A tugging sensation lit up my chest again, momentarily stealing my breath.

“Someone wants you back real bad,” the guy said.

“Huh?”

He studied me for a long beat. “I could keep you. In fact, I might.”

Keep me? “Look, you’re lovely and all, but you’re a little young for me.”

“Am I?” He sucked his bottom lip into his mouth. “How old are you?”

“Me? I’m…” Panic bloomed in my stomach. How old was I?

“Pretty girl like you must have a pretty name.”

“I…” What was my name?

I looked up to find him sitting right beside me, his eyes all pupil as he locked onto mine.

“Yes… Yes, I think I’ll keep you,” he said.

My hand tingled, and when I looked down, there was a ticket clutched in it.

Cora

“Again! Do it again!” Vi orders.

“I am. I am,” Missy says. “It’s not working.”

The room is in an uproar. Mal, Uri, and Bastian have Azazel pinned. He’s a fucking beast trying to tear his way to Fee, which confirms one awful thing.

She’s dying.

She’s fucking dying.

“I had her,” Missy says. “I had her, and then she flatlined again. Why is she flatlining?”

She sounds genuinely confused.

Grayson is on his knees by Fee’s head, his mouth moving silently. Is he fucking praying? Hunter stands by the fireplace staring, just fucking staring as if he’s frozen in time.

No. We need to do something. An idea forms in my mind. A fucked-up, crazy plan. I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t even know if it’s possible, and I have no clue if I’ll be able to make it back if I succeed.

But I have to try.

I step forward, grab Fee’s hand, and make the most fucked-up, biggest jump of my life.

Right into nothingness.

It’s dark. Like, can’t breathe, suffocating dark.

For a moment, panic overtakes my common sense, and I’m hyperventilating, fear a fist around my heart.

Fee. I came for Fee. I have to focus because I know without a shadow of a doubt that I don’t belong here. This place knows it, but it’s hungry, and I can sense its claws. If I’m not careful, I could lose myself. I could become a meal for the claws waiting in the nothingness. If I’m not careful, I know I can lose myself in here.

Focus, Cor. Focus on Fee.

A light blooms in the darkness, turning the world gray. I run toward it.

Fee

“You could ride the bus,” the young man said. “Or…” There’s a vroom and a huge bike appeared in front of us, silver and black. It revved its engine. “You could ride with me…”

The bike was hot. Like super-hot, and I’d always wanted to ride one…at least I think I had. “Where will we go?”

“Wherever you want.”

He stood and held out a hand to me.

The bus chose that moment to show up.

Shit. I had a ticket, but…the bike was so much cooler.

I reached for the young man’s hand.

“Fee!” A woman came running out of the darkness. Slender, fierce-looking with golden hair that came down just past her shoulders. Her gaze flicked from me to the guy with the bike. She gave him a wide berth and held out her hand to me. “Fee, come on. We have to go.”

She seemed concerned. Worried. “Um…Do I know you?”

“Dammit, Fee, snap the fuck out of it. If you stay any longer, you’ll die.”

“Die?”

The young man leaned back against his bike and studied his nails. “You’re too late,” he said. “She’s already dead.”

The heat that had my chest in a grip began to melt.

The woman stared at me in horror. “No. No. Fee. Take my hand.”

“It won’t help,” the guy said. “But I’m not a monster. I’ll let you say goodbye.”

He flicked a wrist my way and a weight settled in my head—colors, names, and places. Memories flooded me. I was Seraphina Dawn. I was…I was me again, and I didn’t belong here.

Fuck! “Cora!” I made a grab for her hand, but my fingers passed through hers.

Oh, God. It was too late. I’d stayed too long.

“No…” Cora shook her head. “Please.” She turned to the man. “You can change this, can’t you? You can give her back. There’s still time.” She looked from the bike to the bus. “There’s still time because she hasn’t taken a ride yet, right?”

He puffed out his cheeks. “Maybe.” He twisted his neck to look at her and arched a brow. “You know what? I’m feeling magnanimous today. Your passion, your connection has touched me. I’m intrigued. You gate-crashed into my domain, after all. That in itself deserves a prize.”

“Oh, goody,” Cora said. “I’m so glad; now give her back to me.”

She kept looking at me, and her expression told me what she was seeing wasn’t encouraging.

My skin was paler now, and my body felt lighter as if it was shedding a weight. Losing a connection. It was over. I was dead. The knowledge was a dark pit in my stomach. All the things left undone…All the people left behind. I looked at my best friend. The woman who’d stood by me time after time. Who’d somehow jumped into this prelude to death to drag me out, and pure love filled my chest. My throat pinched with an excess of emotion.

“It’s okay.” I smiled at her. “You can go now.”

She gave me a shut-the-fuck-up look and focused on the young man. “What do you want in exchange for her?”

I couldn’t have her making deals with this creature parading as a man. “Cora. You need to leave. Now.”

Her head snapped my way. “Like fuck am I leaving you. He can give you back to me.” She strode up to the guy. “What. Do. You. Want?”

He tipped his head back slightly and sucked on his lips, looking her up and down. “One kiss.”

Cora’s head jerked back. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. You have an energy, an aura…I want to taste it.”

My stomach quivered in foreboding. “Cora, don’t.”

The man smirked. “Don’t worry, Seraphina Dawn. I won’t hurt her.”

“Fine,” Cora said. “One kiss, and then you let her leave with me, alive. Deal.”

“Deal.”

She grabbed his lapels and yanked him to her, crushing her mouth to his in a long, tongue-sucking lip lock that, frankly, was kind of unnerving.

It ended just as abruptly when she shoved him away and backed up, her step a little unsteady.

He reached up to touch his mouth, and his eyes, which had been as dark as twilight, lit up like the sunrise.

What had just happened? What had my friend given and what had this creature taken?

“So, we can go now?” Cora asked. Her tone was shaky.

He climbed onto his bike and revved the engine.

“Hey! Are we done?”

His lips curved in a smirk. “For now.”

This time when Cora reached for me, our hands connected. Her fingers wrapped around mine and she tugged me to her, hugging me close.

I shut my eyes and allowed the world to fracture.

I may be going back, but I’d died. I’d fucking died, and that would have consequences.

Chapter Forty

“Fee, fucking hell. Fee.”

I came to slowly, enveloped in heat and bound in an embrace. Not one embrace but three. Grayson’s husky eyes seared my soul, while Azazel’s powerful chest pressed to my back and Mal’s forehead touched my cheek. They cradled me between them, arms locked around me, uncaring that holding me like this meant holding onto each other. It was intimate and safe and warm, and in their arms, I was home. I was with my guys.

A choked sob rose up between us.

Mal.

He rolled his forehead against my cheek, and hot tears splashed my collarbone. “We lost you.” His voice was a ragged sigh. “Fuck. We lost you.”

“I felt it.” Azazel gripped me tighter. “The wrenching in my soul. I felt you die.”

“We all did.” Grayson scanned my face as if he couldn’t believe he was seeing it again.

I’d died?

A memory stirred at the back of my mind. I’d died and…Cora…Cora had held me together and brought me back.

Panic flared in my chest. Something had happened. Something to Cora. “Cora! Where’s Cora?”

“I’m here, babe,” Cora said from beyond the wall of muscle that surrounded me. “Alive and kicking. Just letting the guys do their thing.”

Yeah, the guys weren’t letting me go anytime soon, and I wasn’t complaining. My feet didn’t touch the ground, and my chest was kinda aching a little from Azazel’s epic grip, but I didn’t care. Their scent, their heat was like a balm to a soul that felt frazzled and fractured.

I closed my eyes and reveled in the contact, and slowly, increment by increment, Azazel’s grip eased. Mal kissed my cheek and stepped back, and Grayson did the same. But they didn’t go far.

Uri slipped past Grayson and pulled me into a tight hug. His body trembled against mine.

I stroked his back. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

I was back from…wherever I’d gone. Somewhere…

Uri released me and Azazel to scoop me up and sat on the single-seater with me. Mal and Grayson gravitated toward us, crouching either side of the sofa as if they couldn’t bear to be too far.

“I died…” I said the words out loud to test them, then looked up at Cora, who was leaning against the mantelpiece. “You…came for me?”

“Damn straight I did,” Cora said. “Like fuck was I letting you ride that stinky bus or the over-the-top bike.”

What? My mind was fuzzy. “Bus?”

Cora frowned. “You don’t remember any of it?”

“She’s not supposed to,” Vi said. “No one who returns recalls anything.” Her expression was speculative. “But you do…”