Page 175 of The Bonds of Indigo

“Yes, little witch.” She pads forward. “Would you like a tour?”

I let out a breath that’s half sigh, half prayer. “Yeah. Would you mind?”

“Not at all.”

“Amarah—” Kayn starts, voice thick with worry.

“Kayn.” I place my palm on his chest and reach through our bond. “I’m fine. Truly. I want this for you. I need it for you.”

Something in him softens, even as his hands tighten once more on me.

Zuhara turns, and I follow her down the hall. My heart pounds so hard it feels like it might bruise my ribs.

I’m scared for them, because I want their happiness so badly it physically hurts. And because they’re both stubborn enough to destroy it.

Behind me, their voices echo at the same time through different bonds:

“Thank you, little slayer.”

“Thanks, dollface.”

Great, now I’ll more than metaphorically be unable to get them out of my head.

Chapter 44

Ifollow the back of Amarah’s head as she disappears down the hall toward the living room. She doesn’t respond to me, nor does she look back. Just simply strides away with Zuhara at her side.

Swallowing roughly, I slowly turn my gaze to Kayn. He, too, is watching her walk away. The way he looks at her, like he’d do absolutely anything to keep her safe, makes my bones ache. It’s not jealousy; it’s the want to have that look back on me again.

I ruined that, and I’m fully aware of it. None of this is his fault, and while I’m angry he’s here, it’s only because of the danger he’s put himself in. I ran away from the best thing that has ever happened to me because I couldn’t fathom the thought of him being gone forever.

I’d hurt for eternity just to know he found love, was happy, and above all else, alive.

He finally turns, and every inch of me comes to life. I’d met my Mark so many years before Kayn came into my life. I loved her for her short existence as a Mundane—spent forty years with her before she passed. Even though my mother swore up and down that she would be the love that transcended worlds, I knew she was wrong.

What I felt… feel for this man is more real, raw, and dangerous than anything I’ve ever known. Leaving him was harder than watching my Mark take her last breath in that hospital. And now, seeing him look at me like I’m a stranger who tried to kill him comes dangerously close to that same agony.

“Lucifer,” he says through a sigh.

Alright. I can do this. I’ve done it once, and while I took the easy way out before, now it shouldn’t be as hard. He has Amarah. Once I convince my father she’s nothing to be concerned about, I can send her back to him.

I can do that for them. I’ll suffer for a few years… and move on.

“Cor numquam movetur. Idiot.”

Without groaning aloud at my fucking Vigoro, I wet my lips and offer a smile. “Kayn. I’m sorry about having to throw you into the Phantasm.”

He narrows his eyes at me—and you’d think that someone like me, someone who could quite literally block out the sun, would have a backbone when it comes to him. Absolutely not. He’s always taken control, and I crave that like the very air I breathe.

“Why?”

I sigh. “My father was coming, and⁠—”

“No, little deviant. Why did you leave over four hundred years ago?”

My heart clenches as I squeeze my eyes shut. “I told you not to get attached… that I could never be your home, Kayn. Don’t you remember?”

“Oh, I remember.” His voice doesn’t waver. “I remember every godsdamn second of us, Lucifer.”