My heart tore as panic gripped me. I pushed myself to move faster, but the demon scuttled closer to my mate.
Dastien killed one, and turned—finally hearing the larger demon behind him—but it was too late.
I was too late. I was going to fail him. Fail myself. This was it. The end.
The demon ripped its long nails across Dastien’s neck, and his body jolted.
I screamed as Dastien’s head rolled into the hole, falling into hell. His body stayed in place, slowly crumpling to the ground.
No. No. This can’t happen. I can’t—I won’t survive it.
Luciana’s laugh cut across the numbness in my head. She stood glowing with power at the edge of the ragged hole and hate filled every inch of me.
All of this came back to her. I was moving before I could think.
I threw myself at Luciana. We hit the ground hard. She sat on me, her hands around my throat. I was strong enough to get her off, but there were too many demons surrounding her. I couldn’t fight them all.
I had to stop this.
The portal she’d opened was just to the right. My life was over.
Dastien was dead.
The only thing left for me to do was end this fight.
I grabbed hold of her, and rolled us into the hell mouth. It closed above me and fire licked along my skin as I fell.
And fell.
The heat burned as I plummeted to my death.
Chapter Seven
I sat up, roaring with terror. My throat burned, but I couldn’t stop. Someone shook my shoulders, but I couldn’t register anything but fear. Heartbreak. The burning fire. Dastien being dead.
Everything being over before it had a chance to begin.
Then ice-cold water crashed over my head. I coughed as it lodged in my airways.
“Tessa. Answer me. Are you okay?”
Dastien. My sight cleared and I saw him crouching in front of me. I leaped at him, tackling him to the ground, and started sobbing. I couldn’t help it. My vision hadn’t happened yet, but it would. I was going to watch him die, and then I was going to die.
I just…
No. My heart ached. I knew he wasn’t dead. He was here. But I couldn’t help feeling the loss.
He wrapped his arms around me as he cradled me in his lap, running one hand up and down my back. “Shhhh. You’re here. You’re safe. Everything is okay.”
I shook my head, but didn’t pull back from him. “It?
?s not okay. Everything is not okay. I can’t—” I started crying again. Harder this time. The fear was too much. I couldn’t lose him. It was too soon. We were too young. I was supposed to have a lifetime with him. A Were lifetime. And now I was going to get what? Weeks at best?
I didn’t know how long we had, but Luciana was coming.
“You have to calm down. You’re going to make yourself sick.” He tried to pull away, but I clung to him. “Cherie, please. I can feel your fear and anger, but I don’t know what any of it means. You’re scaring me. Tell me what you saw. Whatever it is, we can fix it. We can change it. I know we can. But you have to talk to me.”
“How do you know we can change it?”