Page 164 of Nightshade

Grinning, he shook his head. “I don’t think so. See, I get a sense she means far too much to you. Do you have any idea how valuable that would be to me? How exceptionally wonderful to possess something you desire so badly? Her soul imprisoned to me for eternity would mean I own you for eternity.”

Hands curled into fists, I felt the energy stirring inside of me. Little zaps of electricity pulsing through my veins like fire.

Don’t do it.

Using my most lethal power would only seal my fate.

“Let’s play a game.” On a chuckle, he released the arrow, sending it sailing through the air toward Farryn’s skull.

I lurched forward after it.

Everything around me paused again, including Virgil and the arrow.

On a flash of impossibly bright light, three figures descended from the sky and touched down a short distance from where I stood. Their wings were black, like mine, only unlike me, they’d proven themselves worthy of the heavens. The same three that had dragged me to Nightshade all those centuries ago, when I burned down Praecepsia. Half angel, half demon, they’d passed their tests and earned their place as the dark warriors who hunted evil.

The one named Adimus stepped toward me, his stoic face unreadable. “You’ve defied us again, Jericho.”

“She was reborn. Returned to me.”

“She does not belong to you! She never did!” Hands behind his back, he paced in front of me. “Do you even realize what gifts you possess? What value you’d bring to the heavens?”

“I’m not interested in fighting your wars.”

“You’d prefer to rot in the afterlife?”

“Allow me to have her, and I’ll do what you want.” A stretch, but if they wanted me that badly, they could’ve made an exception.

“A human girl is forbidden.”

“Then, why place us among them? Why would you have us grow to be fond of their scents and their skin and their voices?”

“To test your loyalty and faith. If you can be so easily lured by a mere human girl, you are weak!” He snarled the last word like a bad smell on the air, and his shoulders bunched with the unbridled rage I could see burning in his eyes.

Unaffected by him, I kept my voice level and calm. “If you’ve come to take me back, get on with it.”

“So that you find your way back here again?” With a sneer, he shook his head. “I’ve come to offer you a choice, Jericho. Walk away from her without a single memory of her. Or keep your memories and watch her die.”

No. No! It’d been far too long that he’d waited for her. Waited for the moment when she’d be reborn. “You would erase everything I know of her?”

“Even your beloved Lustina.” The absence of emotion in his voice assured his threat wasn’t idle. Of course, centuries trapped in Nightshade had proven their sincerity. “It is better this way. You pose more threat to her than you realize. More threat to any of those who stand in your way. It is her destruction, or your willing sacrifice. You choose.”

I’d never survive losing her again, but to forget her—the softness, the sweet smell of innocence, the song in her voice—it was a hell I couldn’t fathom.

Time set into motion again, the arrow slicing toward Farryn as before.

I dove into its path.

Intense and agonizing pain pierced my eye, as it drove through my flesh.

Falling to my knees, I waited for the celestial steel to consume me in flames, but it didn’t. Only the blaze of unremitting pain and shock pulsed through me like molten lava. Through my good eye, I watched Adimus approach.

“You’ve chosen wisely,” he said.

Blackness settled all around me.

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Farryn