Heart pounding, I stepped directly into her path. She thumped into me and then stumbled back, confusion rippling across her face. Her unfocused eyes washed over me, but there was no recognition there. No happiness to see me. No relief. Just muddled bleakness that ripped through my heart.
My hands fisted. What the fuck had they done to her?
When she made a move to sidestep me, I gripped her elbow. “Eva. It’s me. It’s Caim.”
She frowned up at me. That was when I noticed the bandage on her arm and the red that seeped through the white gauze like a twisted, bloody Rorschach. Heart thundering, I quickly scanned the rest of her body, searching for any other wounds. I didn’t spot any, but my relief was short-lived.
“Let go of me,” she hissed.
“Eva.” I dipped my head closer to stare deeply into her filmy eyes. “Do you know where you are?”
The cult fuckers must have messed with her memory. I’d seen it happen before. Hell, Lucifer had done it to all of the Princes of Hell at one point or another. There was a lot about my life I couldn’t remember. Luckily, memory loss wasn’t always permanent, but I could only fix it if Eva trusted me enough to listen.
“Somewhere...bright,” she whispered. “Somewhere loud.”
My frown deepened. She didn’t even know she was in New York City right now. This wasn’t good. How much had they erased?
“Eva.” I tried to keep the panic out of my voice. “We need to get you somewhere safe.”
With a growl, she ripped her arm away from me. She stumbled back, her chest rising and falling with each frantic breath. “Get away from me.”
Pain ripped through me at the look of hatred in her eyes. I was going toannihilatethe Cult of Lilith for what they’d done this time. They’d been targeting the Legion for weeks, slowly trying to chip away at our defenses. They’d attacked us. They’d abducted Stolas. They’d tried to drain us all of our blood.
And now they had taken Eva’s mind away from her.
I would never forget this. I would destroy each and every one of them no matter how long it took.
“Look at me,” I said in a pained voice, ignoring the strange glances we got from the humans who darted around us. “Look into my eyes and tell me you can’t see that all I want is to help you, Eva.”
Hope curdled like old milk in my gut. As much as I wanted to believe I could bring her back to me just by having her look into my eyes, I knew this spell. I knew how it worked. She’d never see the truth until we could undo the magic that bound her mind. There was no other way.
Moments ticked by, and a hush fell across the sidewalk. She stared up at me. I stared right back. A shuddering breath spilled from her parted lips, frosting before her like a cloud of smoke.
She blinked and then glanced down the empty block. All the humans had now fled, leaving the streets in brutal silence. Something inside me urged my wings from my back. Maybe if she saw everything I was, it would remind her of our shared past. With a deep breath, I pushed the hidden limbs from my skin and flared them wide, the dark feathers blending in with the night.
Her eyes widened, and for a moment, I was sure I’d been wrong. The wings wouldn’t comfort her. She’d scream and run. That was what humans always did when faced with a demon like me. Mortals thought we were monsters. In most cases, they were right.
And once upon a time, I’d been their worst nightmare, too.
With wide eyes, Eva reached a trembling hand toward my feathers. Her fingers grazed the edges, and a tremor of pain whispered down my left side. Planting my feet on the sidewalk, I didn’t pull away. I wouldn’t pull away. Not from her.
“Okay,” she finally choked out.
Okay?The wings had actually worked? Hmm.
I wasn’t about to argue, but it was more than a little strange. For the millionth time that night, I wondered what the hell the cult had done to her. It was less like they’d stolen her memories and more like they’d scrambled her brain entirely.
I opened my arms and motioned her forward. Without even a second of hesitation, she stepped in close and wound her arms around my neck. The scent of blood and ash whirled into my nose. Remnants of her time spent with the cult.
Sucking in a deep breath, I circled my hands around her hips and shot into the sky. Her warm body pressed tightly against mine, familiar and soft and somehow so...wrong. There was something off about Eva. Whatever they’d done to her, I could feel echoes of it within my bones.
Only seconds later, I landed on the window ledge and leapt inside. Sarah and Anya both let out exhales of relief, their twin smiles so bright they were like knives in my heart. They weren’t going to feel so relieved when they saw the state of their friend. A state that was absolutely my fault. If I’d never gotten involved with Eva in the first place, none of this would have happened to her.
Right now, she’d be safe.
There was a reason Az had always insisted we keepInfernal’sdoors shut to humans. The supernatural world was far too dangerous for their mortal bodies and minds. I’d balked at that rule. And look what had happened because of it.
As I released my grip on Eva’s hips and folded my wings, Sarah seemed to notice her friend wasn’t herself. Her face fell, and her eyes went wide. “Eva?”
