He smiled. “All of them? Really? Your naivety would be cute if it wasn’t so embarrassing.”
I gritted my teeth and ignored that. “So someone else killed her before Lucifer could take her?”
“That’s right. Removing Lucifer’s ability to torture her and discover if the rumors were true, and if your father really sired a half-breed bastard with her.”
“Vercan was one of those demons, wasn’t he?” He’d been seen near my mom’s body soon after she’d died, and he was the demon I’d been looking forward to questioning before someone killed him in Samael’s club.
Ugales shrugged. “Probably. All I know is that Lucifer raged through the underworld when he learned someone had killed your mother before he could take her. I heard it was the biggest cull of his men since he learned Agates had visited your realm.”
I winced at the thought. Ugales lifted his hips, and I was suddenly straddling him. He gave me a sour look.
“That’s all I know, half-blood. Now leave.”
Kyla held out her hand and helped me climb off the demon, and I slid Misty back into its sheath. At least now I knew for sure that Lucifer hadn’t killed my mom. Because Ugales was right about one thing—he would have killed her in the underworld, after torturing her until she begged for death.
The thought made bile climb up my throat.
“Are you okay?” Kyla asked as we left the hut.
“I don’t have time to not be okay,” I said. She pinched me and I sighed. “Not really. The letter Evie left for me... She said she knew, down to her bones, that she was the reason Mom was dead. I don’t think she’s to blame in any way, but I think she’s right about some of it—whoever had our mom in that lab likely killed her.”
Kyla opened her mouth, but a deep voice cut in from behind us.
“You never asked about your father.”
I kept walking. “He’s irrelevant.”
“He’s alive.”
My mind turned blank and I froze. “I don’t care.”
“You don’t wish to know where he is?”
If he was alive and he’d never come to help my mother, never shown up to meet me…
“No.”
The demon let out a bitter laugh. “Looks like you’re more like your grandfather than you know, halfbreed.”
I whirled, but he’d already slammed his door closed.
I gave myself one moment to process that information, and then I pushed it out of my mind.
We walked toward the portal silently, and my chest ached like someone had taken hold of my heart and twisted. It wasn’t the first time I’d actively longed for Samael, but it was the worst. All I wanted was to talk to him, to hear his voice. Our dreams weren’t enough. Ineededhim.
Just a few months ago, I would’ve been shocked at that thought. I hadn’t needed anyone. Hadn’t wanted to.
I stroked the gold mark on my hand and poured the love I felt for Samael down our bond.
I pictured him, there in the cabin, deep in wolf territory. I didn’t let my fear enter the equation, just sent him all of the feelings I hadn’t wanted to admit to until it was almost too late.
We should’ve had more time. If I hadn’t been so stubborn, so damned determined to listen to my mom thisonetime… so sure that the demon would never be able to wrestle back his most overprotective instincts…
And now he may never truly hold me again.
Tears filled my eyes. Kyla kept silent, her gaze on the forest around us, giving me a moment to collect myself as Ireachedfor my demon.
For the first time, I could see every inch of the bond—a shimmering gold. And at the end of the bond, I couldfeelSamael in a way I hadn’t before.
