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Maybe I was the hero after all?

Wait. Did heroes die in the end?

CHAPTER 18

“Adam, Kitten, Adam?” Firm, warm arms scooped me up off the dirt. “Hey, you in there? Baby . . . Adam? Fuck! Victor?”

Zee’s chatter pulled me back from a dark place, as though he’d grabbed me and dragged me from a mental pool of deep, dark mud. I felt small again, and clammy, and bruised all over. But also, mostly alive—which was a plus.

Victor was near. His radiating sense of safety warmed me through.

“Hey,” I croaked. I was definitely small, but not human. Just all of my dragon self had been packed down into my Adam suit. “I uh . . . blacked out, I guess?”

Now I was gradually making my way back to consciousness, the world around us had gotten loud. Strobing police lights washed over a battleground littered with crushed and burned cars. Distant helicopter blades thumped the air and emergency sirens wailed nearby.

“Hey, hey . . .” Zee’s big eyes filled my vision. “You’re back with us? Fuck, are you hurt?”

“Uh . . .” I patted my chest, expecting holes, but finding only a torn and bloody shirt. “I guess not.”

Zee’s face was in mine again. “How many horns do I have? What’s my name?”

“Two, and it’s Zee.”

“Am I the best demon?”

A wave of emotion surged through me. They were here, we were alright. “You are my demon.” I flung my arms around him and whispered, “Zee . . . Tell me we did it. It’s over?”

He rocked back on his heels, holding me tight. “Oh, my fuckin’ fuck, is it ever! You getting your dragon on was the most awesome fuckin’ thing I’ve seen, and I once saw a demon swallow a fifteen-inch dick.”

Victor, with his arms crossed, standing behind Zee, said, “Was that demon you, perchance?”

“How did you know?” Zee gasped, acting shocked. “Did you pay to watch it, Daddy?”

Victor sighed through his nose, but his dark-lashed, silvery-eyed gaze skipped to me. “Adam, welcome back. You had us concerned.”

“We thought you’d vanished, but turns out you shrunk yourself back into this gorgeous, highly loveable human suit.” Zee grabbed, then smooshed my face, and slapped a kiss on my lips. “I love it, I love you, I love your squishy face, and I’m done with asshole sorcerers—oh fuck, wait!” He let go, stepping back. “You don’t know.”

I rubbed my face, sweeping off the dregs of unconsciousness. “I don’t know what?”

Victor stepped in, and helped Zee lift me onto unsteady legs.

“Look,” Zee said, gesturing toward the edge of a cordoned-off area.

Beyond the flattened cars but inside a string of police tape, Gideon Cain sat in the back of an EMT ambulance, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, reeling off a statement to two police officers and several men who had the look of SSD agents.

“He’s still alive?” I croaked.

“It’s better than that.” Zee squished himself into an excited pillar and squeaked. “You tell him, Fancy Fangs.”

I gulped and checked Victor. His smile seemed to say this was good, but it didn’t look good. “With Tom Collins’s technical expertise we were able to rig the harvester below the bridge and get it working for one final extraction.”

I knew where this went. I’d seen the little needle pierce Gideon’s side. “You harvested Gideon Cain’s power?”

“All of it.” Zee squeaked. “Look at him, he’s just a grumpy old man. One hundred percent human. That’s fuckin’ karma at work, baby!”

He did look human, and grumpy. Technically, we had ruined his life. But he’d ruined plenty of others, so it seemed only fair. “Where is it . . . his bead?”

“We gave it to Elion for secure keeping.”