Page 135 of The Demon's Pet

“He blood-bound her,” Sam grated out. “Now go, Griffin. Fly. I have to fix this.”

“You can’t fix it,” Os shouted. “We’re all fucked! The treaty—”

“I don’t fucking care!” Sam shouted. “I couldn’t let them have Cleo!”

Os just stared at him. “Have you lost your mind? You could have spoken with him.”

“A blood bond can’t be removed by anything but death,” Sam said. “But I can save him still. Not that he deserves it.”

“You cut out his heart!” I yelled from Griffin’s arms. “There’s no coming back from that.”

“She’s a bit hysterical,” Sam said.

“You have to destroy a fae’s heart to kill him,” Os said quietly, looking somber and upset now. He looked at me. “I’m sorry, Cleo. I never thought a fae prince would resort to something so low. So demonic.”

I shrugged. “Me neither.”

Griffin let out a growl. “We need to go.”

“I’ll meet you there,” Sam said. “I’ll explain this to the fae, with Os. You take Cleo.” His dark eyes met mine. “You’ll be safe now.”

“Sam, we need to fix the body,” Os was saying to him. “And deal with the rest of the creatures. Even if we explain this, the fae aren’t going to…”

His voice faded out as Griffin jogged up the stairs with me, and I saw Zadis’s house was completely ruined.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To the center of the mid-realm,” Griffin said. “A place I’ve only heard of. Maybe the only safe place. But it should be easy to spot from an aerial position since I know what I’m looking for.”

“But what about Sam? Os?”

“They can handle themselves. They’re celestials,” Griffin said. “The fae are going to be upset about this. It’s best if you’re gone before they know.”

I leaned into Griffin. “This is all my fault, for going to him.”

Griffin was quiet for a moment. “We all would have come for you, Cleo. That fae’s heart would have come out one way or another.” He set me down and shifted into his griffin form in the ruins of Zadis’s top floor.

When I climbed on again, grabbing onto his fur firmly, Griffin launched into the air, carrying us up and over the tree canopy that overlooked the fae wilds.

Up ahead, dark clouds hid our destination as we flew straight into them. All I could think as we soared up and up was that I hadn’t even said thank you to Sam.

And I had no idea when I would even see him again.

I was still mad at him for killing that void walker.

But in the end, he’d come for me, and no one else ever had.

I leaned into Griffin’s fur to rest and closed my eyes, but the wind beat against my skin with a sure but frightening realization.

I was already losing my heart to an angel with demon eyes.

31

I fell asleep at some point as we flew through the gray clouds and didn’t wake up until we landed.

The thud made me jerk upright, my hands still twisting in Griffin’s fur as he let out a grunt.

I slid off of him, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, and he shifted back into his human form. The first thing he did was pull his red fae robes up and over his head, tossing them to the side right after. He wore a white tee shirt with a sports logo and jeans, Converse sneakers on his feet.

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