She was expecting this to go sour.
Adrenaline surged through me, and I took another step forward, determined to demand the truth, but Lily moved. She lifted her arms, palms up, and began summoning her magic.
“Lily—” I started, desperate to press pause on this.
She shook her head, then turned those crystal blue eyes of hers in my direction.
“No, Rath. Stay back. I don’t know what’ll happen, and I don’t want to hurt you.”
Fuck that. I wasn’t going to let her do this alone if she was that worried. Nor would I let her do anything that might get her killed.Nothingwas worth that cost.
I took another step, ready to put a stop to all of this, when a hand clamped down on my shoulder.
“Calm yourself,” came Levi’s voice. “I won’t let anything happen to her. I promise.”
Every instinct screamed at me to go to her, but something in Levi’s voice stopped me. He seemed so sure of this. Of her. And I wanted to offer the same support. I truly did believe in her.
Gritting my teeth, I turned away from Lily and spun back to Eliza. If I couldn’t help Lily, then I could at least get answers from the siren.
“What the fuck did you two agree to?”
“It’s what she wanted,” she breathed. “You know Lily. She doesn’t leave things to chance. You should have known she wouldn’t go into this without a backup plan.”
“And the backup plan is to what? Kill her?”
Eliza simply grimaced.
My stomach churned at the thought. “I won’t let you lay afingeron her,” I growled. “I don’t care what she asked you to do.”
“I know,” Eliza said.
I stared at the siren. “You’d really do it? You’d cut her down?”
Eliza didn’t answer. But she didn’t deny it, either.
I liked Eliza. Respected her. Trusted her even. She’d been through a lot with us and hadn’t once betrayed or abandoned us. Perhaps that sounded like a low bar, but Lily had a history with traitors. Regardless of her loyalty, I would kill Eliza if she so much as pointed a dagger in Lily’s direction.
Calyx stood a few paces away, but close enough to overhear. His pale grey eyes locked on me. “And that, kids, is why she didn’t ask you to do this for her. She knew you wouldn’t be able to.”
He didn’t say it unkindly. If anything, he sounded proud—like he approved of her choice.
I turned back to the battlefield, my body tense, and watched as the one I loved summoned her magic.
She would come through this. I had to believe that. Because there was no other option. I wouldn’t allow this to end any other way.
Chapter Four
LILY
I closedmy eyes and drew a slow breath, silencing my thoughts. The surrounding hellscape was too active—the wind stirring the loose rubble at my feet, the faint crackles of fire from the nearby geysers, the nervous shuffle of boots behind me, the anxious huffs from Gorr. I had to shut it all out. Even Rathiel.
Or rather,especiallyRathiel.
He’d figured out my secret. I didn’t need to be a genius to know that. I’d seen it on his face. The confusion, the anger, the hurt. It looked like I needed to schedule a little downtime for some grovelling—provided I survived this, of course.
After everything he and I had been through, he would never willingly let me go. Nor would I him. But some things were inevitable. And as the leader of the group, I had to prepare for all outcomes, including letting Eliza kill me if I started to lose control. The soldier in him would understand, but he wasn’t thinking like a soldier right now. He was thinking like the fallen—the vampire—who loved me.
I couldn’t focus on any of that right now, though.
