Hours passed before Ash finally stopped chanting. The reverberation had stopped, signaling whatever mojo Kara’s blood had given the spell was waning.

The subbasement floor had continued to collapse, kicking up a storm of dust that induced a massive coughing fit, but the angel trap was undisturbed.

And Kara still hadn’t appeared.

Trying not to lose hope, he lay on the floor, picturing her face. He lost himself in dreams of her. Some were memories of the past, but mostly he fantasized about the future they might never have.

The rock that fell from the ceiling landed a few feet away. Figuring it was just the building settling, he ignored it until he heard his name.

“Ash.”

He sat bolt upright, joy and love rushing through him. “Kara!”

“Where the hell are you?” A thin beam of light broke through the darkness. It shone through the ceiling, jerking back and forth as she began to climb down from one of the holes.

“Be careful,” he called, watching the progress of the flashlight with his heart in his throat.

The ceiling was ten feet off the ground, but the partial collapse meant there was a pile of rubble for her to land on. Twisting like a gymnast, she landed lightly on top of the stones, dropping the flashlight in the process.

Kara bent to pick it up, waving it in his general direction. “What happened? Why are you here? And why in the hell did I feel compelled to come here?”

She held the flashlight under her chin, illuminating her lovely confused face.

“Don’t move! Stay right there,” he shouted. The trap was generating immense amounts of energy. Crossing the boundary could be dangerous. “It was the council, or rather a damn cabal within the council. They laid a trap for me.”

“Ugh. Which councilmen?”

“Mazarin, Klein, and Titouan. There may have been more, but those three were the only ones who dared show their faces. They have been spying and plotting against me since I removed them from office.”

He gestured to the lines of the pentagram. “I can’t cross the boundary.”

Her expression was incredulous. “Are you serious?” She pointed the flashlight beam at the ground. “This is all it takes to capture you?” She whistled. “If I’d only known…”

He glowered. “It’s demon magic, Kara. They had to sacrifice an animal for this—or worse.”

Chastised, she looked down. “Oh, sorry.”

“You have to help me deactivate it, but carefully. Don’t cross the edge. Don’t even put a finger over it,” he warned.

Kara looked at the lines of the trap. “How do I undo it?”

“It should be easy from the outside. You just erase the symbols at the edge of each point. That’s how I deactivated one a few thousand years ago.”

Her expression was dubious. “O-kay. I don’t suppose you care to explain how the hell I came to be here? Because I’m not sure. I was out gathering roots and tubers for the evening meal when my skin started to itch like crazy, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. The compulsion was so strong I dropped the roots I’d spent over an hour gathering and came straight here.”

She wasn’t going to like the truth… “Would you believe it was true love calling you to me in my hour of need?”

Kara scowled, swinging the light sharply at him for emphasis. “Didn’t you hear me? I dropped food.”

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “All right, I called you to me.”

The crease in her brow deepened. “How in the hell did you do that?”

“I…drank your blood.”

Kara’s nose scrunched in disdain and surprise. “Eww.”

“Isn’t that how your people use the vials you gave them when they’re staving off the curse?”

“No!” She laughed, shaking her head. “They just spill it. Some choose to smear it on themselves to be safe.”

Ash was skeptical. I bet Theo drank it. And Sij looked like the type who would enjoy the taste of blood.

“I needed to take it into my body to strengthen the bond between us,” he said. “Drinking it was the most expedient way.”

“Whatever,” she replied, muttering about vampire angels under her breath.

Taking a few steps to her left, Kara knelt, reaching out to wipe away at the painted symbol on the point closest to her.

“Don’t touch it with your hands,” he admonished, getting as close to the edge as he could without getting zapped again.

“Got it.” Kara rubbed the lip of the torch against the symbol, but the spray-painted symbol didn’t budge, so she grabbed a sharp rock and began scratching.

“Is that good enough?” she asked. There was a gouge through the middle.

“Make sure it’s completely interrupted,” he said craning his neck to see the whole thing.

She nodded and kept at it until the entire thing was bisected in two.

“That should do it,” he said, thanking her before she moved on to the next.

Her eyes flicked to his as she began to erase the second symbol. “Are you going to kill the men who put you in here?”

She bit her lip, her face pensive.

Ash hesitated. Would she see him differently if he executed the politicians? How tenuous was their bond?

“Do you think I should spare them?”

Kara took a deep breath and looked up as if she was considering her answer. “Normally, I would say yes…but Titouan would sell his mother if he thought someone would pay. And he’s the nice one in the bunch. I know too much about Mazarin and Klein to argue that they deserve leniency. Do whatever you have to do.”

Ash’s shoulders dropped as he relaxed. “Good. I’m glad we agree. By the way, until I take care of them, you should steer clear of their districts.”

She frowned, scratching at another sigil. “Why?”

“They’ve been spying. That’s how they figured out how to do this—they got into the other texts I confiscated from the tower. I should have gone through them more thoroughly. If I’d known this ritual was in there, I would have hidden them better.”

Kara glared at him. “I’m not running from those douchebags. If they come at me, I’ll make them regret it.”

He couldn’t help laughing. “Something tells me you would succeed.”

“Well, I certainly wouldn’t get trapped by such an obvious ruse and a little spray paint.”

His lips pressed together hard. “I know.”

She chortled and kept working on the symbols. The last proved to be a challenge. It had been covered by fallen stones, forcing Kara to perch precariously on them to try and dig it out.

“So…was the part about true love calling me at all true? Is that a factor in your little phone call ritual or did you make that up?”

“Since the only other people I’ve ever called are my angel brethren, I couldn’t say. I don’t think it’s a factor. I love my brothers and sisters, but I don’t love my brothers and sisters if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I think I get it.”

He fought the urge to cross the barrier and pull her into his arms. “But I do love you.”

A cocky grin flashed across her face. “I know,” she said, echoing his words.

Damn. He just got Han-Solo’d, and she didn’t even know it.

Ash waited for more, but the love of his life just kept smirking and digging away. “Aww, c’mon, Kara, throw a guy a bone.”

She giggled. “You’re like the most insecure angel I’ve ever met.”

“I’m the only angel you’ve ever met.”

“Thank God for that,” she muttered.

“Kara.”

“All right, fine—I love you, too, you gigantic winged doofus.”

Ash released a breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She blew the hair out of her eyes, shoving at a chunk of concrete that was blocking the last symbol. Only a fraction of it was cleared, but it was enough for her to start working to interrupt the corner with her rock.

He shifted his weight from foot to foot, impatient to get out of there and hold her.

“Are you—”

He didn’t hear the rest of what she said. A tremor shook the building, sending a piece of rebar down the pile of rubble Kara was standing on. It knocked her off balance, propelling her over the line of the pentagram. There was a bright flash of light as her fragile body crossed the barrier threshold.

Ash flew toward her, trying to push her back out of the trap before she got fried.

He failed.