My vision cleared as I heard Viola’s words echo through me.

“You’re strong, Jovi,” she said gently. “You will survive this.”

I nodded, almost as a reflex, and looked up at her. She smiled, hope glimmering in her violet eyes, and I realized the pain in my stomach was gone. I looked down and noticed the broadsword that Azazel had driven into me was discarded on the black stone floor, its blade coated in my blood.

I’d thought that I was hallucinating when I first saw her, my dying haze playing with my senses and taunting me with hopes of salvation. But as it all came into focus, the truth became palpable.

My heart swelled with relief as I realized that Viola was, indeed, kneeling next to me, and that I hadn’t imagined everything. She’d managed to pull me out of the darkness into which I’d been descending, healing my wound with her life-saving power.

“I can’t express just how good it is to see you,” I mumbled.

The sound of Destroyers hissing and grunting, swords clashing, and shifters growling grew louder around me, as reality quickly came back into focus. We were up on the platform. There was fighting going on between us and Azazel’s Destroyers.

I moved to get up, but my muscles felt like stone, unyielding and tight. My eyes widened when I remembered Azazel’s blood spell. Viola had saved me, but it seemed that she hadn’t removed his toxic control. I glanced at him and noticed his sneer as he threw me a glance over his shoulder. He still had a grip on Serena, assessing the rest of us while in a standoff with Draven, and he still controlled me.

“He’s using a blood spell to control my moves,” I groaned, looking at Viola. “Can you help?”

She frowned, her hands moving up and down my body, glowing pink, then shook her head.

“I’m sorry, no,” she replied. “Whatever this is, it’s stronger than what I’ve learned to do so far. I can stop it at the source, though it will mean the end for everyone here…”

As she said that, we both glared at Azazel. He didn’t seem happy to see a Daughter here, and instantly brought the rectangular diamond up, tightening his fist around it.

An unbearable pain shot through my heart, as if a thousand knives had pierced it at once, twisting slowly as they drove deeper. I broke into a cold sweat and roared in agony.

It was too much. I wanted to pry my chest open and rip out my own heart, just to stop the pain.

I cried out as I rolled to the side, unable to keep my eyes open.

I heard Azazel laughing.

Whatever that blood spell was, it had deeper, more horrifying effects that went beyond body control. I could only guess how much dark power he must have used to conjure up such torture. I felt death, cold and silent, clutching my heart.

I thought I’d made it, but I was wrong. Viola couldn’t save me, either.

I felt my limbs cooling and losing vigor, and I struggled for each lungful of air. My body was caving in. I was dying again, but I couldn’t be saved this time.

My mind rushed to my sister. I peeled my eyes open, desperate to see her one last time, but my vision was foggy and gray. I heard the shouting, the screaming, and the cries for help. I wanted to get up and help my friends.

Field. Phoenix. Vita. Serena.

They were all there, fighting for their lives and mine.

Hansa. Jax. Even the shifters. The Druids.

Anjani.

The pain of never seeing her again was worse than what I was experiencing under Azazel’s spell. My stomach dropped as everything I would miss about her flashed through my mind. The feel of her skin against mine. The smell of her hair. Her voice when she said she loved me. I would never get to worship her the way she deserved.

Grief crashed over me as I felt my body surrender to the pain. My heart couldn’t last much longer, its beating frayed and broken. Darkness enveloped me, trying to seduce me, inviting me to just let go.

I just wanted to see Anjani one last time.

I heard Phoenix grunting and Destroyers’ bodies thudding on the stone slabs. He hadn’t fed since he’d lost Viola. Chances were he’d soon run out of energy. Aida was crying out my name as she and Field defended themselves from another attack.

Viola left my side. I felt a chill filling the void she left behind.

I was of no use anyway. I was dying.

We needed her to stop Azazel.

“Jovi, no!” Aida’s scream pierced through the muffled noise of battle, while my senses further delved into oblivion.

“Jovi, hold on,” Serena gasped out, struggling to breathe. I could hear her choking.

The sound of everything slowly began to die down. Silence trickled through.

My muscles went soft, my arms and legs paralyzed and my breathing shallow.

It would soon be over.

“Jovi!”

I knew that voice. Yet it sounded so distant. So far away.

“Jovi, no, no, no,” Anjani pleaded from beyond the blackness that had swallowed me. “Hold on!”

I felt my head move, but not of my own volition. Anjani was next to me.

“Jovi, listen to me! Open your eyes!”

It was what I’d wanted, after all. To see her one last time.

Screw death. Death could wait a few more seconds.

I found one last sliver of energy and used it to push my eyelids open and gaze at the most beautiful creature I’d ever been fortunate enough to behold. Her long, curly black hair was loose down one shoulder, the tips tickling my face. It made me smile.

“Jovi, stay with me,” she whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Her silvery skin glowed. I was thankful that I could see her in her full, unapologetically succubus nature, before death took me away.

“You’re beautiful,” I managed to say.

Or at least I thought I said it. I wasn’t sure, since I couldn’t exactly feel my lips moving. Her emerald-gold eyes were wet and filled with grief. It broke my heart, worse than Azazel’s spell.

“Open your mouth, Jovi,” she urged me, then ripped the wolf’s head pendant from the delicate chain around her neck.

What are you doing?

It took me too long to respond, lost in her shimmering beauty as I felt life dissipating from my flesh. I wasn’t ready to let go of her yet. I held onto consciousness as my inner-wolf howled one last time, giving me the jolt I needed to hold out for a few more seconds with her, while my heart continued to break and burn like a hay bale on fire.

It was enough time for me to watch as she pried the diamond out of the silver wolf’s jaws and shoved it into my mouth.

“Swallow it, Jovi, please,” she said.

I felt the stone in my mouth, cold and sharp. I couldn’t do much, but I could move my tongue just a little bit, enough to let the diamond roll down into my throat.

A peculiar coolness spread from my chest through the rest of my body as the diamond’s edges dissolved. Whatever was in it, it was doing something to me.

“That’s it, Jovi. Hold on, it’s almost over.” Anjani kept her eyes on my face, watching with concern.

The coolness gathered back into my chest and closed around my aching heart. I felt something snap inside me, but it didn’t hurt.

Suddenly my lungs were free, and I inhaled a profoundly deep breath, wheezing as the pressure in my ribcage vanished. Blood rushed through my veins. My legs and arms tingled as I regained feeling.

My heart muscle pumped strong and fast, making up for the minutes I’d spent being deprived of oxygen. I could see clearly again. I could see her. And there was relief shining all over her gorgeous face.

I could feel it, too, as death begrudgingly retreated and daylight washed over me.

The sounds of battle around us were once again clear and loud, and I reveled in each of them. Each clang, each thud, and each grunt was a reminder that I’d escaped my own end, twice in a row, within the same hour.

“Anjani,” I croaked, pleased to hear my own voice.

She bent forward and wrapped her arms around me, hiding her face in the hollow space between my neck and shoulder for a brief moment. Her heart was beating frantically, her muscles twitching as she held me tight.

I responded to her embrace, thankful to still be alive. Thrilled that I’d been given a little more time by her side.

“My love,” she said, her voice trembling, and she kissed me deeply.

“How did you do that?” I managed to ask as my senses kicked back into gear and I regained full control of my consciousness and my body. Azazel’s blood spell was gone.

“I found the old fae that gave you the pendant downstairs in the dungeon,” she explained quickly, glowing like the moon. “She told me what she’d been forced to do for Azazel, taking your blood and all that. But she gave you the wolf’s head pendant to help you. She knew something like this would come to pass and told me the moment she recognized me. So I came up here to find you—”

“And right in the nick of time, my sweet succubus.” I grinned and took her mouth in a brief but hungry kiss. “I love you now more than ever.”

“Good.” She winked. “Now let’s kick some Destroyer ass!”