Chapter Thirty-Eight #2
Luke’s wings flared and thrust hard. He tucked them tight to his sides and dove. The wind rushed past with a deafening howl. The moment we were close to the ground, he opened his wings again, slowing our descent before landing in the grass.
He dropped me gently.
By the time I stood, he was already shifting—becoming a man again.
A very naked one.
But I didn’t glance down. My eyes stayed locked on his face, on the tension drawn tight across it like a blade about to snap.
Because I was seconds away from shattering.
“Harvest won’t return until the crossover opens,” Luke said, flexing his shoulders like they ached—though I knew he couldn’t feel pain. He was still covered in deep cuts and open wounds, healing before my eyes. The damage he’d taken as a dragon had followed him into this form.
“I’m mortal.” I snapped, gesturing to myself. “He will.”
Luke remained eerily calm. “He won’t. You scared the shit out of him. I smelled it in the sky. What you said earlier—it was true. If you’d taken his head, we could’ve kept him immobile. He knew it too.” Luke paused, gaze sharpening. “And he only dares to get that close to me… because of you.”
“Why?” I asked, voice tight.
“Why, what?”
“I know I’m your weakness. You let them shred you to pieces for me.”
He stepped closer, those deep red eyes boring into me. “Then why ask why?”
He didn’t deny it. My heart stuttered, skipping a beat.
“Harvest is immortal,” I said slowly. “Why does it matter if he gets close to you?”
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Because I can take back what was given.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“His immortality,” Luke said, voice low, measured. “It comes from me.”
So, he could have stopped Harvest long ago?
Was that what he was saying?
My chest tightened painfully.
Wanting the Devil—and knowing he’d let the world burn anyway—was a damning thing. It should’ve been easy to hate him. But all I had to do was look at him.
That strange, shifting complexion beneath his skin—like molten shadow. Those blood-red eyes that brightened with emotion whenever they landed on me. The twist of his lips, cruel and soft all at once. I wanted to hear something sweet from them. Just once.
Even the horns—and Hades, yes, even the tail—were growing on me.
His shoulders, that broad back, looked like they were made to carry me.
Those large, clawed hands weren’t weapons.
Instead, they were catchers. Holders. The kind that would keep me from falling.
And those thick thighs ? I knew what they were for.
They were a throne—for me, when I curled into his lap and told him about my day.
That’s what I saw. What I felt. What my soul screamed for every time I looked at Luke.
And yet… he was the Dark One. He’d let the human world fall. He watched it burn. And now we were here—me, mortal and on the verge of fading.
I had lied to my dad before he vanished.
I told him I knew I couldn’t get the same ending my siblings got with their marked mates. But that wasn’t the whole truth. I knew I wouldn’t get the happy ending—but gods, I still wanted it. I wanted a mate. My mate.
I wanted Luke.
But life didn’t always give us what we wanted. And I wasn’t so foolish as to throw away my life for a man who’d let himself become a monster. I couldn’t choose someone who refused to choose me.
When I finally spoke, my voice was hollow and small. “So, you’re admitting… you could’ve dealt with Harvest long ago, and didn’t?”
He stopped. Looked at me—really looked at me—with something raw in his eyes. A deep emotion I couldn’t name arose, and then he smothered it.
His expression hardened. So did his stance, body tightening like a predator. Then he prowled toward me, close enough to cast me in shadow. He bent his neck, crimson eyes locked on mine.
“Harvest was a necessity,” he mumbled. “I wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t be by my side right now…if not for what he did.”
“So many people have died, Luke.” My hands trembled as I shoved at his chest. “The human world is in ruins. And not everyone was terrible. I know you know that. You judge the evil ones yourself—you punish the ones who do horrible things to the good.”
“Kara.” Luke lifted my chin like I wasn’t already staring at him.
“It’s not your job to save everyone. You’re meant to keep balance.
But somewhere along the way, that line blurred—more than any of you wanted to admit.
One small family can’t carry the weight of the world.
If you were meant to take on everything, you would’ve been created to. But you weren’t.”
My vision blurred. My chest ached, hollow and raw like it might cave in.
“Wow,” I whispered. “You really know just how to kick a girl when she’s already down.”
We had tried. Hades, we had tried.
“We had other Reapers once. Demons who helped before we let them go. Don’t you dare tell me that what my family has done didn’t matter.”
He didn’t flinch. “Even before the end, you couldn’t save everyone. It was never possible.”
His words hit harder than I wanted to admit—because they were true. We had always known we were playing a losing game.
But that didn’t make his goal—letting the world fall—any less cruel. That didn’t make this moment right.
“So.” I gripped the hand still holding my chin and rose onto my toes until my breath brushed against his lips. “We’re here now, Luke. This moment you’ve been waiting for. Are you excited?”
His brows furrowed. The lines on his forehead deepened as his scowl twisted into something pained.
“Excited to watch me fade right in front of you?” I added, voice low and sharp.
He didn’t answer. Just pulled away, silent as stone. Then, without a word, he took my hand.
“Come on,” he said. “Just a little farther. Then we wait.”
“Luke,” I said, glancing down and feeling the empty spot on my hip. “I lost my weapon.”
His shoulders shifted with the smallest roll. “Look again.”
I blinked and looked down. The dagger I’d dropped was sheathed against my side once more.
My stomach twisted as I exhaled slowly. “You know I’m going to plunge this dagger into your chest, right?”
He didn’t look back, but his fingers flexed around mine—just once. A subtle reaction. But it was enough.
“I feel nothing,” he said. “Go ahead, Kitten. You’ve wounded me enough already.”
The words sounded casual, but something about the tone caught me off guard—like he meant more than just blades and bruises.
Then I remembered. The scent. The way he’d fallen apart at my feet as if he could feel me again.
“But… you can still smell?” I asked, hopeful, wary.
A low sound rumbled from his chest—almost a purr.
“Yes. Why do you think I’m in such a hurry to reach the crossover?”
“To guard it?” I guessed, heart kicking faster.
“Yes,” he said, tone rich and deliberate. “But also because it’s there that I can finally return to what we were doing earlier.”
He rubbed his thumb over mine, slow and sure. The smallest touch, and it sent heat curling through me.
He didn’t say what he planned to do.
He didn’t have to.
My stomach coiled with anticipation. With want. With everything I knew, I shouldn’t feel.
I still asked. “What were we doing?”
I already knew the answer.
And I double-knew I should stop letting the Devil touch my pussy—even if it felt like salvation.
Because he was still the enemy.
Luke chuckled. “By your scent, you already know. And I was very wrong, Kitten.”
“About what?”
“Your desire. It’s real, and I want to bathe in it until the world ends.”