Seline didn’t speak. Hell. She didn’t want Sam in hell.
“Uriel stripped the skin from his back.” Delia whispered this. “It was the first step in Sammael’s punishment.”
Her breath rushed out as horror filled her. “Why?”
“Because that’s where the wings once were, so the flesh is more sensitive to pleasure or to pain. Uriel wanted Sam to feel maximum pain.”
Her stomach tightened. “No,” she bit out. Maximum pain. “Why did Uriel want to hurt him that way?”
“They’re old enemies.” Delia shrugged. “And Uriel didn’t exactly enjoy the fact that Sam was able to trap him. Now everyone knows that the great punisher came close to dying by a Fallen’s hand.”
“So he took his pound of flesh.” No, Sammael had sacrificed that flesh, for her. Seline swallowed, trying to choke down the lump in her throat. “What’s hell like?”
“You’ll see, soon enough.”
Was that a threat? She hadn’t expected one from Delia. Maybe I should have.
Delia’s shoulders bowed. “It’s part of our duty. We can travel between earth, heaven, and hell. We go where the punishment takes us.”
“So I’ll be able to see Sam?” Yes, that was hope making her voice rise.
“See him,” Delia agreed, but shook her head as she said, “not talk to him, not . . . touch him, not until his sentence is over.”
“How long is his sentence?” She didn’t like this plan. Not at all. Her hands fisted.
“For redemption, Sammael has to serve a thousand years in hell.”
Seline leapt to her feet. “What?”
Delia stared back at her. “No angel has ever come back to heaven after choosing to fall. Sammael is to be used as an example—”
“Who decided that, Uriel? He’s a—”
“You’ll still be alive when Sammael’s sentence is done. He can come back here to you.”
After a thousand years in hell. She blinked to clear eyes gone blurry. “What will happen to him there?”
“Torture. Pain. Nightmares that won’t stop.”
He’d already had enough of that. “He doesn’t deserve that punishment.”
Delia’s wings shifted a bit. “It’s not really punishment. It’s his choice. He’s trading time in hell—and the agony that time will bring—for his wings.”
Her hands clenched. I’m sorry, Sam. “I’m not letting him do it.” She rushed for the doors that weren’t barred any longer. They hadn’t been barred since she’d visited the mortal realm and seen Sam. Don’t fall for me! She could still hear his voice, but Seline was ignoring those words.
“You don’t know what it’s like, do you?” Delia’s voice called after her. “The fall, I mean.”
Seline glanced back. “No, I don’t know, and I don’t care—I’m going back to him. He’s not going to—” burn. “He won’t suffer for me.” Not for a thousand freaking years.
“There’s a reason he told you not to fall.”
And how did Delia know about that? She’d thought the angel vanished after delivering her to Sam.
The angel’s lips lifted, just for a moment. Almost a smile. “Word spread. There were eyes watching that you didn’t know about, and when Uriel got that strike from above . . . well, that was sure something folks wanted to know about up here.”
“I need to be with Sam,” Seline said quietly. “When I’m away from him, I just hurt.”
“You’ll hurt more if you fall.” Delia didn’t move toward her. “Your wings will burn away, and it will be a pain unlike anything you’ve felt before.” Her lips tightened. “Or so I’ve been told.”
“I’m not afraid of pain.” A hellhound had ripped out her throat. So what was a bit of fire supposed to do? If she remembered correctly, a giant ball of flames had surrounded her right before she’d woken to heaven.
“It’s not the pain you need to worry about.”
Okay, now that sounded a bit scary. What was she supposed to fear if not the pain? “Look, I’m not cut out to be an angel. I can’t just—”
“You feel too much. I can see it. We all can. But we truly believe that the longer you’re here, the less you’ll . . . suffer.”
So that, what, in a thousand years, when Sam was flying with his wings again, she wouldn’t even care?