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But I did want him, didn’t I? I had wanted him for a while, and now my life was inexorably tied to his through the oaths I’d made.

“You alright?”

I blinked several times. Asher stood in front of me, extending a wine glass.

I nodded far too quickly, taking the drink from him and swallowing a huge gulp of it.

“Cheers,” he said belatedly, clinking his glass against mine.

My heart has chosen him. He doesn’t even like me. And we’re likely a day away from dying in some grisly death.

The gods had made a tragedy of my life.

Infernari mated for life. If I denied the pull, would my heart choose another? Ever?

I clutched my drink tightly to me, my hands trembling.

“So, about the portal,” Asher said, moving away from me to look out the window.

I released a long breath. The portal. Right.

“They’re going to be there tomorrow, aren’t they?” He glanced over his shoulder. “All the demons that culled that town.”

“Yes.” I took another gulp of my wine. It tasted like water on my tongue.

“So they know that we’re here. And now they’re waiting for us.”

My eyes lost focus. Distantly, I noticed Asher swivel around.

I nodded.

He pressed a thumb into his lower lip, mulling over our situation. “So what do we do?” he asked aloud.

I squared my jaw. My entire life I had fought to save my kind.Allof my kind. Perhaps I had been topside for too long, but I was beginning to see the unfairness of my fate when I had given so much.

“We meet them.”

“Lana, they have an entire city’s worth of power amongst them. We have a single gun and a half-empty clip.” He said this all gently, like I was naïve.

I gave him a deep look. “I’m not planning on fighting them.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Death isn’t our only option,” I continued. “If we can convince them you’re no longer a threat, they’ll stop hunting us, and they’ll stop culling so aggressively, and we can all stay alive.”

Asher rubbed his forehead. “But I am still a threat. As long as I live, I’m still a threat. They know that.”

“Not if you formally surrender to them. When Clades attacked us with the swarm, he told me the only way for us both to live was if you surrendered, but he didn’t think you would at the time, ever. Prove him wrong. Tomorrow in the cave, lay down your guns.”

“Mygun,” he corrected. “I’m down to just my Glock and...” He unholstered the gun and ejected the magazine. “Elevenbullets. It’s a wonder they’re still scared of me.” He snapped it back into place, the corner of his lip twitching.

“In exchange for yourswornsurrender,” I said, “we make them swear an oath that they won’t hurt us.”

“Please. They’ll blow me out of the water before I even get close.”

“I can reach out to them through my affinity,” I said, “I can ask them to hear us out, like I did with Clades.”

“Who I then shot. They learned their lesson, Lana. They don’t trust me anymore to swear oaths.”