The barrier was down, but it had severely hurt Kara in the process. Somehow, against all odds, she’d scraped the last connecting lines as she fell, granting him freedom.

But she wasn’t moving.

Ash cradled her to him tightly. “Don’t die,” he pleaded, pressing his lips to her hair.

She didn’t answer. There was no sign she had heard him—no eyelash flutter, not even a twitch.

“Damn it, Kara. Don’t do this to me.” Fuck saving the world. She couldn’t leave him.

He checked her pulse. It was weak and thready, but still there. Unsure what else to do, he started performing CPR, rhythmically breathing in and out of her mouth.

Her lips were the first sign of movement. At first, he thought it was his imagination, but the increased pressure of her mouth against his was a real response.

Kara sneezed and blinked, jerking away from him. “I was going to hit you because I couldn’t figure out who was kissing me.”

“You aren’t getting out of this yet.”

She sat up, wincing. “Out of what?”

“Life with me.”

Kara still appeared to be in pain, but her smile nearly stopped his heart. “You’re just a big mushy wuss,” she said, punching him weakly in the arm.

The constriction around his heart eased a fraction, but it left a cold spot in his gut. Kara shouldn’t have survived that. The fact she was sitting up and talking—or rather mocking him—was nothing short of a miracle. Only Ash didn’t believe his father had anything to do with her quick recovery. No, her survival was due to Kara’s demon heritage.

Demonic blood was acidic with powerful regenerative properties. It was one of the reasons the bastards were so hard to kill. Kara was stronger than a normal human—she knocked him out with a rock. That would be a challenge for a man twice her size. He should have guessed the truth back then.

At least she doesn’t have an exoskeleton or diamond-tough scaly skin. “I’m taking you back to my place until you fully recover,” he told her, bending to help her stand.

Kara started to speak, but getting up was painful enough to silence any arguments she might have made to reject his help.

Together, they picked their way out of the basement dungeon. Despite the beating the angel trap had given him, he supported Kara the whole way, not letting her bear her own weight except when necessary.

They climbed through the crack in the ceiling before she pulled away again. “I can make it on my own,” she insisted when he took her hand.

“Not a chance,” he growled, wondering if there was enough room to pick her up again.

There wasn’t. In fact, he was forced to bend over double, and then crawl through the narrow space between two fallen walls.

“How in the world did you get to me?” he asked, feeling claustrophobic as they inched along.

“It’s just a few more dozen yards, and then there’s an opening to another room. There’s a hole in the wall leading to a tunnel.”

“And to the catacombs after?”

“Yes.”

That was a relief. “Once there, I will make my own way,” she repeated. “I want you to leave and go after those cabal traitors.”

Why did she have to be so bloody independent? “Not until I’m sure you’re a hundred percent. You have no idea how much energy was running through that trap.”

“I’m fine. Now get your tight angel butt through here.”

“Through where?” Craning his head to peek around her, Ash spotted a narrow opening in the wall ahead. Once on the other side, he was able to stand.

He immediately pulled Kara into his arms. “If I’d known you were going to get hurt like that, I wouldn’t have called you,” he whispered into her hair.

Kara leaned back in his embrace to look at his face. “So you would rather have stayed trapped in a hole than see me hurt?” she asked in a please-be-practical tone before turning to lead the way.

He followed, his heart heavy as the truth settled in his gut. “I’m not prepared to sacrifice you for myself or for the city—not again… Kara, what if we just left?”

She stopped short in front of him just a few feet from the exit.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about getting the hell out of dodge. Let’s forget about the damn council and the fucking curse. We can leave together, eke out a life in the wasteland. Just the two of us.”

Kara squeezed her eyes shut before opening them wide, as if she expected to see someone else standing there. “Who are you and what have you done with Ash?”

He sighed, rubbing his hands over his face and leaning against the rough wall of the cave.

She walked up to him, studying his face intently. “You want me to run off with you—to forget everyone else and just leave?”

“Yes.”

Now she was starting to look concerned. He broke away from the wall. “I know you can’t do that. You don’t have to abandon your people, but I don’t have to keep trying to rescue this city from itself. We can take your people with us, and we can build a new home somewhere.”

She stared at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. “And we’re just supposed to leave Bastille to those bastards who tried to imprison you? What about the regular people who have to live under their rule? What happens when the next Firehorse rises? What then?”

He put his hand on his breastplate, just over the scroll she couldn’t see. “I…I just don’t want you to get hurt again.”

Almost losing her just now had shaken him to the core.

Risking his life was one thing. God had created him to serve. Ash had entered the pact with Raphael well aware that breaking the curse might require the ultimate sacrifice. He’d been prepared to die taking down the demon king.

But Kara was just a girl—well, mostly a girl. She had never asked for the burden placed on her shoulders.

But the curse was tied to her. Ash might not have a choice but to let her court danger.

Damn that bastard Amducious. It was too bad the demon king was dead. He’d like to kill him all over again.

Kara stood on her tiptoes and gave him a quick but fiery kiss before breaking into a grin. “Again, I’m not the one who let themselves get snatched by some pudgy pencil pushers. I can take care of myself.”

“I don’t doubt it,” he said after a long pause, guilt flaring. The slight pressure of the scroll under his breastplate burned like a brand, pushing him to act.

Ash put his hand on his breastplate as if to hide it from her sight. Untangling the dark magic tormenting the city could very well cost them her life. Curse or no curse, he couldn’t picture a future without her now.

“I guess you’re right,” he said slowly.

Kara grinned. “Of course I am. Get used to that feeling.” She cocked her head. “What brought this on?”

Ash almost reached into the breastplate for the scroll, but caution stayed his hand. Instead, he decided to share a different unpleasant truth.

“If we succeed and break the curse, my banishment ends,” he reminded her.

Understanding darkened her eyes. “Of course you’ll want to go back to Heaven. It’s what you’ve been working for all this time.”

“It’s not a question of want. Not anymore,” he said.

“Right,” Kara scoffed. “You deposed the demon king and took over the wardenship of Bastille to win back a place in Heaven.”

“I thought it was where I belonged. But that’s no longer true. If I had the choice—if God himself asked me where I belonged today, I would tell him the truth. My place is at your side. I love you.”

For a second, he thought Kara was going to punch him in the arm again. But she just gripped his hand. “And you don’t think you’re going to be given a choice? Is that what you’re telling me?”

“I don’t really know what’s going to happen, but if the curse is broken, I could be recalled without warning. The Host is defined by their service. Being an angel means obeying orders. They might not ask if I want to stay. Unless things have changed, it wouldn’t occur to them to do otherwise.”

Her expression dimmed. “I see…and if you left, you couldn’t come back?”

“I don’t know. Passage to this plane is at God’s discretion. I could try to fall again, but with a flick of His wrist, I could end up on the other side of the world. I might be trapped in another cursed landscape for the rest of your life. It would be my punishment for defying Him a second time.”

If that happened, he’d fight to get back to her, of course, but he’d already failed to fly through the impenetrable barrier the curse had created. It could take years or centuries to get back to Bastille.

Human lives were too damn short.

Kara wrapped her arms around him, her face soft despite the breastplate between them. “This is something I never thought to ask before—do the humans who live good lives here go to Heaven? Or is the curse blocking them from getting there the way it’s stopping you?”

“A human soul is energy that can’t be measured. As far as I know, it can cross the barrier.” At least, he thought so. In all his years since the Collision, he hadn’t run into an unusual number of ghosts, just a few here and there. If human souls were trapped here by the curse, he’d have encountered a legion of them.

She put her hands on either side of his face, her expression grave. “If the worst happens and we don’t get to live our lives together down here, I don’t want you to fall again and risk getting trapped. If God says you can’t come back down to earth, sit tight and wait for me upstairs.”

“Kara—” he began.

She tugged on his breastplate, a hint of a smile playing on her lips. “What? Are you suddenly afraid of commitment? Haven’t you been single for a few thousand years—what’s a couple of more decades?”

Tears burned behind his eyes, but Kara was steadfast and fearless. “If things go bad taking down these douchebags and undoing the curse, I have faith we’ll meet again in Heaven, so let’s just get out there and end this.”

It was a sound plan, except for one thing. Heaven had rules. It was pure. Nothing tainted could enter. Which meant Kara’s demon heritage barred her from its gates. Forever.

But he didn’t tell her that. He took her hands. “No matter what happens, nothing—neither Heaven nor Hell—will keep me from you.”

He’d war with God himself before he let his fierce warrior princess be damned.

Ignorant of the storm raging in his breast, Kara nodded.

“Nothing will,” she promised with a bracing smile. She tugged on his arm to get him moving. “Let’s go. We have work to do.”