Chapter 7
She shifted, arms wrapped tight around her knees like that could keep the world, or her own past, away from her. This place and organization used to feel like a sanctuary for her. Now it was a cell for both of us, full of memories neither of us could outrun.
"I want out."
The air sat thick with all the fear and all the stuff going unsaid. I kept my voice controlled. "You want out, huh?"
I watched the shake running through her. "I get it. Hard to believe in freedom when your will and autonomy is stolen like that. But I can't—"
A jolt shot through me, my connection to Jericho flaring to life and crashing through me in waves. Not my old demon fire, which was still gone with the rest of the power that had drained out of me. This was something else with chaotic energy that tilted the floor under my feet.
My pulse jumped. The room brightened and went dark at the same time, shadows draining and deepening all at once.
The operative's head came up, eyes going wide with recognition, or maybe fear.
I made myself breathe, made myself ground the spark whipping around me, some uneasy clarity cutting through the weight of it all. "I—"
The oath buzzed, beating like a second pulse.
This thing wasn't only mine to use. It felt different, looser, like a door left cracked with chaos leaking through the gap.
Her breathing picked up, the desperation coming off her as she leaned in.
"Parker?" The uncertainty pooled in her face while she tried to read whatever was happening to me.
"I'm here." I forced it out, holding my breath against the storm kicking up inside me.
Then Jericho's voice slid through my head, calm and dark, cutting clean through the panic. This is not merely your demon connection, Parker. You've invoked an ancient link. A blood oath is unrevokable and cannot be interfered with.
Cold fear grabbed me by the spine. I was frowning at the shadows skittering around the edges of the room before I knew I was doing it.
"No!" She shot upright, eyes snapping to me. "Not a demon. You can't let him in! You don't know what he'll do!" The panic caught in her voice.
But I wasn't consciously controlling it. There was just a thread shimmering up out of the chaos, and it carried intention with it. Raw, terrifying intention that promised either answers or wreckage.
I stalled, trying to keep my feet planted. How was he getting through the division anti-demon barriers? "Trust me. Please." I meant every word of it. "I'm not going to let him hurt you."
Jericho's energy thrummed through the air, cranking the tension higher. I needed to think straight and be strong. The oath was a two-way connection… a tool I could use.
She leaned back, terror threatening to override all of her sense. "You can't trust demons. Ever. They're all evil."
"Not all of us." I somehow managed to control my tone as I refuted her claim.
"I..." She caught on to her faux pas, hesitating, whatever she was about today changed. "I just... I didn't think I'd ever be in this situation."
The shadows thickened around us. I held my breath and waited for Jericho's theatrics to finish.
The air pulled like a riptide the second Jericho appeared, swirls of purple smoke sliding around his body.
Jericho stood there, charismatic and way too calm. "Parker." His voice came smooth and warm, with something under it that told me this wasn't a social call. Then he dropped to his knees and bowed his head, his hand making a gesture that indicated his loyalty was to me.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I stepped forward before I'd thought about it. He shouldn't have been able to get into the compound, not like this. The wards were supposed to hold. Had they failed?
He shrugged, the easy tone scraping against all the tension rolling off the team. "Seemed like a good time." His gaze swept over us, taking us apart one by one. I felt stripped down under it.
"I'm not joking." My voice pulled tight. "You don't just waltz in here. This place is demon-proof." My pulse hammered while the team shifted around, trading looks that said exactly what I was thinking. What did this mean?
Amusement flickered in his eyes. "We're all aware. But this compound has its... chinks. And I have my ways."
"Chinks? You think this is a fucking joke?" Rhiot's brow crashed down. He braced both hands on the edge of the table, frustration and worry tangled up in his voice. "You shouldn't even be able to sense us. Something is seriously wrong."
The whole room froze with the same nerves.
Kearan's calm started to crack, his fingertips tapping on his coffee mug.
Trux stood off to the side, glowering with that familiar dark intensity, fists clenched, mouth pressed into a flat line.
"We had protections in place. Ones we reinforced, carefully.
" The anger ran taut through his Rhiot's voice.
The operative shot a look at Jericho, recognition flashing wide across her face before it boiled over into panic. "You shouldn't be here. This isn't… Demon's can't get here." Her voice climbed high and thin, her own fear spilling out into the room.
"Relax, Maria." He pivoted without missing a beat. "I'm not here to hurt you." The calm in him was built to wrap around her and settle her down, while I stood there caught between disbelief and the urge to put myself in front of her.
"Can somebody tell me what the fuck is happening?
" My heart pounded as I stepped in front of Maria.
Not because I thought I could take him. I wouldn't have to fight him.
He swore an oath to protect and serve me…
but because of the way he was looking at her, which kicked up something fierce and protective in me.
I felt like I was the only thing standing between her and whatever future Jericho was already planning for her.
He met my eyes, something deeper catching fire behind the shadows in his. "You want her safe? I can give you that." The intensity sharpened. "I know what she needs."
"Maria doesn't need you." Trux crossed his arms, the tension winding through him as he squared off against all that power in the room. "And this isn't about one person. It's about all of us."
Jericho tilted his head, the faintest smirk pulling at his mouth, like the back-and-forth bored and entertained him at the same time.
"Is it? You say the wards protect you, but I can see the cracks.
Standing here before you right now is proof that it's not working.
The Hesolga's tearing at you, Trux. You're not as safe as you want to believe. "
"What are you implying?" Rhiot's voice went hard as he moved into a defensive stance, like that could shield any of us from Jericho. I was mostly confident that Jericho wouldn't actually cause any harm. A blood oath to me meant he wouldn't attack my mates… right?
"The bond you all share, complicated as it is, won't hold if it doesn't complete soon.
" Jericho's gaze slid to me, easy as a predator's, close and calculating, reading every player in the room like a game master who already had his hands on all the pieces.
"Today is fifteen days since you started the bond…
how much longer are you going to dilly dally? "
Anxiety bubbled through my belly into my chest as Jericho threw something I'd been ignoring in face. Fifteen days… we had to finish in one lunar cycle. Wait, how many days are in a lunar cycle?
Based on the Earth, twenty-seven days and some hours. But if you go by the Moon, it's twenty-nine and a half days. Grayson so unhelpfully murmured into my mind.
"What? How can those be different?"
Everyone looked at me with confusion. Except for Grayson.
He grinned. I rolled my eyes. It takes the moon twenty-seven days and some hours to actually orbit around the Earth.
But for our perspective on Earth, it takes 29 days because not only does the moon have to orbit, you have to add the extra time it takes for the moon to get back to where it started which is longer when you take into account the Earth is still revolving around the sun.
That made sense… Mostly. So for the mating bond, how many days is it?
Grayson changed his body language, suddenly becoming a bit uncomfortable. We don't actually know. Zandia would know, but she's not always forthcoming.
Well, that was fantastic. Just fucking fantastic.
Also, Grayson was so hot when he was nerdy.
He made a soft kissy noise at me before gesturing my attention back to Jericho.
"So Maria, what will it be?" Jericho grinned as he tilted his head at her.
My attention snapped back to everything going on around me. "You don't get to come in here and expect us to drop everything because of the past." My throat tightened. "What exactly does your offer come with?"
Jericho's tone dropped into something deep and convincing.
"Freedom. No ties to Division. Maria joins Archer's pack.
Aryn will happily help her adjust, and the pack is remote enough that she never has to look over her shoulder again.
" He laid it out like a light cutting through fog, a way forward when every shadow in the place was pulsing with the same old danger.
The room went quiet, his words spinning out doubt and possibility in the same breath. Maria took a careful step forward, eyes flicking between the pull of all that freedom and the doubt carved deep in her face.
I cut a glance at Kearan. He held my eyes and gave the smallest nod, resolve passing between us.
This wasn't only a deal for her. It would be her entire life moving forward.
Hopefully, she would have a chance to heal.
I'd owe Aryn another favor. Though I was excited at the idea of catching up with my half-sister…
Wait, did she and Jericho know Ro was possessed? I'd have to figure that out later.
"Will you take it?" The question from Jericho hung there heavy, meant for Maria but landing somewhere deep in me too. "This is your chance, Maria. A fresh start, everything left behind."
I let out a breath. I didn't have to justify it. Didn't have to haggle over a single term. Maybe some demons were more chaos sadists than actually malicious.
She hesitated, stuck in that place where the choice wrestled her fear. Then something shifted. The tension in the room let go a fraction, and she finally lifted her eyes to mine.
"Yes." It came out of her on a breath, and that one word landed clear and final. "It has to be better than what I have here."
Jericho rushed me, giving me a quick hug and murmuring, "I'll tell Aryn you said hi." Then he snapped and both him and Maria poofed out of the room, a hazy purple smoke filling their space.
The common room felt hollow after she left, the silence sitting heavy and refusing to lift.
I drifted over to the empty chair and brushed my fingers along the armrest, the warmth still there against the cool leather.
This is what freedom looks like, I told myself.
But something heavy held me in place, dragging at my resolve.
Jericho had moved fast and clean. Hadn't made Maria prove herself or pass some test to earn the new life.
And here I was, weighed down by doubts louder than her choice had ever been.
Had he done it as a favor for me, or had I somehow facilitated it?
Kearan was there at the edge of my attention, still too stiff by the doorway, watching me.
But why did I feel guilty? Or why didn't I?
I pulled in a breath and turned to face him, ready to get out the thoughts knotting up in my throat. "Why don't we ever..." I stalled, hunting for words that had slipped me too many times. "I mean, why is it so hard for us to give ourselves permission? To just be open?"
"Fear?" Kearan's tone stayed measured, steady. He held my eyes, the warmth coming through even past that wall he kept up.
"Fear, yeah." I thought about all the times I'd shrunk back instead of leaning in, hiding what I wanted behind logic and armor instead of just admitting I wanted somebody.
"But it's more than that too. I learned to earn what I want.
I've got a whole lifetime of convincing myself love comes with conditions, that caring has to be bartered for and justified.
So when you give it free, when you just let me take it—"
"It scares you." He finished it for me, gentle, his voice rolling over me in that steady way I needed. "Because it's not what you're used to."
"I thought I was past this." Frustration soured the words on the way out. "Every time I drop my guard, every time I let myself believe I could have something without grinding for it, the bill always comes back around to bite me."
Kearan nodded, patience written all over him like he knew exactly what was tearing me up. "What if it's not about the cost anymore? What if it's about taking it at face value? Learning to be wanted without a price tag. Holding space for each other through the chaos, whether you ask for it or not."
His words hummed through me. It was huge, terrifying, and right, all at once.
"Then maybe it's about accepting what we don't know and moving anyway." I tested the thought out loud against my own life. "If you're right..."
"I am." Kearan smirked, that flash of mischief coming back. "I usually am."
We laughed, and it came out light against everything heavy still hanging in the air. Some small proof of what we'd found together in the middle of the mess. A sliver of clarity cutting clean through the doubt.
I wasn't just learning to take anymore. I was learning to belong.