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But Juniper was different. I couldn’t just let Lust have her, like everyone else. No, I wouldn’t do that.

“You’re not a joke, Juniper,” Lust drawled, because I continued to stand there and gawk like a dying fish.

Her focus didn’t shift at all to him. It stayed on me.

“Why?” she asked, tears welling in her eyes.

This was it.

I was about to do something stupid.

I don’t care.

Leaning over the desk I captured the back of her neck with one hand and leaned in, only a hair’s breadth separating our lips. If she pulled away, I’d disappear into the Underworld and never surface.

“Because of this,” I whispered and kissed her.

Chapter

Fifteen

JUNIPER

Time froze as Pride's lips touched mine. For one disorienting moment, something sparked between us—a strange current of recognition, like déjà vu but stronger. His mouth was warm and surprisingly gentle, tasting of something ancient and sweet, like honey aged in oak. For a heartbeat, my body responded before my mind could catch up, my lips softening against his.

Reality crashed back.

This stranger, this immortal being, had just told me I'd died. And then he kissed me?

I jerked back, rage boiling up from somewhere primal and fierce. My palm connected with his cheek before I'd even consciously decided to slap him. The crack echoed through the office, his head snapping sideways with the force of the blow.

Lust burst into laughter, deep and unrestrained, while Pride stood frozen in shock, one hand rising slowly to his reddening cheek. His eyes were wide with disbelief, as if no one had ever dared to strike him before. Maybe no one had.

The demon cat thing, Damon, lifted his head, eyes gleaming with what looked suspiciously like amusement.

"What the hell gives you the right?" I demanded, my voice shaking with fury. My hand stung from the impact, but I welcomed the pain. It kept me grounded in this surreal moment. "You don't get to drop a bombshell like 'by the way, you died' and then kiss me!"

Pride blinked rapidly, still cradling his cheek. "I—you—we have a connection," he stammered, all his earlier arrogance crumbling. "I felt it when you arrived in the Underworld. You're...special."

"Special?" I echoed incredulously. "I am nobody's 'special' anything. I don't even know you!"

Lust's laughter subsided to chuckles, but his eyes had sharpened, flicking between Pride and me with calculating interest.

"This is getting more entertaining by the second," he drawled, though something in his tone had hardened.

I paced away from the desk, trying to create physical distance as my mind whirled. They were saying I had died. Actually died. Not just buried alive and escaped. The implications crashed over me like icy water.

I died. I really died. Everything I thought I knew about what happened to me is wrong.

"You're lying," I said, but even I could hear the uncertainty in my voice. "I clawed my way out of that grave. I was just unconscious."

Pride shook his head, some of his composure returning. "No one survives being strangled and buried. Your body was in the Underworld—cold, lifeless. I saw you myself."

No.No.

"Why would you reanimate me? You didn't even know me." I gripped the back of a chair, needing something solid to hold onto.

Pride's eyes darted to Lust, then back to me. "I told you. I felt...something. A connection I can't explain."