“Did you tell the guys about Raven’s Cape?” I asked hopefully. “Did they get Asher? Is everyone okay?”
“Unfortunately, I have not been in touch with anyone since I learned of your disappearance.” Liam lowered his eyes. “There hasn’t been time, Gray. On the material plane, only a few hours have passed since I saw you in your realm.”
“But… What?” My mind spun, trying to make sense of his words. I was terrified to ask the next question, but I had to know. “How… How long have I been gone?”
“In linear time, you were taken by Jonathan approximately two days ago.”
A strangled gasp was all I could manage.Two days?How was that possible when I’d already been wanderingthisplace for… God, it’d felt like weeks.
“Time moves differently here, Gray,” Liam explained. “That is yet another challenge you must face. You may experience the progression of seasons in a single afternoon. Your body may age thirty years in a heartbeat. Then again, you may age backward until you are a toddler, only to relive the entire experience forward again.”
I nodded slowly, the full impact of what I’d done finally starting to settle in.
“Is it always like that for you?” I asked. “Traveling back and forth? How do you keep the time straight?”
“Generally, I don’t. I hadn’t a need for it. Not until you came into my awareness.” He smiled softly, cupping my face with his hand. Despite his smile, sadness lingered in his eyes. “Understand, Gray—my life, for lack of a better phrase, is not meant to move linearly. It is only humans who experience time as a straight line of befores, durings, and afters, and that’s not even real. Humans disassociated from their natural ability to perceive alternate realities and created the construct of time to bring order to a natural chaos they found too frightening to accept.”
“But what about when you’re in a human vessel? Aren’t you limited by Liam’s human perceptions?”
“Yes, that does… complicate things.”
I thought about how many times he’d traveled back and forth to the material plane, constantly changing forms from his natural state to his human vessel. About how many times he’d endured that confusion and complication… just for me.
“You can stay in your Death form,” I said. “I don’t mind.”
“Perhaps not.” Liam frowned, brushing a tangled curl behind my ear. “But you don’t look at me the same way.”
“I… I never meant to disappoint you,” I said.
“Oh, Gray. You haven’t disappointed me.” He stroked my cheek with his thumb. “You couldn’t.”
“Then why are you looking at me like that?” I whispered, lowering my eyes. I couldn’t handle the intensity in his gaze. The scrutiny. He could see my soul, my heart, and he was making me feel things I didn’t want to feel right now. Not while I was trapped here, facing down an eternity alone.
“There’s no coming back from this, Gray,” he said gently. “You risked everything. You… yousacrificed…everything.”
“So you keep reminding me.”
“I just meant…” He slid a finger under my chin and tipped my face up, forcing me to meet his eyes again. “It takes courage and selflessness to do what you’ve done. You must never forget that.”
My heart swelled at his kindness. He was so real in that moment—a touch of compassion in an otherwise deathly place. His warmth, his eyes, the shy smile playing on his lips… Looking at him reminded me what it felt like to miss something. To miss someone.
“Will you find the others?” I asked. “And tell them about the prison? Asher is working on getting Haley and the others out.” I told him about the things we’d endured there, and the parts of Jonathan’s crazy plans we were able to put together from his ranting monologues.
“I will go to them, and I will tell them everything,” he said when I finished. “But I don’t understand—how was the incubus able to overcome the blood-born devil’s trap? Surely you didn’t remove his soul again?”
My cheeks flamed at the memory. “I… he was… healed. Sort of magically. Energetically.”
“Magically energetically?”
“We didn’t have much time,” I said.
“But incubuses require—” Liam cut off suddenly, clearing his throat. “Ah. I see. I’m, um, well, it’s good that you were there to… He’s very lucky to have a friend… Okay.” He cleared his throat again, then glanced up, taking a breath of night air. Clouds were moving in now, darkening the lavender sky to a deep slate.
“It’s going to rain,” he said, a hint of alarm tingeing his voice. “You need to take shelter. There’s a cave system ahead—hopefully, it will still be there when we reach it.”
“And if it isn’t?”
Liam glanced up at the clouds. “Then I’m afraid we’re in serious trouble.”
