Page 149

“He’s telling the truth,” Lana blurted out. “He had one of those when I first met him... and without it, he was as blind as a bat.”

“I’m not going to kill you guys with the flashlight,” I added.

“Blind as a bat... hmm, I like that,” Azazel said, picking at his fingernail. “Why don’t we gouge out his eyes? Then we’ll accept his surrender.”

I twitched.

“No,” Clades said. “He offered blood with his surrender, we will take the blood—ifwe decide to let him live.” He turned back to me. “Why should we accept this exchange, Jame Asher?”

Clades’ calm impressed me, considering I’d shot him in cold blood.

Of all the demons I’d met, him I respected the most.

That would make this harder.

“Why should we spare your life,” he continued, “when you have shown such contempt for ours? When you have killed so many of our brothers and sisters? Why should we not execute you on the spot?”

You should...

I opened my mouth, but Lana silenced me with a shake of her head. She rose to her feet and spoke for me.

“Ihatedhim,” she began softly, “I hated him just as much as you did, as all of you did. Jame Asher was once our enemy, but he isn’t anymore. He hunted us because our magic killed his wife and daughter. Would you not be angry if a human killed your family? Your mate? Your daughter? Would you not seek vengeance? He fought us, because he wasloyalto his family, because he was a good father, a good mate...”

I closed my eyes while she was talking, each word a successive blow to my heart

My eyes stung behind my eyelids, and I shook my head as she spoke, trying to negate every word. I wasn’t good, I wasn’t loyal, I wasn’t honorable. I was wretched and deceitful and treacherous.

I didn’t deserve to have her defending me.

I didn’t deserve her. Period.

“...but he’s changed,” she went on. “He’s a different man now. He saved my life. Clades, brother, he spared your life when he could have killed you, and Aecora, sister, yours too. Today, he came to offer peace, not to fight. I know you want vengeance, we all do, but hasn’t there been enough killing? Enough oathbound deaths? Wasn’t it our need for vengeance that caused the war in the first place? We will never stop dying unless we stop killing, unless we break the cycle, unless weforgive... if we are to survive, we must learn to forgive.”

She paused, and a cave full of demons that wanted us dead now hesitated. They looked halfway swayed by her words.

She continued in a softer voice, “Please honor this man as he has honored me, as he has protected me, as he has cared for me, and please forgive him, for I know he is good, Iknowhe is good...” She lowered her head and in a whisper, said, “And he is my mate.”

Demons gasped and hissed around the cavern.

It was too much.

I fell to my knees, shaking my head and staring at her in desperation, once again feeling like a drowning, dying man who’s seen his salvation. As I beheld her, a girl not of my species who had risked everything—everything—to save my life, my chest felt too small to hold my heart.

I couldn’t go through with it.

I couldn’t betray her.

Not after that.

Her words had crushed me more effectively than any weapon.

She smiled weakly at me, and I knew then.

I would not betray Lana Malesuis.

I would love her, and cherish her, and somehow let go of my hatred of Infernari. I would do it all and more...

For she was my mate.