MY LIDS FLUTTERED opened just as Rex’s had, his eyes coming to rest on me.  I was afraid to move, thinking I was still dreaming. 

His hand squeezed mine.  “Koralein.”  His voice was weak and thick with sleep.

Someone let out a choked gasp, probably Portia, but I was the only person Rex saw.

“Rex.”  I bolted forward, burying my face in his chest.  His arms went around my shaking body, pulling me against him.  A sob slipped out, and he held me tighter, surprisingly strong for having almost died.

Tears poured from my eyes, wetting his chest.  I didn’t give a damn.  I didn’t care how many people saw me cry because nothing compared to having Rex almost ripped from me.  I’d let the entire world see the emotions running through me.  No one in the room mattered.  No one in the world mattered.  No one but him.

“I almost lost you,” I whispered, his skin warming with every passing moment.

“Not a chance,” he said.  “I’m not that easy to kill.”

Thank the goddess for that.

His heart beat steadily beneath my ear, a welcomed sound.  My hand brushed against the bandages someone had placed over the crux sigil.

A thread of darkness spun through my insides.  A demon had almost succeeded in stealing my caetera.  What demon had the guts to do this to Rex?  My Rex? 

My body went rigid.  Whoever it was, I was going to rip their guts out with my bare hands.  I was going to skin it alive and chop off every finger that had anything to do with carving the crux sigil into his chest.

As if he felt the darkness stealing me away, Rex’s arms tightened.  “I’m okay, Koralein.  I’m right here.  Don’t go anywhere.  Don’t let it take you.”

My breaths were short and erratic.  “Who did this, Rex?  Tell me what they look like.”

“Rex, you’re okay?”  Portia’s voice interrupted our conversation, reminding me we weren’t alone.  Far from it.  I would have been angrier if it wasn’t for the soft desperation clinging to her words.  She was his mother.  She’d almost lost her son.

“Yeah, Mom.  I’m okay.”

She leaned forward, planting a kiss on her son’s forehead.  “I’m so glad.”  Her bottom lip trembled as her watery gaze landed on me.

I was still holding onto Rex as if my life depended on it and I wasn’t letting go.  My eyes met hers in challenge.  Would she demand I get up?  Would she still look at me as if I was the one thing in this world capable of corrupting her son? 

“I’m so sorry, Kory.”  She shook her head.  “I’m sorry for treating you like you were someone out to hurt Rex.” 

My brow arched.  I wasn’t expecting that.

“I could never thank you enough for saving him.”  She took a shuddering breath and dragged her fingers through her already messy blonde locks.  “I didn’t know you were his caetera.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded. 

“The signs were there, Mom,” Rex said, his voice raspy.  “You just didn’t want to believe it.”

Hunter appeared behind Portia, his massive frame dwarfing her.  “I’m glad you’re all right Rex, but let’s save this discussion for another time.  I think we’re all a little spent right now.”  His hand unexpectedly rested on my forehead, brushing my hair back.  “How are you holding up?”

Reality crashed over me, and my eyes drifted around the room.  Everyone was still there, including my parents.

Rex followed my line of vision, his brows furrowing.  “Who’s that?”  He blinked and shook his head.  “Not possible.”

He’d seen a few pictures of my parents from the storage unit so he knew exactly who was standing in the room.

“That’s my parents.”  I sat up, leaning against the headboard.  “They’ve been alive this whole time.”

His body tensed.  “They’re demons.” 

Rex tried to sit up, but my hand landed on his chest.  “They’re not going to hurt anyone.”  My expression hardened on them.  It was a clear warning.  My parents or not, if they killed someone here, they were going to meet the sharp end of my iron knife.  “Right?”

My father gave a quick nod.  “I’m glad you made it out of that nightmare alive.  I didn’t want to see my daughter lose you so early.”

Rex’s brows furrowed at my demon dad’s sincere tone.

“Yeah, they’re a little—different.”  Or at least they seemed to be.  “They pulled you out of that basement.” 

“That’s not it.”  Rex pressed on his hands, trying to sit up again.  This time I helped him since it looked like he wasn’t going to stop trying.  “Your voice.  It’s familiar.”

“What do you mean?” I glanced between Rex and my father. 

“The phone calls,” he said.  “It was you.”

My head snapped back, smacking into the headboard.  I thought back to the voice over the phone at the house in Jasper and in Rex’s apartment in Bishop, replaying it over and over in my head.

“Yeah, that was me.”  He shrugged.

I understood why he wanted me to stop digging for answers, but why warn me away from school?  “Why didn’t you want me back at Amarose?”

His nostrils flared.  “Because you’re not safe here.”

Ash’s head snapped around.  “Of course she is.  This is one of the safest places for her.”

My mother shook her head and stepped toward my dad, crossing her arms against her chest.  “No, it’s not.  Kye has friends here, and you’re too easily accessible to him.  He could just walk right onto campus.  It doesn’t matter how many hunters you have on guard duty.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.  “You two are the only demons at Amarose.”

My mother pierced him with a dark glare. 

So that was where I got my steely expressions from.

This was so unreal.

I held my hand up, halting their argument.  “It doesn’t matter because I’ve already said I wasn’t running and hiding.  It’s not my MO.”

Ash released a frustrated sigh.  “You two still need to leave.  I can’t have demons on campus no matter how humane you claim to be.  It puts the students at risk.”

“Ash, they can’t leave.”  This was my chance to uncover every dark secret in their past and mine.  I needed to hear what they had to say, demons or not.  They owed me an explanation.

The headmaster was already shaking his head.  “It’s not possible, Kory.  I’m sorry.”

My mother’s lips began to curl into a snarl.  “You don’t really think you can make us leave, do you?”

Rex shot me a look.  “She seems familiar,” he mumbled under his breath. 

“You’re joking at a time like this?” I scoffed, fighting back a tired smile.  “You almost died, and my parents are demons.”

His finders laced mine.  “It’s just another day in our exciting lives.”

“They can stay at one of the hunter cabins outside of the campus boundaries,” Portia interrupted.  “The farthest one on the north side isn’t in use.”  Her eyes swiveled to her husband, and he nodded.  “We’ll stay with them.”

My brow arched.  “Are you going to stab them in their sleep?”

Portia’s lips thinned.  “Of course not.  I only want to help.  I was in charge of finding information on your parents and, well, this is part of the job too.”

Ash rubbed his forehead, groaning.  “Okay, but if anything happens, cleanup is your responsibility, Portia and Hunter.”

His words echoed heavily through the room, but it wouldn’t be Hunter or Portia putting my parents down.  It would be me.

My eyes lingered on them, unsure of how strong they actually were.  Could they beat me?

I shook off the ominous thoughts and turned to Rex.  “We need to talk about what happened,” I blurted, taking the conversation in a completely different direction. 

He shifted uneasily. 

“Who did this to you?  What did the demon look like?”  My fingers fisted into tight balls of fury.  “I’m going to kill them with my bare hands.”

Rex swallowed, and a small sliver of regret flashed through his eyes before they hardened.  “It was Kye.”

I blinked, sure I heard him wrong.  “Kye?” 

He gave a sharp nod.

Cold descended through my chest.  I didn’t understand.  Kye said he wouldn’t hurt Rex now that he knew he was my caetera.  Why would he do this?

“Are you sure?”  I licked my dry lips.

“I saw him,” Rex growled.  “He did this.”  He motioned toward the bandaged wound on his chest. 

More ice traveled through my veins, chilling me to the bone.  Nothing was ever easy in my life.  When I was certain about something, the rug was ripped out from under me.  People lied and kept secrets.  No one was who they said or did what they promised.

Secrets, lies, and broken promises littered the trail of my past and crept into the present. 

“I don’t understand,” I mumbled more to myself than him.

“He’s trying to get you to turn dark.”  My mother stood beside the bed, her eyes flashing with demon blackness.

My brow furrowed.  “What do you know about Kye?”

“He turned me.”