but I can feel time ticking away, so I say, “I promise.”
He kisses me. Hard. Taking my breath away. Then he kisses all over my face. “I love you with all my heart,” he whispers.
I hate that it feels like he’s saying goodbye.
“We’ll be together on the surface,” I tell him.
He gives me a sad smile. “Of course.”
We hear an explosion and more shouting and screaming.
“We have to go,” the phoenix pleads.
I take a deep breath and clench my hands. The phoenix passes first into the rock, then Orion. I look back at Andros, my heart aching as I memorize him, and then I step forward too. It’s strange. It feels like I’m leaving him behind, but I really just have to have enough faith not to look back.
And to trust a man I don’t know.
12
Andros
When I’d gone back to make the deal with the demon, I’d asked many questions. But through the course of those questions, I’d learned something I never expected. The loophole that would allow me to return to earth...it might be a one-time shot.
And I’d already had one shot.
Hecate had already guided me through the tunnels once, and then she’d been caught before coming to the surface, and we’d both been dragged back down. The demon wasn’t certain if it was that only one person could lead a soul out once, or if each soul only got one chance.
So when I made the deal with the demon, I didn’t know if just Hecate and our child would be able to escape, or if I would be able to also. But any price is worth paying to ensure my wife and baby are safe.
Even if I have to lose everyone I love.
But as I look at where Orion, the phoenix, and my mate have just disappeared behind the illusionary rock, I have no idea what will happen when I enter the tunnel too. I also know that none of them will know if I’m following them or not until they reach the surface. If they get there, and I’m not with them, then it’ll break their hearts.
It’ll kill a part of me, but it’ll also be wonderful. I have no doubt Orion and Hecate will fall in love. I have no doubt that if my brother brought a phoenix into our Brotherhood, he must be a good man. Even if I can never be there for the woman I love and our child, they will be.
And that’s more than I could’ve ever asked for.
The gate, wall, and shore are filled with the sounds of fighting. I look downriver and see many of the monsters and prisoners escaping toward the tunnels. My stomach flips. If I had just waited a little longer, I wouldn't have had to unleash such evil on the world.
I’ll have to live with what I did forever.
A strange tugging comes and I realize I have to enter the tunnel. I have no idea if that means I’ll be able to follow them to the surface, but I hold my breath and step into the secret passage, praying that this will all lead to our happily ever after, whatever that might be.
With my love and my brother happy on the surface.
Or me with them.
Either way, my child and wife will be free.
I just hope they can forgive me for my deception, because I’ll never regret keeping this information to myself. Even if I can’t tell them goodbye properly.
Darkness closes around me and the sounds of fighting fade away. But where I am, I have no idea.
13
Orion
Blaise’s wings light the dark space of the tunnel. But even though I imagine the trek out of the Underworld will be time consuming and difficult, I prefer it to the slide entrance that seemed to go on forever. I had truly imagined that when we came to the bottom, I might shatter into a thousand pieces, and Blaise might suffer so badly that he’d wish he was dead. It was only the fact that the bottom was tangled with roots and soft moss that we slowed before coming to a reasonable stop just on the banks of the river.
Then we’d taken a moment to hurl and pull ourselves together. We’d hidden behind a stony alcove and watched the gates of the Underworld, plotting how we’d get in and save Orion. And then all hell had broken loose, and we’d just stared in shock as monsters and sickly-looking prisoners attacked. It wasn’t until we saw Andros coming out of the