Page 154 of Knight’s Retribution

The next breath came easier, and she looked up at him, her arms still wrapped around her knees. It hurt, but she couldn’t bring herself to relax her body, not yet. “What if I stay like this?”

His eyes gentled, the navy flashing black, then back to blue. “Baby, it’s only been one day. You will get through this—”

“What if I don’t?” She squeezed her eyes closed. “What if I stay like this…broken?”

“That’s not going to happen,” he said.

“But what if I do,” she pushed. “What if you can never touch me again?”

Those beautiful eyes locked with hers. “You think that would make me walk away from you?”

Her lips quivered. “Why would you want to stay?”

His eyes flashed to black and stayed that way. “Because I fucking love you, Kyler. Because you are everything to me. You’re all I need, whether I can touch you or not. The physical side of us is only a small part of what we have. I can live without that, but I can’t…” He dragged in a sharp, ragged breath. “I can’t fucking live without you. I’ll take whatever you have to give, and I’ll be the happiest male in existence, because it’s you. Because you are the one walking beside me for eternity…and I’m cool if all you can do while we’re walking is hold my hand.”

Tears streamed down her face. What could she say to that? “I love you, too,” she whispered. It wasn’t enough, but it said it all, at least she hoped it did.

“That’s all we need, baby,” he said. “I don’t need more than that.”

Rocco’s gentle tone washed over her, calming her further. “And I love your voice,” she said through the lump in her throat. It was one of the things that had attracted her to him first. Well, the second thing.

“Well, you’re gonna be hearing it a lot from now on,” he said, and his lips curled up on one side, making her heart beat a little faster. “Because you’re stuck with me.”

Someone knocked. “Hey, you guys awake?” Tobias said through the door. “Scar’s found something. Think you should come take a look.”

* * *

Kyler looked down at the book Scarlet had open on top of a huge black marble desk. “Is that blood?” she said, motioning to the rusty red ink on the thick pages.

Scarlet’s face screwed up. “I think so. And I’m pretty sure the books made of skin.”

“Yeah,” Tobias said, wincing. “I fucking swear one of the pages had a nipple.”

“Jesus,” Roc said and tilted his head to read what Scarlet was showing them.

“Forced transition?” Kyler said, reading the sloping script. “What does that even mean?”

Rocco looked up. “This tells us how to bring on your powers now…instead of waiting for it to happen naturally.”

Her powers. So it was true. Diemos had talked about them constantly. “What kind of power?”

“Diemos never told you?” Rocco’s lip curled when he said the demon’s name.

“No.” She crossed her arms, that feeling of being naked coming back even though Scarlet had given her clothes to wear. She knew nothing about it, this thing that was so huge, a thing that was going to happen to her. “He kept saying I was…special.” She nearly choked on the words he’d said to her so many times.

“You are,” Tobias said. “You’re not just a demi-demon. When you transition, like all demi, you will gain a power…we won’t know what that is until it happens, but you are something else as well.” Tobias glanced at Rocco.

Kyler turned to Roc, and he was giving her that look again, eyes gentle, and that pain was back.

“Tell me,” she said.

He moved closer to her but crossed his arms. She knew he wanted to reach for her. “You are what we call a Hell’s gate. Your power will make it possible for Diemos to open a portal like the one you were brought through whenever he likes, something he is desperate for.”

Her stomach rolled. God, she felt sick. “That’s why he took me? Because he somehow knew this?”

“Yeah,” Rocco said.

“And could you? Could you sense it in me?”