of the wall and half of the ceiling. Concrete, dirt, and wooden beams rained down on the demon captain.
I loved it! It was like watching an action movie unfolding right in front of me.
My knight wanted to punish this demon captain for me prior to killing him.
Before the captain could get to his feet, my knight grabbed him and flung him across the street. The demon’s horns pierced a brick column, and his fall dented the ground.
“Oops, that hurt,” I shouted.
The demon tossed his ax at my knight before I finished my cheer.
A warning tore from my throat, but my man snatched the hilt of the spinning ax out of the air easily. Menace and fury rolling off him, he stalked toward the demon with predatory purpose, ready to cut down his opponent and wrap up this episode.
Suddenly, the demon captain grinned at me. His intentions clicked, and horror grabbed me.
The demon was going to make an exit.
He believed I was some kind of lost legend—there was no way he’d quit this hunt. If he escaped, he’d come back for me.
Worse, if he reported me to more powerful demons, the horde would join him until they had their claws in me. Though I didn’t think I was their lost princess—I wasn’t any fucking princess—it wouldn’t stop those greedy demon bastards from attempting to drag me to Hell.
“Don’t let him get away!” I shrieked and charged toward the demon captain with the spear thrust in front of me.
My knight moved in a blur at the same time.
Our weapons slammed toward the demon, but he shifted to smoke and vanished.
I stared at the empty space where the demon captain had been as cold dread and dismay filled me.
“Worry no more, lamb,” my knight commanded. “With me guarding you, no one will ever harm a single hair on your head.”
He swept his sapphire eyes to the sky, the roofs, and the rest of our surroundings and, finding no more threats, gazed down at me with all the protectiveness and possessiveness in the world.
My chest warmed. My heart fluttered.
I stepped toward him eagerly. I needed to touch him and feel for myself that he was one hundred percent real and he was here.
His sapphire eyes brightened. At first he opened his arms, ready to pull me into his embrace, but then he stiffened. Staggering away from me, he tucked his obsidian wings in tightly.
“No, lamb,” he whispered, his expression pained. “Don’t touch me.”
I halted, feeling like he’d doused me in icy water. I’d thought he wanted me.
He saw the hurt in my eyes, and agony distorted his gorgeous face.
“You were all over me in the dream,” I accused, lashing out as the hurt of rejection sank even deeper into my bones. “Guess you’re just a phony. I was wrong about you. I shouldn’t have sought you out.”
“You sought me out?”
“I came here for you, didn’t I?” I said bitterly.
He blinked in confusion. “How did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t know you were here,” I said. “But I thought of you before I teleported.”
A swirl of dark stars glimmered in his eyes. “You don’t know who I am, do you?”
Judging by the scorching desire etched into every line in his face, he wanted me. But then why did he want to confuse me?
I braced a hand on my hip. “I met you only once before and that was in a dream. You never told me who you are, though I asked, and then I was yanked right out of the dream.”
“I’m Héctor,” he said in sorrow and defeat. “I’m the death demigod. No one can touch me and live because my skin is lethal to everyone.”
I widened my eyes in utter shock.
My dream lover was the Demigod of Death, my supposed enemy?
He held my gaze, scrutinizing my every tiny reaction and emotion to his words, and I had the impression that he was waiting for me to run from him.
“I’m sorry, lamb, you can’t touch me.” He sighed in resignation. “We can only be with each other in a dream. If it’s good for you, that’s good enough for me. I’ll protect you day and night. You’ll be the only woman for me in dreams and in life.”
I studied the tensed line on his gorgeous face as he held his breath, expecting me to deny him.
I had defied every rule in the book.
So I was going to defy this one last, inconvenient rule.
If I could touch him in the dream, I could touch him