I rested my head against his as we held each other close—or, at least, as close as we could, given the iron cage between us. Caspian’s eyes were filled with the same kind of warmth that seemed to emanate from within me.

My breath was ragged, and my heart was still in the middle of extraordinarily agile somersaults. His gaze found my lips again, and clouds gathered beneath his long black eyelashes.

“Miss Hellswan, I’m afraid I’m in very deep trouble,” he murmured, then ran his fingers through my hair, before returning to trace the contours of my face. His touch alone had the power to dismantle me completely, breaking me down to a subatomic level.

“Harper, please,” I whispered. “I think we’re past the stage of addressing each other by our last names.”

“Harper.” He smiled gently, turning me into a melting blob of wax.

I brought my hand up, my index and middle finger brushing against his chin, as I relished the feel of him somewhere deep in my bones. “Caspian,” I breathed. “What are we going to do with… with this?”

He let out a long, tortured sigh, his thumb passing over my lower lip.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But I’ve been finding myself inexplicably drawn to you, Harper, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

“We’ll get through this,” I replied, my resolve bubbling back to the surface. “I’ll find the swamp witch and set you free. We’ll reach out to my people, and…”

My voice trailed off as I realized what I was about to say. Caspian gave me a weak, sad smile as he finished my sentence. “And you’ll obliterate the Exiled Maras. Perfectly understandable.”

“They’re your people. I’m sorry. But it has to be done.”

“I completely agree. I just want you to know that they’re not all like that. There are some, still in Azure Heights, who’ve been forced under a blood oath,” he replied, grimacing from the pain as red burns emerged on his forehead.

I cupped his face with my hands, pressing my lips tight together. “Stop it, Caspian. I can’t bear to see you in pain. Just don’t.”

“Look at you, so soft and… sweet.” He smirked, then kissed the tip of my nose, his hot breath tickling my face. “I never could’ve guessed, with all your layers of badassery.”

I chuckled lightly, noticing the shift between us. The tension between us was still very much there, just as intense, if not more so. But we had a name for it. We knew what we were dealing with. With one kiss, we’d managed to identify the invisible strings connecting our very souls. We’d yet to say the name out loud, but I knew we would, soon enough.

“Harper!”

Avril’s voice startled me. I instantly shot to my feet, my heart drumming as I saw Avril and the rest of my team, back in one piece. Blaze was barely standing, leaning against Caia with one arm around her shoulder. He seemed quite out of it, but alive.

I dashed over to them, just as Jax and Hansa joined in. We hugged one another for what seemed like an eternity, a wave of relief washing over me as I held them, alive and well, in my arms.

“Thank the Daughters!” Hansa exclaimed as she took Fiona in her arms.

“It’s so good to see you all,” I croaked, tears coming up to my eyes. After everything we’d been through, it was truly blissful to see us all back together. Avril hugged me again, kissing my forehead like the sweet, older sort-of-sister that she was.

“What happened to him?” Jax nodded at Blaze, who was looking around, visibly dazed and confused, as if waking up from a dream.

“Rewa mind-bent him,” Caia explained briefly. “He started choking me, so…”

“We had to neutralize him, so to speak.” Patrik shrugged, then patted the dragon on the shoulder. “He’ll be okay, though. Some food and some sleep, and he’ll be good as new in the morning.”

“What happened?” I asked, as Vesta motioned for her two Imen boys to fetch some water and blood. Hansa and Jax had taken care of dinner for us vampires, after the Imen had been kind enough to give us two large animals. Hansa had filled a couple of jugs, enough to go around.

“We told the Lords about Darius and the king, but we never mentioned Shaytan by his name,” Caia said.

“Until Emilian did.” Patrik smirked. “It all unraveled then. Avril and Heron caught Mara nurses feeding on Imen. We were surrounded by Correction Officers. We had to get out, of course.”

“Zane helped us,” Fiona added. “And Arrah, too. I think we’ll see her on this side of the gorges soon enough.”

“And Cadmus,” Avril said. “That was unexpected, but more than welcome. It took us a while to get out of there with Blaze out cold, but we did it. We found Dion and Alles at the tunnel entrance, and, well, here we are.”

“Together again.” I grinned, then briefly glanced over my shoulder at Caspian. He stood quietly in his cage, smiling at me. He seemed just as relieved as I was, and for good reason, too. Our team was whole again.

We sat closer to the campfire as Dion and Alles brought over pitchers of water and blood. Vesta took a seat next to Hansa, and we brought Avril and the others up to speed on everything we’d discovered, without skimping on the details.

They completed our accounts with what they’d seen and heard in Azure City, and we all came to the same conclusion. The decision was unanimous.

“We need to find the swamp witch.” Patrik nodded slowly, his knee gently brushing against Scarlett, whose cheeks had blossomed in an adorable shade of pink. I looked around and realized that a lot had changed between the members of our team, during the time I’d been away and stuck in the daemon city.

The dynamic was shifting, not just between Caspian and me or Hansa and Jax. Patrik and Scarlett seemed different, and even Blaze and Caia exchanged some peculiar glances. It kind of made sense—not just because of the natural chemistry, but because of all our trials and tribulations. The mess we’d found ourselves thrown into had inadvertently brought us closer together.

And I was counting on this internal change for what lay ahead.

“Caia, I’m so sorry,” Blaze finally spoke, his gaze a bit more focused.

“There he is! Welcome back!” Heron grinned.

“I’m… I’m so sorry. I don’t know how… I couldn’t stop myself,” Blaze murmured, and Caia took his hands in hers, giving him a warm, broad smile.

“Listen, it’s okay,” she said softly. “It wasn’t your fault. We all know it. I know it. Mind-bending is a powerful thing.”

“I could’ve killed you.”

“You didn’t!” Caia insisted, cupping his face in an attempt to make him feel better.

“Besides, she kicked you in the nuts, man. Consider the price paid for that,” Heron quipped, and we all laughed lightly.

“It’s okay,” Caia reassured Blaze, and he nodded slowly, looking at us.

“What do we do now?” he asked.

A couple of seconds went by before Jax cleared his throat and straightened his back to get our full attention.

“Well, our first objective, at this point, is to get into the daemon city up north and find out where they’re keeping what’s left of the Druid delegation. Especially the swamp witch,” he said.

“I will take you there,” Vesta said. “I know two daemons there, pacifists, who can help us. One can help us get in. I’ve already sent word to him to let him know we’re coming. He knows the city inside and out, and can help us move around undetected. The second is the one with the answers you seek regarding the Exiled Maras and the daemons’ plans to bring more of your kind here.”

“Oh, you mean replenish their food source,” Fiona muttered, gritting her teeth. Her anger was mirrored in all of us. I felt it twisting my stomach in painful knots, and, just like Fiona, I looked forward to snapping some Exiled Mara necks. In fact, we all did.

“We’ll leave at dawn,” Jax continued. “Eat, drink, and rest, in the meantime. As soon as the sun is up, we’re out of here. It’s imperative that we find the swamp witch. She can help us break every single disruption spell that these bastards have set up. Once we reach out and alert Calliope, it’ll be the end of the Exiled Maras.”

“The daemons are temporarily weakened after what we did to them,” Hansa added. “However, that is just one city. They will get reinforcements. And when they do, they’ll be coming for us. I think the Maras will do the same. I’m worried they might be able to follow our tracks here.”

“They won’t, Hansa,” Vesta assured her. “My people will move farther to the west as soon as we leave. I’ve already confirmed this with Amund. Besides, I told you, we have a few good tricks up our sleeves when it comes to eluding those creeps—it’s how we’ve managed to survive until now.”

“We need allies, in the meantime,” I said. “We’re on our own, and, dragon or not, we have to get some strength in numbers. Enough to hold out until we find the swamp witch and contact Draven and GASP.”

“There are some creatures still living in this world,” Vesta murmured. “They’re almost extinct, though. We haven’t seen most of them in years. But there are rumors, whispers flying across the western meadows. We can try and reach out to them. I can send a couple of scouts, if you’d like. If they see people rising against the daemons, and if they see you, they might be interested in joining the fight. This is our world, too.”

“Thank you, Vesta, that would be a great idea.” Jax nodded his approval. “Hopefully, they’ll let Lord Kifo out by morning, as well. We need him.”

“I believe they will,” the water fae replied.

They had to. I wasn’t going to leave him behind. I looked over my shoulder again. Caspian was sitting by the iron bars of his cage, his gaze fixed on me as he listened intently. He gave me a nod and a discreet smile, his jade eyes flickering with newfound resolve. I mirrored that perfectly.

Come morning, we were going to dig deeper into the world of daemons, then reclaim the freedom of the Imen and stop this soul-eating madness, once and for all. We’d been deceived and betrayed by the Exiled Maras—and their punishment was going to be swift, unforgiving, and, this time, final.

They’d been spared once. We had no intention of making that mistake again.

Not when the lives of so many innocent people were at stake, along with our own. No way in hell would I let them lure more GASP agents to Neraka, just so they could fulfill their insane fantasy of replenishing their soul food supply.

The soul was never meant to be treated like this. Life deserved more respect than what the daemons and Exiled Maras were showing. And I was going to make sure they learned this lesson the hard way.