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Eryn slid one hand down, and brought the knife to Tisiphone’s throat.

“Sister, please—” Tisiphone cried weakly, bracing her trembling hands over her heart.

Eryn looked back at Vann, soft and fierce. She’d taken as much as she could, but the rest was locked behind Tisiphone’s final breath. “I won’t be like her. I can’t kill… I can’t—”

“You don’t have to.” Vann traced his fingertips over Eryn’s cheek.

She looked at her sisters standing guard.

At the demon hunters waiting to finish the fight.

“You know, I don’t actually work in security. I was born to hunt demons.” Vann winked, one side of his mouth lifting in a playful smile. “Not a need, but a want, and I’m thirsty.”

Eryn smiled fully for the first time in hours. “I’m not a killer, but demon hunters? They were born to hunt monsters like you. Our sisters deserve vengeance.”

Vann pushed to his feet and extended a hand toward Ryan. “May I?”

Ryan snickered and handed over the demonic sword. “No coming back after a mortal injury with this blade.”

No ceremony deserved, no last words, Vann did what he was born to do. He gripped the sword, stepped close, and drove the blade straight into the demon’s heart.

Eryn’s cheeks flooded with a bold red. The last of Tisiphone’s power released and flooded straight into Eryn.

She gasped and cried and dropped her hands to her sides.

She tipped her head back.

A scream soared from her mind, half song and half sob.

The sound spliced into his aching head.

Vann dropped to his knees and pulled her into a warm embrace. Cold as ice, but alive. “I love you,” he whispered in her ear.

She melted into him, wrapping her arms around him.

A shadow grew behind her. Sleek, feathered wings extended from behind her shoulders. She stood to make room, and extended to her full wingspan.

A sob rattled in his throat. Flooded his eyes. The vision synced with reality.

Years of fearing this exact moment. Of believing he would have to drive a sword through her heart.

Of believing a carefully crafted bedtime story.

Vampires and werewolves on his team. His best friends. He should have realized his own visions weren’t driven by grief.

Lips parting into a stunned thrill, Eryn’s cries turned into relief as she moved the wings. Her complexion flushed. Her eyes glowed like sunlight cast on a jar of honey.

Epilogue

“You’re on the next flight over, right?” Eryn pleaded into the phone. A whirlwind of a month had come and gone, but respite was a long way off. “I can’t do this without you.”

Cozy in a plush leather seat of a private jet, a glass of white wine in one hand and Vann’s hand in the other, Eryn curled her feet under the thick blanket and let the warmth of the heater wash over her skin. Vann gently squeezed her hand and flicked up an eyebrow in question.

Eryn bit the tip of her tongue as she tamed her grin.

“Yes. We will meet you there as soon as the weather clears,” Lexi said playfully on the other end of the call, and erupted in a laugh that sounded suspiciously like someone tickling her.

Vann’s other eyebrow lifted, delight brightening his expression. Fresh injuries compounded on top of old ones, with multiple healing fractures and a head injury added to the mix. He would take months to heal.