He stormed down the path toward the beach, boots hitting the dirt like war drums.
I raced to catch up. “Then get a better job!”
“I’m working, aren’t I?” he growled. “What do you do all day?”
I scoffed. “You load produce into trucks.”
“And get paid under the table, which, in case you forgot, keeps us off the radar. We’re not exactly legal. No licenses, no legal papers. Just two time-lost nobodies.”
His glare could’ve shattered stone. “You just flit around.”
“I don’t flit,” I shot back. “I’m tracking Jack James. You remember him? The reason we’re here?”
The tension snapped and sparked like static in dry air.
I let out a breath. “Can’t we at least try to be allies? After everything?”
Lee shook his head. “I doubt it. I don’t trust you. Not with how you moan for Balthazar in your sleep.” His jaw clenched, voice rough. “He’s a demon. Or did that slip your mind?”
I stilled. “You don’t get it.” My voice softened. “When you’re a darkness, love isn’t gentle. It’s hunger. Craving. Need. It doesn’t play by the same rules. But don’t mistake that for loyalty. I vow—here and now—I will find Balthazar and destroy him for what he’s done. Every breath I take from this moment on will be in pursuit of the blades. I will end him.”
Lee grunted, unconvinced. “Whatever.” He turned toward the sand, his tone flat. “I’ve got enough cash for a couple of sandwiches. Let’s eat.”
As we stepped off the beach and onto the sidewalk, something fluttered in my periphery. A flyer stapled to a telephone pole caught my eye?—
Enroll Today at McMont College—exciting Programs for All.
Lee turned to see what had caught my attention. “You should enroll,” he said. “Might learn something useful.”
I couldn’t tell if it was sarcasm or sincerity, so I let it slide.
But then he added, more genuinely, “I’m serious, Alina. Your English is a lot better. The Italian accent’s almost gone.”
I glanced at him sideways. “I’ve been practicing. People look at me strangely when I slip into Italian. They judge. I’m trying to sound like a regular North American.”
“And you’re doing great,” he said, almost casually. “I barely notice it anymore.”
Is he being… nice to me?
I tore the flyer off the pole, staring at the grainy, Xeroxed image of a college campus—students smiling in coordinated enthusiasm, books clutched in their hands like keys to something bigger. “Do you think I could do it? I don’t even know what I’d study.”
Lee plucked the paper from my hand, scanning it. “There’s a campus nearby. We can grab some food and talk to someone there.”
A thrill surged through me like someone had struck a match in my chest and dropped it onto dry kindling.Could I do this? Could I belong here, too?
Yes. I could. Iwould.
“Let’s go,” I said with fire in my voice. “We need to see what this place has to offer.”
We arrived at McMont College, the building towering before us with its heavy stone archways and air of quiet prestige. It was intimidating, yes—but something about it called to me. Who said a demon couldn’t strive for greatness?
I stood on that threshold, fierce and unyielding, ready to shatter every expectation the world had cast over me.
What I didn’t know then was how quickly those dreams would be tested—how this place, so full of promise, would threaten to break me before it ever built me up.
Chapter 25
Alina
