“Are youmessingwith me?” I returned the smile, narrowing my eyes at him. “You’re messing with me. I didn’t know you had it in you, Liam.”
“Excuse me, but for your information, I was quite the comedian in my day.”
“In yourday?” I laughed, nudging his shoulder with mine. “Let me guess: you were the class clown of the primordial mound? Entertaining all the gods and goddesses of creation with your sparkling wit and boundless charm?”
Liam blushed, suddenly very interested in the sand in front of him.
Absently tracing a series of vertical infinity signs with his finger, he said, “They did not take the news of your banishment lightly. It seems they’ve made a deal with the Prince of Hell for passage through the hell portal.”
“They’re cominghere?” Flashes of Darius and Ronan dying in the orchard shot through my memory, but I refused to let them take hold. None of that had been real, and I wasn’t about to let those old fears consume me. Still, the idea of them following me here did not sit well. “Why didn’t you stop them?”
“I would have, if they’d let me know about their plans in advance. But your vigilantes like doing things their own way, natural order be damned.” He shook his head, but when he met my gaze again, he couldn’t hide the spark of admiration in his eyes. “In any case, word travels quickly among hell’s servants. I’m told they have already passed through the portal, but with the time fluctuations here, it will be some time before they arrive.”
“How will they find us?”
“When I receive confirmation of their arrival from my sources, I will retrieve them.”
“What about Emilio?”
“It isn’t safe for him here. His soul his human. Demons and vampires don’t have the same risks.”
“I guess that’s something, then.” As much as I hated the idea of Ronan and Darius in the Shadowrealm, I couldn’t deny the spark of warmth I felt at knowing I’d see them again. When I’d taken Jonathan’s soul in the prison, I’d truly thought that was the end. That I’d never get to say goodbye. Never get to look into their eyes or press another kiss to their lips.
But now, it seemed we were all finding ways to bend the rules, creating a new reality, with or without magic.
I blew out a breath. There was still so much I didn’t understand. So much left to learn about this place, about my powers, about their true limitations and consequences.
All of that would come with time—time that I was starting to believe I might just get back.
“I don’t suppose there’s an end game here,” I said. “Or anything evenremotelyresembling a plan.”
“We all want to see you returned home, Gray. That’s theonlyend game.”
“I thought you didn’t believe it was possible.”
With the palm of his hand, Liam wiped away the infinite creations he’d drawn in the sand. “You make me believeanythingis possible.”
My cheeks warmed, and that expansive feeling in my heart intensified.
“Will the hell portal stay open long enough for us to get back to it?” I asked.
“With demon’s blood and the right incantation, both of which Ronan possesses, the hell portal can be opened anywhere in the Shadowrealm. When the time comes, Ronan and Darius will need to return back through it, but you must find another path.” His eyes filled with something that looked a lot like sympathy. “You’re demon sworn, Gray. You can’t risk it.”
Demon sworn.The words felt like a brand at the base of my skull, and I wrapped my hand around my neck, trying to rub the burn out of my skin.
“Sebastian can’t touch me until I’m dead. If that portal can get me back home alive, what’s the issue?”
“Portal travel is highly unstable for physical beings,” Liam said. “It’s not unusual for a soul to separate from its vessel during the journey. It’s almost always reunited upon arrival, but sometimes there’s a delay. If for any reason your soul was separated from your body in the portal—for any length of time—Sebastian could trap you there, refusing to release your soul from his domain, and no one would be able to challenge him. If that were to happen, you’d be beholden to him whether you’d died or not.”
“Like Ronan,” I whispered, shuddering as I remembered the horrible story of Ronan’s demonic enslavement. His own parents sold him out. He hadn’t even been given a choice.
“Wewillfind you another way home, Gray. Demon sworn or not.”
“Demon sworn,” I sighed. “Shadowborn. Necromancer. Violator of the Natural Order. Anything else I’m missing?”
I’d picked up so many labels on this journey, yet none of them said a thing about who I really was. I was still trying to figure that out for myself, but I was pretty sure the answer wouldn’t fall under a neat little tag, like some kind of exhibit in a museum.And over here, we have the elusive demon sworn, a rare breed of human who lost her soul to a devil’s bargain made before she was even born. Now class, if you’ll follow me this way…
“Consider yourself lucky, Liam,” I said. “You might try on different vessels from time to time, but at least you know who you are. Who you’vealwaysbeen.”
