I had never been to Rome before or Europe or even outside the United States. But Micah had. Before he had come to New York City and found me, he had traveled around the world, looking for people like him, and Rome had been one of his destinations.

Even though it was hard to tell where anything was among the ruins, Micah had assured me he had a pretty good idea of where the Coliseum stood—or used to stand—so I trusted him and let him be our guide as we walked and hid from the demon patrols.

The hiding, the walking through the debris, the crossing broken bridges and roads went slowly. I had no idea how far we were from the Coliseum, but it certainly didn’t look like we would arrive there today.

However, we couldn’t stop for the night either. What if we let our guard down and were surprised by demons? Or Imha and Omi? No, thank you. I preferred to keep going and be done with this, even if it meant not sleeping, even if I was tired and my legs ached from walking so much—I would compensate later.

It was getting late—though with the sun hidden by endless black, there wasn’t much difference between day and night anyway. We slowed down as we passed through an intact cemetery behind a burned down church. I didn’t want to, but it was like there was a force pulling my eyes to look at the tombstones. I read all the names, all the dates, and little, special messages. Why had these people died? Because of Imha? Because of the darkness? Or had they died of some illness or old age?

Suddenly, Micah stopped. “Darl—um, Nadine?” he called me.

I halted beside him. “Yeah?”

“I can’t sense any demons. Maybe we should rest for a bit now.”

I looked around at all the tombstones. “You want to stop here? No way.”

He scanned the area. “Why not?”

“You may be the god of death, but sitting around a bunch of dead people makes me uncomfortable. No way.”

One corner of his lips tugged up, and I could swear I saw a bit of the old Micah, the cocky one, hiding behind the one in front of me. “All right. Let’s find somewhere to sit down as soon as we’re out of here.”

A few minutes later, we found a small park across the street from the cemetery.

“Is this place okay?” Micah asked, his tone teasing.

I rolled my eyes and didn’t answer him. Instead, I plopped down on a broken bench, crisscross applesauce style, and pulled a bottle of water and snacks from my backpack.

Micah sat down on a patch of dead grass a couple of feet from me. “Do you have any beer?”

“Of course. I have beer, scotch, tequila, and vodka. What do you want?”

He smiled. Not a full, touching-the-eyes kind of smile, but a small smile. One that made my heart pitter-patter. I didn’t know what he saw in my face because he lost that beautiful smile a couple of seconds later.

He sighed. “You know, I need to tell you a few things—”

I shook my head. “Please, don’t.”

“But I need to. Please, darling, just listen to me.”

I glared at him. There was that damned nickname again. “We’re past this, Micah. You don’t need to tell me anything.”

“It doesn’t matter. You can’t run from me right now, so if I talk, you’ll have to listen.”

“Don’t you dare.”

He ignored me and commenced his speech. “I’m sorry about Keisha. I never meant to kill her. I swear I probably felt her death as much as you did.” I averted my eyes because I couldn’t take the intensity, the truth in his stare. It didn’t lessen the pain of her death, though. “As for siding with Imha … you know that’s a facade, the only way I found to be useful after making so many mistakes. And it was better if our spy thinks Levi and I had a real argument and I left on bad terms. More importantly, I need you to know it disgusts me to be close to Imha again. It physically hurts and makes me sick. I’ll never be with Imha again. Even if we really live forever, I won’t be with her. I promise you that.” Why was he telling me this? Did he think I cared? Did he know I cared? I willed my expression to be blank, careless. I failed big time. He cleared his throat. “The last thing I wanted to tell you is I volunteered to come with you on this mission because I don’t trust your safety to anyone else. I wanted to be here with you.”

I snapped my head back to him and saw in his dark eyes he was telling the truth. Why, gods? Why was he torturing me like this?

Pushing aside my feelings, I stood. “We should keep going.”

“But we just stopped. You need to rest a little more.”

“I’m fine,” I said, picking up my backpack from the bench. “I don’t want to rest.”

I did want to rest. I was tired from walking all day and sleeping so little at night. I kind of needed some rest—not that I would ever tell him.

As soon as I started walking, I realized I didn’t really know the direction we were heading, but I was too stubborn to stop.

“Nadine, wait,” Micah called me. I heard his fast footsteps, catching up with me. I walked faster. After a few seconds, Micah’s hand closed around my upper arm.

I glared at him. “Hey!”

He put a finger over his lips. “Shh. I sense demons coming this way, fast.”

That shut me up.

Micah slid his hand down my arm until my hand was safe in his. He tugged my arm and pulled me back to the broken bench in the middle of the park. We looked around—there was no good place to hide, so we crouched behind the bench and prayed that it was enough.

The demons appeared from the other side of the park in an organized fashion, with four demons side by side and six rows—just like a battalion ready for battle. I shuddered, remembering the many times I had been too close to them.

They continued down a stone path across the park and seemed not to have noticed us. Until the Akuma—the bat-like demons—swooped in the dark sky. With their bird’s-eye view and their great night vision, they spotted us.

With a shriek, the Akuma swooped toward us—I counted four. The other demons—a mix of the Ornek and Arak—stopped their march and turned their attention to us.

“Fuck,” Micah cursed.