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The dark highway blurred, her eyes burning. For several long, tense minutes, they didn’t speak.

Darien was the one who broke the quiet. And by that time, he had composed himself so well that his tone was matter-of-fact. “It’s done, Loren. I can’t take it back, and even if I could, I wouldn’t.”

No,she thought in agreement.No, you wouldn’t, because you don’t care about yourself at all. And it hurts.

Ithurts.

Silence prevailed. Loren focused on breathing, her heart pounding.

“Are you still cold?” Darien’s question alerted her to the fact that she was suddenly shivering. Violently. “I’ll shut this.” He flicked a button on his door, and the glass of the window rose, sealing off the noise of the highway.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled. “Besides, you’re sweating.”

He swiped the back of his hand across his forehead and glanced at the sheen on his skin, as if completely unaware of this fact.

She added, “I don’t want you to have to use your magic if you need to smoke again.”

“It’s no big deal,” he muttered. He unbuckled his seatbelt and shrugged out of his jacket.

“You use your magic a lot, though. There are risks, and you’re not really caring about them.” The Tricking was a threat he had never taken seriously—not since the moment she’d met him. She remembered asking him about it the night he’d tried tracking Sabrine in the dining room at Hell’s Gate.

‘There’s not a lot I’m worried about, Rookie,’he’d told her. She could hear his words as if he’d said them yesterday. Back then, he was nothing to her but a stranger.

Now, he was taking off the jacket she’d worn multiple times and was tossing it into the back seat of the car they’d had sex in. Multiple times.

“I care,” he countered gently as he put his seatbelt back on. His steel eyes locked on hers—and tightened a little, as if he sensed where her mind had strayed. It wouldn’t surprise her—it was hard to hide anything from him. “I just care about you more. And sweetheart, you’ve been using your magic as if you’re invincible. You know full well what could happen to you, and you’re not giving a single shit.”

She glared out the windshield. “We’re not really getting along, are we?” she whispered, her throat tight for a million different reasons, many of them things she couldn’t talk to him about.

“No,” he agreed. “But I’ll always love you. Even on the days when we’re upset with each other.” He added, “And even when you don’t love me back.”

I do love you,she thought.I always love you. Every second of every day. And I’ll never stop—not even when my heart does.

But she didn’t say it.

Her silence upset him—she could tell. He didn’t say anything more, but the look in his eyes, his body language, the way he reached for a third cigarette—justhimin general right now was unsettling.

He was worried that he was losing her. And from the way he kept looking at his phone, checking the screen for new messages or calls he might have missed, never mind that his volume was on full-blast, he was worried that he’d lost his Devils, too.

51

The Ocean

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

Max openedhis eyes to a churning sea.

The sky was so black, it was almost impossible to tell the difference between it and the water. Rain fell in silver sheets that stung his skin and pelted the foamy waves like bullets.

His upper half was sprawled across something hard and smooth, his legs submerged in water so cold they were numb.

There was something fluttering against his wrists.

He turned his head and found Dallas bobbing in the current across from him. She was holding onto him by the wrists, water up to her neck as she fought to keep him afloat on a piece of debris, her arms stretched taut across it.

His thoughts were so muddled it took him longer than it should have to realize those were her hands that were shaking. She hadn’t noticed that he was awake, too busy scanning their surroundings with stark terror.

Karkharias, water serpents, and aequorwyrms were only a few of the beasts they had to worry about out here. The worst of the worst were so old, they didn’t even have names. And then there were the sharks, the leopard seals… It wasn’t that Darkslayers couldn’t easily handle the latter—they could. But when you couldn’t evenseethe predator that was trying to takea bite out of you, anything could happen. And he was so drained, he couldn’t even use his Sight to look, let alone muster the strength to wield a weapon.