Chapter Forty
Kara
Luke seemed to be in a daze as he stared ahead.
Hell continued to change around us, and the direction we headed was no different.
A forest of trees with red leaves beckoned us.
It looked beautiful. Not more beautiful than Grim’s woods, nothing could beat the whimsical colors of my father’s world, but still…
the dark pits of Hell were looking lovely.
The sky was—or what passed for one—had no sun or moon. Just a reddish glow that gave the world its light, like a dying ember refusing to go out.
I couldn’t decipher Luke’s expression—so many emotions bled through his slack jaw. Shock, tension…then something softer. Acceptance, maybe.
“Are you okay?” I asked, glancing at his expression and then to the woods again, not knowing what I should watch most.
“We’re here,” he said.
Oh.
My stomach twisted. No wonder his expression was strange. We were here. The end of the path. The place where everything was meant to change—or end.
“Come, Kitten. Let us embrace our destiny.” His hand squeezed mine—tight, sure. It felt like a squeeze of my heart instead. “Together, like I said. You’ll watch as the end comes. You’ll watch as I claim my victory.”
Deep red eyes locked on me. They felt like magnets trying to pull me in.
I swallowed, straightening my spine. Why couldn’t the longing I saw in his eyes—for the human world, for something more—ever be directed at me instead?
“You know I’ll stop you, right?” I asked, knowing the longing I felt would only break me more when the last hour came and I had to truly fight him.
He searched my face for something before saying, “I know you’ll try, Kitten, and I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Before I revealed any more of my sorrow or fear, I faced the forest.
But then he uttered, “I smell your emotions.”
I stiffened.
He brushed my hair off my shoulder with a single claw. “Bringing out your fear in the beginning… It was never about you and everything about what I denied for so long. Now that I can smell the emotion on your skin, I fucking despise it. I’d much prefer the smell of your desire.”
I smacked his hand away. “Don’t.”
“Okay. Even before I could smell it, I loathed the scared looks you gave me.”
“Luke,” I warned.
“I thought it’d be easier to be cruel—to pretend you didn’t affect me. But you do.”
Tears pricked my eyes as I spun around. “Why are you doing this?” My voice broke. “Why now—right before I have to fight you?”
He arched a brow. “You wanted honesty, didn’t you?”
I threw my hands out at my sides. “Why now?”
“You and I both know you’re my weakness. Harvest knows it too. I need you to stay away from the crossover when it opens.”
It wasn’t just a pinch to my chest. The feeling hit harder—like a sucker punch straight to the hope I’d let myself feel from his earlier words.
I laughed, but it came out raw and cracked. “So all that? You said all that just to keep me out of your way when it’s time for your big finale?”
Luke exhaled sharply, nostrils flaring as he stepped closer. Even with a few inches between us, the heat of his body pressed against mine.
“You’re mortal, Kara.”
“Don’t act like you care,” I snapped. “Not when you’re making a choice that erases me.”
“This was the only way!” he shouted.
I recoiled as the weight of his voice hit me. “I’ve told you—so many times—to say your goodbyes,” he added, his jaw tight. “I know what’s coming. And I’ll get what I want.”
“I hate you!” The words tore out of me. Luke flinched as if I’d hit him.
“I despise you,” I spat. “You’re the one person in the world who’s supposed to be mine—and you can’t even be kind to me. Not once. Never.”
He tilted his head slowly. The hard lines on his forehead eased, and something in his expression softened—just slightly.
“Is that what you want?”
I blinked. “What?”
“You want me to be soft toward you?”
What did it matter anymore? He was still going to let me fade. But when he said…
“I can be soft.”
…my heart did a pathetic little thump.
“You soft?” I whispered.
I itched to reach for him—but I didn’t.
I couldn’t stand myself—not even a little. How easily I slid back into pretending. Pretending I didn’t have to hurt the man standing in front of me in just a few hours.
But oh, how good it felt to borrow one more moment. To ignore the future.
Just a little longer…
Hades, Luke was right. I was so na?ve.
Claws sheathed, his fingers gently traced along my jaw.
“I could look at you every second of every day,” he murmured, “so much that when I’m not looking, I’m thinking about when I will again. It’s disgusting.”
Even now—when he was being vulnerable—he still knew how to ruin everything he said.
I sighed. “Really?”
“I didn’t say I’d be good at being soft.”
“It’s not disgusting,” I whispered. “And you shouldn’t think it is.”
“It’s absolutely exasperating,” he went on, voice low, “how much I’ve wanted to touch this skin—” His finger slid down my nose, then to my lips. “—and how badly I’ve wanted to silence these lips with a kiss.”
I gripped his wrist, halting the slow exploration of my face, and locked eyes with him. “Is that why you left me back then?”
He stilled for a beat before slowly taking my hand in his. “The day in the closet,” he mumbled. “At your school. You remember?”
My eyes widened.
He wasn’t pretending anymore.
He was Shadow.
“I’d been trying to provoke you,” he continued, “trying to rile you into anger—”
“You always do. Still do,” I cut in.
He smirked, fangs flashing.
“Yes.”
Then, softer: “But that day… I saw your face, flushed, excited. And for the first time, I saw a woman.”
“I was excited you had flesh,” I admitted. “Even if it wasn’t yours.”
He shook his head slowly.
“Because you were young. Na?ve. Foolish.”
I frowned.
“Sorry, it doesn’t take me long to decide what I want.”
His nostrils flared.
“You didn’t know who I was. If you’d fallen prey to me back then, you would’ve never forgiven yourself.”
“I’m still prey now. What’s the difference?”
He stepped closer.
“Now you know who I am. You’re not young and foolish anymore—though you’re still na?ve. But now you’re stubborn. Strong. Amusing.”
His eyes flicked across my face. “Your jaws are sharper while your eyes—more seductive. Your lips…” He exhaled through his nose. “You don’t sulk anymore when I anger you. You don’t cry. Instead, you adapt and handle everything.”
One large hand pressed against my lower back, pulling me close.
“I fear you can be the Devil’s mate.” There was a slight purr in the monster’s voice.
Flutters burst in my stomach.
It was the first time he’d acknowledged being my mate as something good. Maybe the first time he’d acknowledged it at all.
I leaned into his touch.
“Does it have to be like this?” I whispered.
Do we have to end before we begin?
He closed his eyes, leaned down, and pressed his forehead to mine.
“Yes.”
A sudden chirp broke the moment.
I jerked back, startled, and found the skeletal bird not even an inch from my face.
It chirruped again before taking flight, bones rattling softly. The little cutie twisted in the air like it were checking to make sure I watched, then squeaked and flew straight toward the woods.
I blinked.
“I think the bird wants us to follow.”
Without waiting, I took off after it.