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His eyes narrow. “You don’t want Grimlet to see.”

“You’re so clever.” I pat him on the head, and he snarls, but then hops to the corner and settles down.

“Grimlet doesn’t want to see anyway. Ugh.”

“Sleep, get your strength up.” I consider him. “How long until you can do some more magic?”

“Two hours and twenty-five minutes.”

Very precise. “Okay, I’ll be back,” I say and head to my hole and consider how best to do this. It’s not very big. I study it.

“Amber?” Khaosti says.

“I’m coming.” I get down on the ground and put my arms through the hole and sort of wriggle forward like a snake. My head is through, and I can see Khaosti’s boots, but I can’t raise my head to see more. I wriggle through the edges of my escape route, scraping at my skin. For a moment, I suspect I’m going to be entombed forever halfway through. Then Khaos grips my hands and tugs. “Ouch,” I yelp. But I’m through. And I’m holding hands with Khaosti. I smile. Then he lets me go and I get up on hands and knees and finally push myself to my feet.

I look up and into his face.

He’s staring at me in wonder. “I thought I would never see you again,” he says.

“I thought you were dead.”

His eyes darken. “No, not dead.”

I reach out and touch his arm. “I’m so, so sorry about Fury.”

“Me too. But I’d rather he be dead than separated from me forever like those shadow beasts. And it was the same for him—I could feel it. He wouldn’t let go.”

“How do you feel?” He seems better than I expected. I thought he’d be totally broken. There’s a deep sadness about him, but he’s holding it together.

“Okay.” He frowns and I can see he’s really thinking about it. “Different. Strange.”

Then I move, closing the space between us and I wrap my arms around him and lay my head on his chest, listen to the beat of his heart, and breathe in his warm masculine scent. There’s something missing though. Fury. That hint of forests and musky wolf.

His arms come around me, and I can feel the long length of his hard muscular body against mine. For the first time in ages, I feel at peace. That I’m not hovering at the end of the world.

Okay, I’m going to die, so is Khaosti, but I’ve come to realize that there are worse things than death. And maybe there’s something on the other side. I’ve never believed in heaven, but then I never believed in Hell either. And yet here I am.

I could stay like this forever, but I know that’s not going to be. No doubt my father will soon come up with some new way to torture us.

At the same time, we’re not going anywhere until Grimlet gets his strength back. We have this time together. But first I’ve got to update Khaosti with what I’ve learned. And tell him the good news that—at least without divine intervention—there’s a very good chance that we are not getting out of this alive.

With a last squeeze, I drag myself away from him. His hands tighten for a second, but then he lets me go.

“Just tell me you’ve got a plan,” he says.

“I wouldn’t say a plan as such. But I’ve got a lot to tell you. Let’s sit down.” I look around the cell. The far corner is free of rubble, then I catch sight of something else—there’s a tray on the floor. Hecate must have brought him food as well. And he’s clearly not hungry, because the bowl is full of stew. I wave my hand toward it. “Do you mind if I…?”

A smile flickers across his face. “Help yourself.”

I hurry across, pick up the bowl, take it to the corner, and make myself comfortable on the floor. Khaosti sits beside me and watches as I shovel cold potato stew into my mouth. It tastes a little weird, sort of muddy, but it’s food. I hold out a spoonful to him, but he shakes his head. I scrape the bottom of the bowl and then place it on the floor and think about where to start. I put together what my mother told me with what Hecate revealed afterward, and I start talking.

There’s a lot to say, but he doesn’t interrupt me with questions until I fall silent.

“So all along, Hecate was planning this—to reunite Lucifer with his good half?”

“So she told me just now.”

“But to everyone else, she pretended that the plan all along was to destroy him.”