Kat stared out at the frenzied mob, wishing she could block out their calls for ash. They had him hanging by one foot from the rope of a flagpole. Hauling him higher. He wasn’t going to make it into the courthouse for trial.

“What are they trying to do?”

She turned and searched the faces behind her, looking for an ally. The Scenter was here. And Senator Dorset. There were militarized police and other humans standing guard around the raised dais. Lilith was shouting at Dorset and . . . Trina. Trina’s gaze met hers. Her eyes widened and she came over.

Kat motioned to the crowd. “What are they doing?”

“Kat, you shouldn’t have come.” She shook her head. “If we step in and save him, all hell is going to break loose. We have to let the human police get him out of there.”

She shook her head. “But they won’t. They don’t care—”

“Look.” Trina turned her around and there were police pushing through the crowd. Some volleyed tear gas into the crowd to get them to back up.

An outraged roar ran through the crowd, growing in volume.

“Where’re Harrison and Scott?”

Trina came to stand next to her as they scanned the crowd. “Shit.” She turned to address Senator Dorset. “Get our men out of there.”

“What, your daemons?”

“Two DDC agents, one of whom is human. I knew better than to trust you. Your man’s gonna die out there, too, if you don’t do something.”

“Who?”

Trina smiled. It wasn’t the warm smile of friendship, but one that sent chills down Kat’s spine. “Scott Mason. How do you think your constituents will react to your incompetence?”

Dorset’s lips thinned and he waved over two cops in full assault gear. “Go get Mason out of there.”

“Forget it. My men will get both of them out.” Trina signaled to Duncan and James, who took off, vaulting over the railing and into the crowd.

Both, Kat thought. She said both. Not all three. “He was promised a trial.”

Trina turned and met her gaze. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears and that more than anything else brought home what was about to happen. How far out of their hands Julius’ fate was.

“It’s been obvious from the start he’d never make it there.” She covered her eyes with her hand. “I’m sorry, Kat. You weren’t supposed to be here. Tonight would end the same no matter what we did. This isn’t just about the humans. He has to satisfy the goddess’ curse. He has to sacrifice himself to gain peace. Now I have to make sure we don’t lose anyone else.”

She turned to Lilith, but she was arguing with Dorset. Trina moved away, shouting orders to the coven.

Her gaze searched the others, looking for anyone else who could help. Her gaze lit on the Scenter. The woman was grinning. She must have heard everything. She was enjoying this.

All the anger and the hurt came bubbling to the surface. Kat took the three steps that brought her in front of the Scenter. “You think this is funny?”

“I’ve never been so entertained.”

Kat pulled back her arm and let it fly. She hit the bitch right in the nose, a satisfying crack punctuating the punch. “That’s funny.”

The Scenter lunged for her, but one of the cops grabbed her, preventing the attack.

Someone in the crowd cheered and she turned to the scene below. Why wasn’t Julius fighting? He embodied The Hanged Man—dangling from one foot, the other leg crossed behind his knee, arms hanging, hooded. Sacrificing himself so there could be a chance of peace between humans and daemons.

“Why did they leave the hood on?”

No one heard her. The crowd was screaming, throwing things at Julius as they hoisted him higher. The coven was spreading out, surrounding the mob below.

She covered her lips with a trembling hand. He hated the hood. It made him feel claustrophobic. Why didn’t he at least take off his hood?

Something zipped past overhead and pinged off the flagpole Julius hung from before falling into the crowd. Someone held the object up and a cheer rang out.

Arrows. She turned and looked up. The shooter could be anywhere above them. What sick psychopath came up with arrows? Someone who knew a daemon could survive bullets, but not wood.

Julius had saved them, damn it. He’d sacrificed himself for them all yesterday but none of the humans knew that. He’d go down in their history as a monster.

Hooded.

While they took pot shots at him.

“Kat, come on.” Lilith put her arm around her shoulders. “You don’t need to see this.”

“No!” She jerked away. “I’m not leaving. I don’t want him to be alone.” Not here with all these people chanting for his ash and no one on his side.

Someone shoved against them and she almost went over the edge of the dais.

“Back off!” Lilith tightened her grip around her. “Trina!”

Kat tried to pry loose. “Take the hood off, Lilith. Please. I know you can.”

Lilith’s gaze remained on Julius. “Trina!”

Another arrow zipped past, followed by three more. Her breath caught. Shuddered out when they flew past Julius.

“The hood, Lilith. Magic it off.”

Why was Lilith ignoring her? It was a simple spell. He hated the damned thing. He shouldn’t have to die with it on. She didn’t know why she was so focused on that. They were going to shoot him. Kill him. All she could think of was how he shouldn’t have to wear that fucking hood. “They should have to look at him. See him.” She needed to see him.

His body jerked, his foot came free from the rope, and he started to fall.

“No!”

Another volley of arrows flew overhead. One hit. It punctured his chest right where his heart would’ve been. His body dissolved into ash. The crowd shouted, jumping up and down, dancing as his ash rained down on them.

“Time to go.” James lifted her. When did he get back? Part of her wanted to ask, but she couldn’t look away from where Julius had been. Didn’t want to speak. Didn’t want life to move on.

Lilith’s arms wrapped around them both. The sounds of celebrations clicked off and then they were in Machon. Her gaze remained fixed as if she could still see the last place he’d been. As if should she shift her gaze, even though she could no longer see the flagpole, it would make it all real.

“Kat?” James eased her onto her feet. Scrunched down into her line of sight. “Kat, sweetheart?”

“Here’s a chair.” Lilith’s hands settled on her shoulders and pushed her down into a chair.

Still, she stared, could still see him hanging there.

Lilith’s face came into view, tear-streaked, red-cheeked. “They were a bunch of mindless animals. I’m so sorry, honey.”

“I want to go home.” He’d been at her house. He’d been happy there. Her sheets would smell of him. She hadn’t done laundry yet, his clothes were in the basket still. His paintings. The feel of him would still be there. Wouldn’t it?

“You have to stay here, honey. We’re not out of the woods yet. We can’t do anything until the Scenter signs off that Julius is dead.”

“I have to go home. I want to go home.”

“She’s in shock.” James paced next to her chair. “Jesus. This is a cluster fuck.”

Lilith shook her. “Look at me.”

“I can’t.” Her eyes hadn’t moved. She could still see him, in peril but alive.

“Look at me.”

“No!”

“Leave her be, Lil.” James pulled Lilith into his arms. “Give her a minute. She needs to grieve.”

“Where the fuck is Trina?” Lilith sniffed. “We need to finish this now, so we can get on with things.”

On with things. They had to get this over with so they could get on with things. Should she have a service? No. He didn’t have any friends. Just her. Maybe she’d have one for herself.

A bright light flashed in her peripheral.

“Thank the goddess. What took so long?”

“It’s chaos back there.” Trina knelt in front of her. “Why won’t she look at me? She’s not crying.”

Crying. She should be crying. Her heart was broken. Her mate was gone, but no tears would come and if she didn’t move, she could still see him in her mind’s eye.

“She’s in shock,” Duncan’s voice broke in. “Harry and Scott got out okay. They’re both a bit roughed up, but they’re at the DDC filing their reports against Dorset. The Scenter couldn’t verify the ash belonged to Crowley—somehow her nose got broken.”

James scoffed. “Good.”

“So we’re good?” Trina paced behind Lilith. “I don’t want to jump the gun, but we can’t—”

“I know.” Lilith patted her leg. “Kat?”

James cleared his throat. “She wants to go home.”

Trina nodded. “Of course she does; I would, too. Home will still smell like him, right?”

Kat nodded. She was beyond words now. Tears pooled in her eyes. The little show of sympathy making it all too real.

“Let’s go get Oscar first, okay?” Trina pulled Kat to her feet.

Lilith and Trina gathered close. Kat’s lips trembled and her throat tightened. Then she was staring at the stone wall in Tamriel’s tower.

“Look.” Lilith maneuvered Kat around until she was staring at Julian—Julius’ doppelgänger. He was cuddling Oscar to his chest and looked so much like Julius. Except he was dressed in black, an eye patch covering his bad eye. He blurred as her tears let loose. What did they expect? Did they want to replace her mate with a pale imitation? With something that wasn’t even real, a figment of her imagination combined with her talent? He wasn’t the same. She hadn’t remembered the scars when she made him. He wouldn’t ever surprise her the way her mate had.

Fury welled up inside her. “No!” She stormed over to him as he set Oscar on the floor. “It’s not the same.” She slammed her fists against his chest.

“Butterfly.”

“I told you never to call me that!” She swung at him, hitting his neck. “I made you. I made these clothes. I gave them to you.” She yanked at the shirt and when nothing happened she grabbed the front in two hands and ripped it wide. Buttons pinged off the stones. “See? He’s not . . .”

He had scars.

She shook her head. How? Was it a glamour? A trick?

He took advantage of her stupor, sweeping her up and sandwiching her between him and the wall.

“Jules?”

He leaned close, whispering in her ear. “You lied to me, Butterfly, Tamriel told me my scar is much worse than the one on that lion, Scar.” When he pulled away, he let his cheek stroke across hers on one side, then the other. “I love you.”

She still wasn’t sure. She wanted it to be him. To be real but . . . .

He kissed her. And it wasn’t the polite kiss of the doppelgänger. Nor the awkward kiss she shared with Harrison. He was a little rough. A lot demanding. This was her mate.

“I’m so sorry, Kat.” Lilith came up beside them. “If they’d seen you not react, any of us not react . . . .”

“And he had to willingly choose to sacrifice himself to appease the goddess curse,” Trina said. “We had to let him make the choice.”

Kat shook her head. She couldn’t lift her gaze now. She was staring at his scars, processing what Trina had said. “Who fell? Who died?”

“The doppelgänger,” Lilith said. “The first one. Trina brought Julian to this tower when you sent him away. While all hell was breaking loose back at the courthouse, she switched them.”

Kat nodded as she pulled off his eye patch. Cupped her mate’s face in her hands. Goddess bless them, this was her mate. “That’s why he fell?”

“I couldn’t get the doppelgänger’s foot into the rope, not from that distance.”

Lilith snorted. “Trying to aim that arrow at him before he hit the ground was no easy trick, either.”

Trina cleared her throat. “Are you going to forgive us?”

“Yeah.” They’d saved him. She nodded, but couldn’t take her gaze from Julius. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“I’m waiting to see if you’re going to accept me or maul me some more.”

A laugh broke from her and seemed to set off a chain reaction inside of her, leaving her bawling.

He wrapped her tighter in his embrace. “Shush, now. Are you crying because you’re happy or because you realized you’re stuck with me?”

“Take me home.”

He shook his head against her. “Considering all the trouble everyone went to, I have a feeling we don’t get to walk away that easy.”

She let herself down, wiped her face, and turned to the others. “Is that true?”

Trina nodded. “There are some conditions.”

“Okay.” She drew in a deep breath and wiped her face. “Such as?”

“You said yourself, he shouldn’t be alone.”

She glanced at Julius.

His lips pressed into a thin line. “How’s that going to work?”

“Duncan and James each get to recommend two daemons to the DDC. Julian Crowley is Duncan’s second recommendation; however, because of his talent, he won’t be allowed to roam the city without a handler.”

“Julian.” Kat closed her eyes. “I’m going to have to get used to calling you Julian.”

His gaze narrowed on Trina. “You’re going to put me out in the front lines and hope to hell no one notices? What about the Scenter?”

Trina scooped Oscar up from the floor and grinned. “Thanks to Kat, her nose is broken. And thanks to me, she won’t be having a full recovery.”

“Still, Harrison and Scott—”

“Trust us,” Lilith said. “They’ll have no reason to doubt you are who we say you are. They saw you die along with everyone else. We’re offering a chance at a fresh start.”

Julius shifted his weight, his arms tightening around Kat. “What else?”

“The Watchers know Julian Crowley has no scars on his body. They also know or at least suspect that he’s a doppelgänger. So, when the two of you leave here, you need to play that up.” Trina held up a necklace with a large red stone hanging from it and shifted her gaze to Kat. “Everyone in the coven contributed some Magic to this. It won’t be what you’re used to, but you can do travel spells and small healings.” She gave a pointed look at Julius. “Figure you’ll need it with him around.”

Lilith took the necklace and put it on Kat. “I’ll do a glamour over his scars now but after you leave here, make a show of giving him scars on his body to make him ‘look more like Julius.’ Make the Watchers think you’re taking the doppelgänger to mate.” She turned her attention to Julius. “And now for you.” She waved her hand over his chest and the scars disappeared.

Kat touched the stone. “Thank you.”

Julius’ gaze narrowed. “You still haven’t told us what you get in return for all of this.”

Trina smiled. “Information on the DDC, of course. We don’t trust them.”

“And you trust me?”

Trina shrugged. “More than them.”