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“I can respect that.” She shook her head, her brow scrunching as she watched the road. “I can’t stop picturing it. He carried her off like a rag doll. Maybe it’s best she doesn’t know what’sgoing on.” Glancing at Adriel, she asked, “How long can you guys play dead?”

“I wouldn’t categorize it as playing. There is pain and then…emptiness. Peace. It’s disorienting when we come back, but… I think Cybil’s mind’s beyond the point of addling.”

Adriel shut her eyes, recalling the many times she’d gasp back to life only to find herself still in the grip of her vicious mate.

The thought of Cerberus filled her with unease. He was still out there. Adriel wished she knew how far behind he was or if he had a handle on their location. She wasn’t sure shelter would bring any real peace, but she was anxious to reach their next destination.

“How much longer do you expect we’ll be traveling?”

“About an hour. Maybe two before we find a house for you to dazzle. Why?” Juniper glanced at Adriel. “Do you have to pee?”

“No. I, um, will need to feed.”

Juniper’s horrified expression preceded the wild thumping of her racing heart. “Don’t look at me. I’m not on the menu.”

“I meant we should stop, preferably somewhere with animals. Anything larger than a raccoon will suffice.”

“Right. I’ll, uh, just pull over at the first petting zoo we pass.”

CHAPTER 7

Cerberus awoke with a jerk, every muscle contracting tightly as he braced for pain that did not come. Reflexively, a frantic panic pulsed through his veins as his body prepared for suffering. When no capillaries burst in his skull, the haunting memories of endless trauma eased, and a sense of safety settled in.

No explosion of chaos ripped through his chest.

His limbs were intact.

His clothing was clean, and not a speck of dirt covered his skin.

He could breathe.

He was not trapped underground.

Those telling moments upon waking always gave away how deeply his centuries entombed still disturbed him. He lived and died a million times, buried alive through that infinite loop of suffocation and agony. Trauma like that didn’tfade upon escape, so his mind didn’t easily differentiate those insufferable moments of waking up in a living tomb from waking up in a fucking tree.

Breathing a deep breath of fresh air, he savored how easily oxygen filled his lungs. Nothing like the stale, shallow gasps that killed him countless times before.

Glancing over the busy freeway, he monitored the traffic, calculating the time of day by the placement of the sun in the sky. It looked to be just after four.

Withdrawing his phone, he checked the clock and grinned at his impressive accuracy. Four o’ six. Not long ago, he’d only had the rotting stench of his decaying limbs to track the passing time.

A tingle of excitement invigorated him as he stretched and refocused on his purpose.

I’m coming for you, girl…

He fanned out his senses but, once again, to his infinite fury, found no trace of her. He would eventually have her in his grip, and he couldn’t wait to watch the life seep from her eyes as she begged for mercy—over and over and over again. He would show her the same mercy the cold earth showed him as he lay trapped in a deafened tomb of endless suffering.

During those centuries underground, his fractured mind became the only escape he had. Some days, he could not bear the gradual passing of time, so he distracted himself with thoughts ofthe past, forgetting the girl and thinking back to a time long before she ever existed.

He shamelessly found comfort in the hidden corners of his mind where his deepest secrets lived. Those tender emotions of his youth had been siphoned away by time and battle, but in his darkest moments of despair, he found great relief in the presence of such memories.

In the presence ofher.

Lilias.

Beautiful, majestic, enchanting Lilias…

He had loved her selflessly and completely. To think, she saw the purest side of him, and it still wasn’t enough to sway her. She ultimately left him for someone else.