“But you don’t get to kill me, so it’s worth it,” Aiden sneered.
“Wrong,” Logan replied. His elbow thrust upward, and I heard the grating sound of metal on concrete as Logan skewered the demon, the point of his sword scraping the pillar as Logan’s sword found an exit through the demon’s back.
Withdrawing his sword, Logan stepped back as Aiden held his hand to his stomach, purple seeping through his fingers. The portal expanded again, a forgiving burst of dazzling light that seemed to leach the color from the macabre scene, making it appear in black and white.
A slow smile spread across Aiden’s face before he began choking out blood.
“I still win,” he whispered hoarsely before collapsing to the ground. Taking no chances, Logan raised his sword and in one quick move brought it down on Aiden’s neck, beheading him.
And just like that, Aiden was gone—the demon who had terrorized me was now a nonthreatening collection of pieces on the ground.
“I’m so sorry.” I heard Logan though my foggy brain, his fingers gently touching my skin.
“I found Pepper. She was in bad shape but she—she managed to tell me what she did.” Logan’s voice was more pitying than angry at her foolish actions. “I found you as fast as I could. I’m so sorry he hurt you.”
“You’re here now,” I told him, and he pressed his forehead to mine. The portal flashed again—sending me into convulsions as it sucked the life out of me to grow even bigger. All I felt was pain. Pain—and the feeling that I was slipping away.
“Why—why isn’t it closing?” My voice sounded very small, and I realized Logan had his arms around me, supporting me.
“It should have closed when I killed Aiden,” he said, turning his head to stare warily at the portal, which was about three feet wide at this point. I could clearly see the world beyond ours. It looked similar enough—pale gray walls that were decorated with jagged marks, much like the looping graffiti that colored the walls of this tunnel.
And then I heard a roar as something moved in the portal—something that reminded us we needed to close it immediately. A pair of skeletal legs, all white bone and stringy beige tendon, tall and strong and terrifying, slowly ambled by.
“Why isn’t it closing?” I asked, my fingers gripping Logan’s shirt.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, his eyes wide with fright. “Did he do something differently to open it?”
The portal flashed again, and I felt my consciousness slip away for a moment. When my eyes opened, Logan was kneeling before me, his hands brushing my hair away from my face.
“Paige, please, remember. How did Aiden open the portal?” Logan’s voice was calm and soothing, but his eyes were frantic.
“He did a spell, like last time. Except, he put down those gold pyramids first,” I said, pointing to the three glimmering points. “He was really careful about their placement. And then they gave off this gold mist that he used to open the portal.”
Logan stood quickly, rushing over to the pyramids and kicking them out of formation. The gold triangles glimmered brightly in protest before fading to a dull gold, but the portal continued to swell.
“Paige, what else?” Logan returned to crouch before me, panic beginning to creep into his voice.
“He cut his arm,” I remembered, taking my index finger and tracing a line down the inside of my forearm. “It was like the mist was alive, and Aiden fed it his blood.”
Logan leaned back on his heels, the color draining from his face.
“No wonder he said we needed him,” he muttered.
“What does that mean?” I asked, frantic.
Logan stood, pacing a few steps before the portal shuddered again—reminding him that we were out of time. He quickly knelt in front of me, pressing one hand against my cheek.
“Paige, he opened a blood portal. Aiden used his blood to open it. He thought he was the only one who could close it,” he explained gravely.
“So, throw his head through the damn thing!” I cried. “I wanted it on my bookshelf, but do this instead!”
Logan laughed—but this time, it was tinged with sadness.
“You have made me smile more in the past few months than I have in my entire life, Paige Dawn Kelly. Never forget that,” he said, his thumb brushing my cheek.
With those words—coupled with the adoring but heartbroken expression on his face—cold panic began seizing me.
“Why do I feel like you’re saying goodbye?” I asked in a trembling voice.
“Paige, the portal is going to keep opening. It’s going to destroy both worlds. It’s going to destroy you as it grows,” he said, his other hand finding its way into my hair.
“So throw Aiden’s head—”
“It has to be living blood, Paige. Living Regent blood will close the portal.” Logan paused, taking a deep breath. And I felt that sickening chill—the one where you realize your life is about to change, and you desperately wish you could freeze time in that moment, to preserve your life as it was Before. Before whatever was about to annihilate and crush your heart hadn’t happened yet.
“Don’t say it,” I begged him.
“I have Regent blood.” His voice was hoarse, as if it were painful to say the words. It should have been painful, because those razor-sharp words cut me worse than any of Aiden’s torture devices.
“Don’t say that.”
“I can close the portal.”
“No.”
“I have to, Paige.”
“No!” I screamed, trying to hold him close and cursing my weak limbs when they slid uselessly against my side.
“I have to,” he insisted. “This portal is going to kill you if it stays open much longer.”
“And it will kill you if you go through it,” I sobbed, grabbing his hand.
“Someday, you can tell the world about the demon who saved it.” He gave me a rakish smile.
“Don’t do that. Don’t you dare do that! Don’t you dare joke with me and tease me in the same breath that you tell me this is my last moment with you,” I sobbed again, fresh tears pouring down my face as I realized the truth of what I said.
“Paige, I have to do this,” he said, tucking his fingers underneath my chin and urging my eyes upward as he had countless times before. This can’t be the last time I feel his touch.
“The portal is killing you, and fast. So, listen to me, I want you to do something for me, okay? I want you to live and be happy and have a life that’s full and rich and everything you showed me life should be,” Logan told me, his eyes glistening above that endearing, sweet smile that he showed only to me. My trembling fingers reached up to touch his lips, and he pursed them softly, placing one last kiss on them before my weak hand fell limply into my lap.
“Logan, please. I love you. Don’t leave me,” I begged. Logan took my hand and wrapped it around the back of his neck, holding it there before kissing my lips softly.
“If I don’t do this, there will be nothing left.”
And if you do, there will be nothing left of me.
“I don’t know how to do this,” I wept, my eyes scouring his face, every beloved line and curve. “I don’t know how to say goodbye to you and tell you everything you are to me.”
“Don’t worry. Don’t regret anything you did or didn’t say,” he said, absolving me of all my future remorse. “I already know. Because you are everything to me.”
His brave facade began crumbing, and Logan pressed his lips to mine for a kiss—our final kiss—and I tried to memorize his every soft touch, every whispered word and every breath.
The portal flashed again—sending a quake rippling through our world. Metal creaked, bursts of dirt and concrete were dislodged from the tremor, raining down in the tunnel and on our heads. In the distance, I heard car alarms blaring overhead, and the nightmarish bone monster roared from inside the portal.