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Kaos didn’t blink as he sucked her in.

“You paraded it around like it defined you,” she cried, her fury growing like a third heaven. “Like it made you noble. Sacrificial. Holy.” Her voice pitched. “And all that time, you let me thinkhewas the one who lost her, whosufferedfor her. Who got all spiritually naked with her.”

The words slammed down like a challenge.

“You let me carry that image, let me seethe while you sat theresoakingit in.”

Kaos felt his Rage stir. Not at her. At the truth she just cracked wide open. At how deeply he’d wanted her toburnfor him. More so now.

Her mouth opened once more, lips parting with a gasp of disbelief. “And now I’m in love with the bastard who used it like foreplay.”

Her passion moved through Kaos like sanctified power. He went to her, blocking the room with his body, forcing her to look up. He took her face in his hands and leaned his mouth to her ear. “Say it again,” he whispered.

She took hold of his hands and lowered them. “Say what?”

“That youloveme.”

She stared at him, jaw setting harder, anger flaring brighter. It tasted like spiritual cool-whip, and Kaos waited, his body alive with the pulse of possession.

She shoved him away and declared war with a jab of her little possessive finger. “Do you know how much worse this is? Now that I know it wasyouall along? You—the smug divine lunatic who sat there acting like her memory was some tragic poem?”

Her hands flew, wild and dramatic as she paced out his judgment.

“Maybe I should march back to that wall and paint you as a weeping black demon in a diaper, wailing over your celestialsoulmate.” She nodded, liking the idea a lot. “Or maybe I’ll just whip out a fresh canvas and capture yoursacred griefin interpretive glitter.” She stormed bravely up to him, eyes blazing. “OrmaybeI’ll save Mr. Ominous the trip andunmake you myself.”

His brothers all erupted in stifled snickers while every inch of her jealousy sang to him like sacred flame. He inhaled it deeply, her fury the air he was built to breathe.

Kollaborator checked the nearest card. “Well. That leaves us exactly fifty-three minutes to throw him a going-away-forever party.”

Jaxi jolted. Her eyes locked on the card, then on Kaos—fear swallowing her whole. “Fifty-three?” Her voice caught. “That’s all that’s left?” She whirled back to Kaos. “Why are you standing there, we need to hurry!” She turned on the others, hands flailing at them like blades. “Why are you all just standing here? He’s going to be erased! You said that!”

Kaos watched as she shoved the stupid divine beings toward the door with her tiny human hands, crying “Move, move, move!”

She suddenly spun and faced him, eyes huge with disbelief. “You’re not moving?” she shrilled, storming over and yanking him toward the door. “My God, am I going to have to rescue you by myself? I’m just a girl, a human girl!”

Kaos couldn’t speak as she pulled him. He glanced once more at the painting on the wall, gaze locking on her face. Fearless, fierce protection. She was standing between him and his eternal death, he realized. Determined to save him. With no thought of herself.

And it unmade him more than Nominous ever could.

Chapter Twelve

The trees blurred past the window like smudges on a canvas. Jaxi sat in the back of the vehicle, flanked by Kaos on her right and Kross on her left, but the only thing anchoring her to the moment was the weight of Kaos’s presence beside her. But the timer in her chest never stopped ticking. Fifty-three minutes. Clawing at her ribs.

She stared ahead, then sideways. Kaos hadn’t spoken in a while, hadn’t so much as looked at her, but she could feel it—how tightly he was holding himself back. Every inch of him was drawn taut, like his skin could barely contain what boiled under it.

She reached for his hand, threading her fingers between his. He didn’t look down, didn’t move, just curled his grip tighter around hers.

“I keep thinking,” she said quietly, her pulse in her throat. “If something happens… I don’t want to leave this world without proving to you that I meant it.”

His eyes flicked toward her, sharp and searching.

“That I love you,” she added. “I didn’t just say it because I was scared. I said it because everything in me knows it.”

His jaw shifted slightly. “I know.”

She turned in her seat to face him more fully, a knee drawing up between them. “I don’t want to disappear having only said it once.”

His grip on her hand tightened slightly. “You won’t.”