Page 267 of Red Ruin

Vhex rubs my shoulder blades, sparking a fire that dances between my body and soul.

“Mine,” he sighs. “My wings. My only. You can’t leave.”

I bury my face in his warm throat.

“Neither can you,” I whisper into his skin.

“As if we could.” Remy chuckles. My scalp tugs as he lifts a piece of my hair to his lips. “I can forget hundreds of lifetimes, even my own name. Yet, I’ll always be drawn to the light of your soul. Everything that’s left of me is yours, my love.”

I shiver in their arms. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

EPILOGUE

IRIS

A few weeks later...

“Iris. The excavation team found something.”

I look up from my paperwork in Remy’s remodeled office. We scavenged enough glass to replace the gaping hole with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Golden light glows against Cherise’s skin.

It’s sunset.

My stomach does a dizzy flip.

Almost time.

I shut my log book and grab my jacket from the too-big chair; it was supposed to be Remy’s seat, but here I am, weeks later, still filling the command that no one wants—and no one else can handle.

“Hustle up.” Squinting against the sun-beams, Cherise tugs my sleeve. “You need to see this.”

“Why? What did they find?” I let her tug me toward the stairs.

“Trouble.”

“What a shock.” I wrinkle my nose as we make our way to the teleportation platform. Now, a Sentinel is stationed there full-time, ready to blink us down into the tomb.

In a flash, we’re zapped miles away, into the cold, cavey darkness lit by torches of pink hellfire.

My silks can’t help flowing toward their favorite energy.

Cherise snickers. “Long day alone at the office?”

“Surprisingly so.” Unashamed, I reel back my silks. I had to banish Vhex and Remy from working hours because of all the blood, sex, and office fires.

It’s kind of stupid how much I miss them from the moment I leave our bed until the moment twilight falls.

Then they drag me back to bed…

I try to focus while I can. “How were my Sentinels today?”

“Busy. They liquidated a nest of iron spiders, so they didn’t have much time to fight each other.”

“How tame.”

Cherise snorts. “Only in front of you.”

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