Naomi sent over her coordinates in Five Roses, and a five-minute flight had Hunt arriving at one of the night gardens, just beginning to awaken with the fading light. Naomi’s black wings were a stain against the creeping darkness as she hovered in place above a fountain filled with moon lilies, the bioluminescent flowers already open and glowing pale blue.
“That way,” Naomi said, the harsh planes of her face gilded by the soft light from the plants.
Hunt nodded to the angel. “Thanks.”
“Good luck.” The words were enough to set him on edge, and Hunt didn’t bother saying goodbye before soaring down the path. Star oaks lined it, their leaves glittering in a living canopy overhead. The gentle illumination danced on Bryce’s hair as she ambled down the stone path, night-blooming flowers opening around her. Jasmine lay heavy in the twilight air, sweet and beckoning.
“You couldn’t give me an hour of peace?”
Bryce didn’t flinch as he dropped into step beside her. “I wanted some fresh air.” She admired an unfurling fern, its fronds lit from within to illuminate every vein.
“Were you going somewhere in particular?”
“Just—out.”
“Ah.”
“I’m waiting for you to start yelling.” She continued past beds of night crocuses, their purple petals shimmering amid the vibrant moss. The garden seemed to awaken for her, welcome her.
“I’ll yell when I find out what was so important that you broke your promise.”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing is important.”
She said the words with enough quiet that he watched her carefully. “You all right?”
“Yeah.” Definitely no, then.
She admitted, “The quiet bothers me sometimes.”
“I invited you to the bar.”
“I didn’t want to go to a bar with a bunch of triarii.”
“Why not?”
She cut him a sidelong glance. “I’m a civilian. They wouldn’t be able to relax.”
Hunt opened his mouth to deny it, but she gave him a look. “Fine,” he admitted. “Maybe.”
They walked in silence for a few steps. “You could go back to your drinking, you know. That ominous-looking angel you sent to babysit me can handle it.”
“Naomi left.”
“She looks intense.”
“She is.”
Bryce threw him a hint of a smile. “You two …？”
“No.” Though Naomi had hinted about it on occasion. “It’d complicate things.”
“Mmm.”
“Were you on your way to meet your friends?”
She shook her head. “Just the one friend these days, Athalar. And she’s too busy.”
“So you were going out alone. To do what?”
“Walk through this garden.”
“Alone.”
“I knew you’d send a babysitter.”
Hunt moved before he could think, gripping her elbow.
She peered up into his face. “Is this the part where you start yelling?”
Lightning cracked through the sky, and echoed in his veins as he leaned closer and purred, “Would you like me to yell, Bryce Quinlan?”
Her throat bobbed, her eyes glowing with golden fire. “Maybe?”
Hunt let out a low laugh. Didn’t try to stop the heat that flooded him. “That can be arranged.”
All of his focus narrowed on the dip of her eyes to his mouth. The blush that bloomed over her freckled cheeks, inviting him to taste every rosy inch.
No one and nothing existed but this—but her.
He never heard the night-dark bushes behind him rustling. Never heard the branches cracking.
Not until the kristallos crashed into him and sank its teeth into his shoulder.
46
The kristallos slammed into Hunt with the force of an SUV.
Bryce knew he only had enough time to either draw a weapon or shove her out of the way. Hunt chose her.
She hit the asphalt several feet from him, bones barking, and froze. Angel and demon went down, the kristallos pinning Hunt with a roar that sent the night garden shuddering.
It was worse. So much worse than that night.
Blood sprayed, and a knife glinted as Hunt pulled it from its sheath and plunged it into the grayish, near-translucent hide.
Veins of lightning wreathed Hunt’s hands—and faded into blackness.
People screamed and bolted down the path, cries to run! ringing through the glowing flora. Bryce barely heard them as she climbed to her knees.
Hunt rolled, flipping the creature off him and onto the pathway, wrenching his knife free in the process. Clear blood dripped down the blade as Hunt angled it in front of himself, his shredded arm outflung to protect Bryce. Lightning flared and sputtered at his fingertips.