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Then there was the issue of her blood. There were many things a magical being could do to torture a demon. Things one could not do to a human, like summoning them to the far reaches of the universe.
Curses could be unraveled. Hexes could be broken. It always took time and power, but it could be done.
If the sea witch was right, however, even a sliver of demonic blood meant Never and her brother were damned.
It meant there would be no peace for her soul when she passed from this world. There was no hell in the traditional human sense, but there was a place that may as well have been hell for all the more inviting it was. The birthplace of the original demons.
These days, it was called the Alius. Only it wasn’t as much a place as it was a plane that existed in the same space as the human realm, overlapping. Much like the Nassa, time in the Alius didn’t line up with time in the human realm.
It was also equally difficult to get there.
More so, perhaps, considering the veil acted as a barrier to keep those planes separate, even from gods. If something happened to Never here, in her world, and her blood landed her in the Alius, I would have no way of getting to her.
The short-sighted part of me wanted to believe that all I had to do was keep Never safe in her world, but death by any cause would end with her soul trapped in the Alius. The only real answer for keeping that from happening was to take her back to the Nassa and keep her safe there long enough for the realm’s magic to protect her.
She flinched in her sleep, trying to yank free of my grip. Instead of letting her go, I traced feather-light circles over the back of her hand until whatever dream she’d been having subsided. I cast a look across the room to where Lily had been sitting earlier, hours earlier judging from the light in the room, and she was still there, watching.
We held each other’s gaze for seconds that stretched into minutes, almost as though we were coming to a silent understanding. For me, that understanding was that I needed Never in my life. I needed her by my side. Except keeping her meant trapping her in my world forever.
Letting her go meant condemning her to the Alius after her very short human life drew to an end.
Neither option was ideal, but the Nassa was clearly the better of the two.
Ah, but will she come with me?
If her brother was alive and in the human world, the answer would be a resounding no.
If he was in my realm? She’d already traveled there once to rescue him. She would do it again.
I turned my attention back to Never. Would she hate me if I dragged her brother back to the Nassa? Maybe not, if she knew the truth. But I already knew she would hate me if she ever learned I’d done it for my own selfish reasons.
I would hate myself too if I was ever that weak.
That the thought had even crossed my mind had my inner critic clucking his sharp tongue.
“You awake?” Leo asked quietly.
“I am,” I whispered, twisting around carefully to get a look at him without waking Never. “I owe you. A great deal.”
He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, biting hard enough to turn the flesh white. Then he shook his head. “You would have done the same for me.”
True. That was one of the many benefits that came with having loyal friends. You helped each other even when you were at odds.
His gaze slid to Never, her face slack with sleep as her hand remained tangled with mine. Emotions played across his face in slow motion as he took her in.
When he met my eyes again moments later, his smile was tinged with sadness. “I didn’t want to admit it earlier, even to myself, but her heart obviously belongs to you.”
Thank the stars. Despite my feelings for her, I did not relish the idea of tangling with one of my dearest friends for any reason.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
I nodded. “Better.”
“All healed?”
“Mostly.” If one ignored the hole I’d torn in my own heart thinking about Never’s fate.
“Is she okay?”
