Read Online The Forsaken by Renee Pace - Free Book Online Page B

scarred—a freak of an angel.
    He let her cover up with the blanket, and when she made no move to face him, he took hold of her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. Her gaze bore into him, confronting him with her anger.
    “What happened to you?” he asked.
    “I gave up being Cherub the minute my wings were clipped from my back.”
    He bellowed. It was full of anguish and outrange on her behalf and that slightly amused Izzy. She liked that fury took hold of him, which was only evident by the slight shift of his body.
    He grasped her, flung her to the bed, and braced himself on top of her, pinning her to him. Surprised did not begin to describe how Izzy felt. She knew he was so mad that the awareness of their intimate position wasn’t slamming into his brain. For that she was grateful.
    “Who dared to mar thee like this?”
    She thought it funny he slipped back to scripturewhen flustered. She always did the opposite. Pleb, more like common English slang, she liked a lot more.
    His raw shout touched her heart. Her first thought, he truly did care. The second, his outrage originated because his Cherub, the one he thought perfect was more than flawed—she was mutilated.
    A hurt chuckle flew forth. “Why, Nathanael, I do believe you know the angel who did this to me. His name is Raphael. Your father.”
    She made a move to knee him in the privates but he anticipated her action and rolled off her and let her go.
    “You lie,” he stated, looking confused and hurt, standing at the edge of her bed to look at her.
    “To you never. Now leave me.”
    He ran an agitated hand through is hair. “This can’t be. You’re right. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have barged in. I will leave. We will discuss things later.”
    “We have nothing to discuss, Nathanael. And you saw the evidence with your own eyes. If you don’t believe it ask your darling father.”
     
     
     
    The holy wave of script that scrolled around her thighs made him almost wish for ignorance. She was anything but Cherub-looking. Worse, he liked the way she looked more than he ever thought possible. Everything about Isabella was inherently different—her attitude, her courage, her mannerisms, and even her body. Nothing about his so-called simple assignment to rescue his Cherub was as it should be.
    The door burst opened and a young Cherub ran in, one Nathanael hadn’t seen before. He noticed fear in her eyes and tears marked her cheeks.
    Izzy raised her head up and instantly tried to soothe the young Cherub.
    “Everything’s okay, Anya. There is nothing to fear here,” said Isabella, giving him a hard push out of the way as she moved off the bed, careful to drape the blanket tightly around her.
    She immediately went to the distraught Cherub. This Cherub—who couldn’t look him in the eyes, but dutifully kept staring at the ground—made him realize he didn’t know a lot about the other sisters who had been forced into exile.
    “Sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled,” he said. “To say I was shocked is a heavenly mistake. I—”
    Isabella hugged the visibly shaking Cherub she had called Anya. She sliced him a damning look. “No need to explain, Nathanael. I know I’m not perfect.”
    “No. That’s not what I meant. No one is perfect, especially me. I was shocked that your exile had been so brutal. I thought that because you are…”
    “You thought because I’m Cherub, a mere female , they would take it easy on me. I thought that at first, too. Sadly, as you now know, that wasn’t the case. I bear these scars with pride though because I saved the wings of my fellow Cherubs. We might all be together in this exile, but we have survived and will continue to endure.”
    Anya hiccupped on a sob.
    “This is Anya, my blood sister. She is sixteen.”
    Now Nat gasped. Sixteen—a mere babe—a novice who had been tossed to the wilds of mankind, and Isabella’s sister by birth. The knowledge shocked him. Nat realized he should have prepared more for his