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“Infernari don’t normally cull that aggressively,” she said. “It’s because they feel threatened... byus. If we turned around right now, this would all stop. We could run away together,” she suggested quietly. “We could disappear, become someone else.”

She had forsaken her people to uphold her oath to me, and in so doing had become fiercely loyal. She had to know Earth would kill her. She’d sicken again or waste away without the necessary blood she needed. And without her, her people might very well die.

Surely she knew this. And still she offered.

In another life I’d have given a kingdom for a woman like this.

Star-crossed. That’s what poets would call us.

Because in return for her loyalty and sacrifice, I would betray her. And it would kill every last good thing in me to do it.

I swallowed the dry knot in my throat. “Together?” I had to breathe through my nose to control the terrible emotions taking hold. The self-loathing. The guilt. The premature remorse.

“I’ll never be welcomed by Infernari again. You’re the closest thing I have to family now.”

I couldn’t look at her. I squeezed my jaw. “I thought you wanted to show me Abyssos?”

“I wanted you to see my home,” she said, looking down, frowning. “But you’ve taken my home from me, and now you’re all I have left to protect. I can’t lose you, too.”

As she spoke, my heart felt like it was being slowly crushed.

To betray her when she felt this way about me... the very thought had my stomach kinking up.

I couldn’t.

I couldn’t do it.

She was too precious. She had bared all of herself to me—her good side, her brave side, her wicked side, her dark side—and instead of loathing her, I had fallen for her. All of her.

I had fallen for the sinful, exotic creature she was.

I couldn’t do it. And I didn’t know if that made me a worse person or a better one.

Just utterly fucked.

I would have to find another way to destroy demonkind without killing Lana... or run, like she said. Run away.

Put this all behind me and start fresh. She might get sick again, but modern medicine could combat most illnesses. And that blood magic of hers... we’d deal with that when it came.

Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t too late.

Maybe she could still save me.

I felt something right then I hadn’t felt in years... hope.

Lana

When our carfinally came to a stop in front of our villa, I took in the large building.

“Are you sure this is it?”

“It’s it,” Asher said as he stepped out of the car, grabbing a bag of groceries in the backseat that we’d picked up on our way.

I stared at the white stucco house, a row of columns holding up the second story. Some sort of flowering vine grew up the sides of it, the deep pink petals bright against its lush green leaves.

It was... beautiful. Exceedingly so.

I followed Asher out of the car, my eyes drinking in our surroundings. Everywhere grew green plants with waxy leaves, some with strange, brightly colored flowers. The air was thick with moisture and the sounds of birds and other creatures.