Page 211 of The Bonds of Indigo

I swallow hard, and for the briefest moment, I think about that blade at my neck. If I’d known my life was tied to hers, I never would have given up. I nearly ended both our lives trying to save hers.

I lift my gaze, anger and fear twisting together. “You knew that,” I say quietly, “and kept it from me.”

She nods, and slowly closes her eyes. “I’m sorry… I’ve kept so much from you…” Her voice fades away from the bond, and within seconds, she’s fast asleep.

I tuck my hand under her knees. “Thanks, Thornwyn, but we’ve got it.” We stare at one another for a moment, and with a very hesitant nod of his head, he steps away. With each one he gets smaller until he’s completely dissolved into the ground.

“Well,” Kai starts, but my eyes are locked on Lucifer. He can’t look away from Amarah. The pain there, the resentment—and the way it all mixes into something hollow—makes my chest ache like it’s collapsing inward.

“We’ve got a lot to catch up on,” Kairhyse continues. “And I’d very much prefer not to be standing around when the militia get here or, you know, the Ashspyte decides to chew me up and turn me into a Necroth.”

Xeraphine groans dramatically. “Let’s go. We’ll have to take the Phantasm, which I’m pissed about.” Her deadly eyes snap to me. “What the fuck were you thinking, Kayn?!”

“Wait…” Lucifer finally seems to register any of this. He stands, takes one harsh step toward her, all sharp presence and threat. “You know him? Are you the one who⁠—”

“Told him? Yes.” Xera doesn’t flinch. “Be mad if you want, I don’t give a fuck.” She jabs her sharp nail at his chest. “I’ve got about a million questions about what the Beyond happened, but again, we need to get the fuck out of here.”

“She’s right.” The familiar, refined male voice draws my gaze downward. Mister—Aphyllius—pads forward, tail flicking like a metronome of judgment.

“Good to see you, Butcher,” he says, then looks to Lucifer with a curt nod. “Lucifer.”

His attention shifts to Zuhara approaching him with cautious steps.

“Aphyllius,” she purrs.

“Your beauty precedes you, Zuhara.” He gives a small, elegant dip of his head. “Now, please—move this argument elsewhere. You four have stirred up quite a lot of trouble with the mortals. And we are far too exposed here.”

I glance over at Kai. He’s watching me with a worried, but genuine smile.

“Good to see you, man.”

I let out a heavy sigh of relief. Kairhyse was… is… the closest thing I’ve ever had to an immortal brother. Losing him gutted me in ways I never admitted, not even to myself.

Seeing him alive, arm slung around an extremely irritated Succubus who could rip his head off for fun, grounds me in a way nothing else has since this nightmare began.

He’s alive.

I’m alive.

And I have Amarah.

And Lucifer.

Thank the Gods.

Chapter 52

“Gods, I hate those things,” Xeraphine mutters the moment we step off the path leading to and from the Phantasm. “That’s the last time you force me through one of those.”

“It was a dire circumstance, and all things considered, you did wonderfully,” her Familiar, Aphyllius, replies.

“I’m going to have to agree with my little demon on this one⁠—”

“As you always should,” she snaps back instantly, as bitchy as her reputation claims in the Beyond.

“That’s not my preferred form of transportation,” he continues. “And it interrupted my road-head.”

A loud oof echoes next, followed by a slew of profanity.