Chapter Thirty-Nine
Luke
Despite what I lacked in senses, that knowing tingle still sparked in my skull when someone entered my domain. I hadn’t discovered Harvest’s presence until he was far too close to Kara—too close to her—which meant the tether between Hell and the Underworld had broken.
If the right person knew what they were doing, they could breach my world.
He hadn’t slipped in through some overlooked crack.
No—he used a portal chip.
With every step forward, I glanced down at Kara’s hand in mine, half-expecting she’d pulled away. She hadn’t. So I kept walking. My eyes flicked back to the ever-changing land. It was beautiful now, vibrant and alive—twisting with warmth and color—but I trusted none of it.
I told Kara Harvest wouldn’t return. Yet, I watched every shift of the sky, every flicker of a new creature in the grass, expecting one of them to lunge. It could be mine. Or worse, one of his.
Harvest was a coward. I hoped he stayed that way—until the bitter, inevitable end.
But there was something else. Another risk.
Her siblings.
If the crossover’s proximity weakened the barrier, thentheymight also reach Hell. Immortal or mortal, I wasn’t worried about what they could do tome.It was what they mighttry—taking what wasmine—that stirred something hot and ugly in my chest.
Harvest had been enough of an interruption. If I hadn’t been beneath Kara, her thighs trembling around my head, if I hadn’t been dragging my tongue across her soaked panties, I might have sensed the bastard sooner. I might have stopped him before he even landed.
Instead, I was lost in her.
Even now, I could still smell her on my mouth. Her arousal drying between her thighs as we walked—I could scent every bit of it.
Kara walked beside me like she hadn’t just come apart on my face.
Irritation swam through my veins—not just from the attack, but from the interruption.
Then came the astonishment again.
I could stillsmellher.
And it wasn’t fleeting, not some blip of awareness. Her scentlingered,clung to me like my skin had absorbed it, like she’dsoaked into me—warm, like she was a balm I didn’t know I needed until I had it.
Fuck.
I couldn’t get enough. I wanted her scent on me,inme. I wanted to drown in it.
When Kara had first plagued my existence through that vision, I’d been certain the cost of her would be too high. That having someone like her in my world must demand a price. And I’d paid it. No touch. No taste. No scent. No truesenseof her at all.
And yet here I was—breathing her in. Again and again.
And it wasruiningme.
My heart hammered in my chest like a wild thing, pathetic and uncontrolled. The honeysuckle scent and heat clinging to her skin felt… forbidden. Like I was breaking a law written for gods.Thismust’ve been what it felt like for Eve the moment I whispered to her,Take the bite. Just once.
I had made peace with the loss—had accepted I’d never be able to touch her, smell her, and taste her the way I burned to. That was the price.
But now?
Now, scent had returned like a cruel gift. A temptation tossed at my feet right before the end.
“Would you put that thing away?” Kara’s voice cut through my spiraling hunger, dry and unimpressed.
