booke opened a tin of cookies, the air changed, gained electricity. And Kel appeared in the kitchen. He was still tall, bald, and pale; icy-eyed with impressive muscles and arcane tatts that sometimes kindled with magickal light. I stared at him, utterly confounded. That was not how it had worked before. Before I could frame any of the questions bubbling at the forefront of my mind, he took my arm.
    “I have an urgent need to speak with you.” He’d never been much on manners or pretending to be normal.
    So this didn’t surprise me at all. With a muttered excuse for the others, I let him tow me into the other room. “You’re here.”
    A pang of bittersweet memory went through me, but to my astonishment, it wasn’t attached to anything stronger. We’d shared a lovely interlude, but I had no desire to spin it into something else or build impossible dreams around him. The only man I wanted was beyond my reach. Kel studied my features in silence for a moment, and then he inclined his head, as if he read the truth in my face.
    “I’m very relieved you called me, Corine.”
    “Called,” I repeated. “Not summoned?”
    “That’s why I need to talk to you. Do you remember in Catemaco when I said you held the potential for heaven and hell and that you had not yet chosen?”
    I recalled the scene well. We had been on the lake, stranded in the lancha , surrounded by feral monkeys. “Yeah, why?”
    “Because you have chosen.”
    “Surely I would be aware of something like that,” I said skeptically.
    “When you fled Sheol, you rejected the demon inherent in your line. Did you not feel it when Ninlil left you?”
    There definitely had been pain when I dove through the gate, returning to the mortal realm. But Chance had just died, and I was injured. I hadn’t been entirely sure whether I’d imagined that wrenching pain. To my shame, my head hadn’t been clear while I was in the demon realm. I’d made an unholy bargain to save my friends, which resulted in the demon queen, Ninlil, using me as a meat puppet, doing terrible things while I watched in horror.
    “I felt . . . something,” I admitted.
    “It’s like an absence.” At that, I only nodded, and he went on, “Which is why I’m glad you called me first. You no longer have the ability to summon or compel demons, Corine. At least, no more than any other practitioner. If you had called a demon without first setting all protections in place—”
    “Then they would make a