“And that is?”
“Fifteen minutes. Naked.”
“That’s blackmail.”
Luc snorted. “Wargs call it negotiation.”
“So you want fifteen minutes… what will she want?”
“With me?” Luc winked. “Two hours.”
Kynan shook his head. Wargs.
He found Gem in the kitchen, staring into the fridge. He didn’t bother asking her to come with him. He seized her hand and dragged her to the only room that was empty.
The bathroom. He shot Lore the bird on the way past.
“Kynan! What are you doing?”
He shut the door, spun, and kissed her. She made a small sound of outrage, but he pushed her up against the door, kept kissing her, and after a moment she relaxed against him.
“I don’t care what you are, Gem. I want you. I love you. And if our kids are a quarter demon, I can live with that. If you can’t, we’ll adopt. Or we’ll get a surrogate. It doesn’t matter.”
Gem’s mouth fell open. Closed. Fell open again. “What… what brought this on?”
“The woman Wraith loves is dying. They might only have hours left together. I know you have hundreds of years to live, and I can only give you a fraction of that with me, but watching Wraith and Serena made me realize that I can’t waste our time. Marry me, Gem. Be with me for as long as I have left.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and fear cut him wide open. He knew what she was going to say before she said it.
“I’m sorry, Ky… I can’t. Maybe after the battle and things settle down, we can see, but right now, I think you’re looking at the end and grasping at what you can.”
“Damn you,” he gritted out. “Why do you keep telling me what I’m thinking and how I’m feeling?”
“Because someone has to.” She tore out of the bathroom, leaving him staring at the wall. Outside, he heard a commotion, the sound of weapons being prepared, of battle looming.
Good. He was going to take out his frustrations on a lot of demons, because the one he wanted… didn’t want him.
Twenty-seven
The thing that sucked about Jerusalem was that there were only a handful of Harrowgates. There was one just paces from the Dome of the Rock, a temple that housed the Foundation Stone Byzamoth would use to open the gate, but it would be under the enemy’s control, and the next closest was on the outskirts of the city. Which meant that Wraith, Luc, Tay, E, Reaver, and Ky had to hoof it miles to the Temple Mount.
The city’s atmosphere was bleak. The few people on the streets were silent, heads down as if they expected fire to fall from the sky—which was dark, the clouds roiling and edged in crimson. Lightning streaked to the ground and thunder cracked.
Wraith saw them in the distance. Two armies… one massive, the other massively arrogant. Only The Aegis would think their righteousness would allow them to come out on the victorious end of battle when they were outnumbered twenty to one.
“Let’s do this thing,” Wraith said, and Luc took off like a shot. No one liked a good fight more than a warg.
No one but Wraith.
Reaver pulled Kynan aside and Eidolon grabbed Wraith. “Hold up, bro. Just a sec.” He turned to Tayla and framed her face in his hands so tenderly Wraith had a moment of longing for Serena. “Don’t shift into your Shredder form. I don’t want any military idiot or Aegi mistaking you for the enemy.”
“And you stay back. You don’t fight in this one. You heal. That’s all.” Tayla took E’s face in her hands and brought his mouth close to hers. “I love you.”
Wraith turned away to give them a moment of privacy. He’d always made fun of their sappy relationship, had never understood how E could give so much of himself to Tayla. Now he got it. Got it so well it hurt.
He’d give anything and everything to Serena, if only she’d let him. If only she’d live.
He reached into his coat pocket, but instead of feeling up a weapon, which always soothed him, he fingered the top she’d given him. He’d grabbed it on the way out of the house, a good luck charm he wasn’t going into battle without.
He felt two hands on his back—one belonging to E, and the other to Tayla. She gave him a tentative smile. “Good luck, Wraith.”
With that, she took off.
“Ditto,” E said. “I have faith in you.”
“Sorry, not buying it.” Wraith watched lightning streak across the sky, connecting the clouds in a celestial dot-to-dot. “But I appreciate the sentiment.”
“I mean it. I’ve never given you enough credit. But I’m seeing something in you I’ve never noticed before.” Eidolon spared them both more mushiness by slugging him in the shoulder. “Kick his ass, bro.” He set off after Tayla.
Wraith watched them go, took a deep breath, and moved out. Good thing he had broad shoulders, because the weight of the world… sucked.