Page 35 of Tall, Dark & Horny

“Now, Calliope!” I shouted.

She moved to my side. Her fingers curled into mine, and together we pressed our hands to the glyph between us. The Abyss answered.

Power erupted through the floor—an explosion of storm light and hellfire interwoven into a single, devastating force. The assassin screamed as it consumed him. His body began to crack, as if the magic binding him to this world was being undone.

“You should never have come here,” I growled.

He vanished, leaving nothing but ash and a scorch mark where he fell.

The wards fell still, and the air stopped crackling.

Calliope stumbled forward and crashed into me, her body trembling with the aftershocks of raw power. I shifted back to my human form before I caught her, pulling her tight against my chest.

“It’s over,” I murmured.

She looked up at me, storm light fading from her eyes. “We won.”

I nodded, pressing a kiss to her brow. “Together.”

16

CALLIOPE

The power hadn’t fully left me. It hummed under my skin like a second pulse, just quieter now that the danger had passed. “Whatever had been buried in my blood is wide awake now.”

Adan cradled me against his chest, his arms holding me together as my body trembled with the aftershocks of the power I’d unleashed. His lips brushed my temple, murmuring something low and soothing, but the words didn’t register. Not over the ringing in my ears and the thrum of something wild still singing through my blood.

“And it’s a beautiful thing,” he murmured against the top of my head.

I stayed in his arms, our breathing ragged in the quiet. The assassin was gone, but the storm still flickered outside. Adan’s hands were still burning, but hellfire didn’t scare me. It felt as though it belonged to me…like he did.

I’d just helped defeat a supernatural assassin. Me.

I tightened my grip on Adan’s bare shoulders, grounding myself in the now-steady rhythm of his breathing. I could still smell smoke and ozone, but beneath the lingering scents from our battle was all him—leather, dark spice, and heat.

Just as I was ready to celebrate the fact that we had survived, the air shifted again. My spine stiffened, and Adan cursed softly under his breath as shadows thickened at the edge of the shattered atrium. The space hadn’t even settled from the battle, but something new was already pressing against it.

Two presences bled through the remaining wards, and a voice echoed across the broken atrium. “Looks like my daughter saved your ass, Deville.”

Adan exhaled sharply but didn’t loosen his hold on me. “Your timing’s impeccable, as always.”

Two figures stepped into the fractured light. I recognized Abaddon instantly but not the other man.

His presence wasn’t oppressive like Adan’s father’s. It was raw and fierce. He moved like thunder, and his hair looked like windswept smoke. His armor was traced in cobalt and pale gold. He was both beautiful and terrible.

And he had the same storm-kissed eyes as me now that my power had awakened. Pale green, edged in silver.

He tilted his head. “I’ll give your mother credit where it’s due. She made something extraordinary.”

My knees might have buckled if Adan hadn’t still had an arm wrapped around my waist. “You’re?—”

“Typhon.” His mouth curved but not into what I’d call a smile. “Your father.”

“Not sure you can call yourself that when you’re just meeting the girl,” Abaddon muttered with a shake of his head.

Adan shifted to my side, keeping his arm around my shoulders as we faced our fathers. “Never thought I’d see the day you’d be handing out parenting advice.”

Abaddon didn’t seem bothered by the insult. He just shrugged it off. Which was as it should be, considering the stories Adan had shared with me of what his life was like growing up. The things his father had asked him to do were inhuman, even for demons.

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