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“It’ll be alright,” I tell him, hopefully with more conviction than I’m actually feeling. “I can do this.”

He lets out a long breath. “I know you can, Allie. I’m just not sure I can say the same thing for myself.”

Chapter 29

Allie

The Veil looms ahead of us, looking just like it did on the night Eren showed up in the human realm. Well, just like it did before it went all demon-red and scary.

Pearly white mist swirls within, bounded on either side by a huge, ancient stone archway carved with unfamiliar runes and symbols. In daylight, it’s even more intimidating than it was in the darkness of Tithe night.

I slept like garbage last night, even with my demon curled up around me, but try to clear the grogginess away as we step up to the Veil.

Eren squeezes my hand. “Are you still sure you’d like to do this?”

I nod. “I am.”

Though my entire body is lit up with nerves, it’s the truth. I want to do this. I have to do this. If there’s a chance that I can find some kind of help back in the human realm, there’s no other choice.

My magick is still tenuous at best. There are stacks of books in Vayla’s library I could pore over for years and get nowhere. I need help. I’m not too proud to admit it, and I can only hope that all of this won’t be for nothing.

The alternative is quickly becoming intolerable.

Failing the demon realm, letting the bargain lapse, putting both our realms at risk.

Losing Eren.

Eren, who believes in me and my magick. Eren, who holds me and protects me like I’m something precious. Eren, who worships my body and fucks me into delirious oblivion. Eren, who the Goddess chose just for me, and me for him.

There has to be something to it, doesn’t there?

He’s just been so much, so fast, so unexpected. All of this is, really. It’s hard to fully wrap my mind around it or know how to handle it. All Idoknow?

I can’t lose him.

So, standing in the woods just outside the Veil, I steal myself and turn back to Eren with as much courage as I can muster.

“I’m ready,” I tell him.

He studies me for a few long moments. Red eyes gleaming in the white light leaking from the Veil, wings slightly spread, brow furrowed in obvious concern, a hundred thoughts flit across his expression, but he doesn’t voice a single one.

Instead, he leans down and kisses me. Soft, tender, searching, like he could share all his worries with me from that one touch, draw some reassurance directly from my lips.

“It’s killing me Allie,” he says in a ragged whisper, pulling his mouth a few inches away from mine. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”

“I will be,” I say, kissing him again. “I promise.”

When we pull away, he tells me to lay a hand on the stone arch that frames the Veil. I do, and it immediately pulses a deep, emerald green.

Eyes wide, I watch the swirl. “It was red, on the other side. When you came through.”

“The color corresponds to the realm,” he explains. “The human realm is green, the demon realm red.”

“I wonder why that is,” I murmur, still watching the mist shift and swirl from emerald to evergreen to a hundred shades in between. It’s hypnotizing.

Eren shrugs beside. “A mystery of the Goddess for which I have no answer.”

Tearing my eyes away from the mist, I squeeze his hand and look up at him. “Ready?”