protests. “How about I just show you instead.” Giddiness sparkled in her features, bringing out little white stars in her eyes.
I half expected it to be Cayden, not putting it past the queen to be completely twisted in the head. But it wasn’t Ashor’s friend who stepped into the room.
The demon sauntered into the room on his own. No chains. No guards. He voluntarily walked to his death. But none of that mattered the second I got a look at his face.
Son of a bitch!
The declaration was followed by another round of colorful swear words. My heart tightened in my chest and then dropped. The room began to spin, and I clutched the chair for support. I was close to passing out. This couldn't be happening. It wasn’t real. How could it be?
Colin, my very dead ex-boyfriend, walked into the room. Could I even classify him as an ex, since we technically never broke up? I kind of assumed once he crossed over to the other side, we were done, but now… staring at the human boy I had once loved, I was lost. Colin had died because of me! Because of who and what I was.
No. No. No.
My head shook in denial as I shoved the chair away from the table.
Ashor felt my inner turmoil and watched the color drain from my face. “Lexi, what is it? Do you know him?”
That was an understatement.
My eyes raked over Colin, seeing past the shock and taking notice of the differences from the boy I had known. His chiseled cheeks were hollow and grayish-blue in color. Elongated pointy ears peeked through his sandy-blond hair, which was longer than I remembered. Nothing human shone in those crimson eyes. Colin was a demon. A gazillion questions whirled through my head. How and why was he here? Who turned him? For what purpose? “It was you,” I whispered, remembering the other night when I had seen a face outside through the window. It had been his face—Colin’s. But I had been so sure I was seeing things, and when I went outside to check, he was gone.
Something akin to contempt flashed over his features. “Hello, Lexi.”
Did he blame me for what happened?
Of course he did. How could he not? I’d rehearsed in my head what I would say to Colin if I ever saw him again in the afterlife, but all those conversations went poof, leaving me speechless and dumbfounded. When I did finally find my voice, an apology fell out of my lips. “I’m sorry, Colin. I never meant for you to get hurt.” Let alone die and go to Hell.
A low, bitter laugh vibrated in his chest. “A little late for apologies, don’t you think?”
I steeled my spine, realizing this wasn’t going to be a heartfelt reunion. “What are you doing here?”
Colin snorted, his demon eyes dimming. “That is the funny thing about death. I wandered for years in the Mist until I was shown the gate to the Court of Envy.”
Shown by whom?
The queen didn’t seem concerned with my questions or confusion as she picked a fleck of dust from the bodice of her dress. “Now that the reunion is out of the way, the time has come for you to prove your loyalty to me and my court,” she announced, cutting through the thick tension in the room. “All you have to do is take his soul. He is already dead.”
With a heavy heart, my gaze darted from the queen back to Colin. I couldn’t do what she asked, regardless that he was a demon. “I-I…” My mind was jumbled. I stared at him, my mouth opening and closing. The blade clattered to the table, slipping out of my hand, and the silence in the room that followed was like a slap in the face, leaving me stunned and weakened. I blinked to clear the blurring of my eyes. “I can’t.”
“Kill me,” Colin baited with a grin, flashing rows of sharp teeth. “It’s the least you can offer me after everything I went through because of you.”
I couldn’t believe how hollow his cheeks were. Was he miserable then as a demon? Would death be a mercy to his life here in Gardeness? But the expression on his face and the way he carried himself didn’t give me the impression that Colin was unhappy with his eternal life here. There was nothing left of the boy I loved. He was a stranger—a monster.
Then why couldn’t I make myself stab him in the