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Staring back at me from the opposite end of the room was Nicole Asher, my wife, her blue eyes lit up in surprise. My stomach plunged into freefall, my heart galloped, I couldn’t breathe.

Back from the dead... like an angel.

But then I noticed the details. Her blonde hair flowed around her like she was underwater, defying gravity.Not real... she’s not real.

Her blue eyes flickered crimson.

Not human.

My hope died with a sickening crash.

I looked around for Joy, our daughter, who would surely be with her mother.

But my daughter wasn’t there.

My daughter was dead, and so was my wife.

There was no one in the room but Lana.

No one but a demon.

Nicole began to change, morphing back into Lana. Seeing it happen, something tugged painfully at my heart.

Deep down, I felt hollow. Emptied of something essential.

“Never...” I rasped, my voice shaking, “never... never do that...” My fingers coiled into fists.

She swallowed, her eyes wide. “I didn’t do it to hurt you,” she whispered, backing up. She banged into the mirror behind her, its surface vibrating. “I wanted to see... I’m sorry.”

I was dying inside at the reminder of what I’d once had—a beautiful wife, a perfect daughter, a blissful family... oh God, I’d had it all—and it was stolen from me. And this demon, she was like rot in the wound, making my grief fester.

“Howdareyou wear her skin,” I said, my voice hoarse with anger. With pain.

My wife. Mywife. Lana wore her face like someone would a coat, and she used her black magic to do it, cursing someone else by doing so.

I prowled toward her, my chest rising and falling faster and faster, my breath escaping in furious hisses. I stepped into her space, my body towering over her.

“Howdareyou disgrace her memory, how dare you mock her, how dare you defile her,demon.”

Lana’s eyes welled with tears.

Letting a demon into your heart... it was like swallowing cyanide. I should kill her right here, right now, just as I would any other demon. But even now I couldn’t, much to my everlasting shame.

Instead, I spun and punched the wall, putting a hole in the rotting, termite-infested wood. The nearby photo fell, its flimsy frame breaking apart.

I stormed back to my room and slammed the door. All through the house, I heard frames thunk onto the floor.

The last thing I heard, before I roared in agony, was the quiet whimper Lana tried to suppress.

Lana

I collapsed againstthe wall, letting my body sink slowly down to the floor. A sad sob slipped out. I covered my mouth, afraid Grandmaddox would hear it.

ThatAsherwould hear it.

My tears rolled down my cheeks and onto my hand as my shoulders shook. I bowed my head, my hair lank and listless around me.

What had I been thinking? Wearing her face was torture enough. But then to get caught? And by Asher of all people? If only what I felt right now was simply embarrassment... It was so more than that. So much more.