6. What a gift this is.

My body,my whole body, is in sheer agony. That's all I can focus on. So I barely register when Lucian picks me up, and I don't notice when he jumps off the bridge, spreading his wings. It's when we're back inside the city, when the pain slightly subsides, that I realize these things must have happened.

"What—" I start.

"I'm taking you to him."

Dread covers the pain inside.

"Oh." My muscles tense, and I grip his arm harder.

"I'm taking you to him so he stops torturing you and so I can rip him to shreds just like I did with his son."

"Oh." I let out a breath and rest my head on his chest.

Amethyst City flies past us, but neither the wind nor the traffic sounds disrupt the comfort of his embrace.

He's like the salve that cures all ailments. And even though the pain caused by Kevin is still there, pulsing inside me like a poison, it feels unimportant when I'm in Lucian's arms.

What is this feeling? Why am I feeling this way in the first place? How could I have gone my entire life disinterested in anything and everyone for it to all turn out irrelevant and unimportant as soon as this gorgeous hell-demon turned up in my life?

I…I don't know the answers to those questions, but I don't care. I truly don't care. I only wish I'd summoned him sooner. If only I could have saved money faster.

But I guess there's a reason for everything. Not that I think it was my fate to suffer abuse for years before Lucian showed up, but just that…life works in mysterious ways.

Besides, what guarantee did I have that if I had summoned him sooner, it would still be Lucian who showed up?

I shake thoughts of fate and destiny out of my head and focus back on the city brushing past us. Gray and glass buildings give way to trees and grass, and soon, we're in the suburbs on the other side of town. And the Taylors' house looms ahead, getting bigger and bigger the longer we fly.

But Lucian doesn't stop when we reach the house. He puts his wings in front of us and bursts through the front door and into the living room like a storm.

We land on the floor with a thud, and Lucian unfolds his wings. As they part, I take in the room.

It's empty.

Where the fuck is he?

"How are you feeling?" he asks.

I look back at him and offer him a reassuring smile.

"I'm good. The pain is gone."

"The pain? The pain?" someone screeches.

I turn around just as Michelle crashes into me, and we stumble backward. I put my hands up to protect myself, but her breath blows in my face, and its chill clings to my skin like stone.

"You killed my boy. You killed my boy," she cries.

Good, I want to tell her. He deserved it. But I can't speak. I can't blink. I don't need to look down at myself to know she's turned me into an ice statue.

She's never used her power on me, at least not on my entire body, but I still know to fear it. After all, her husband uses it. He sucks it out of her and uses it on me when he's feeling particularly nasty.

"I'll show you pain," she says.

Despite being a statue, she hits me. She slaps and punches, and I can do nothing but watch, powerless to do anything to stop it. Powerless like I've been all my life.

"That's enough out of you." Lucian towers behind her, grabs her by the neck, and lifts her off the floor.

His arm catches on fire, but it goes out as soon as it comes into contact with her.

"Come at me, bastard. What are you gonna do? Huh? What do you think you can do to me? Your fire can't touch me. Assh?—"

Lucian doesn't move. He doesn't flinch. He simply twists his wrist, a loud crack fills the air, and Michelle tilts her head to the side. When he lets go, she collapses on the floor, quiet and unmoving.

My breathing hardens, which, granted, doesn't say much, considering I'm frozen in place, but watching her dead body flips something inside me. Something that switches my brain from fiction to reality. Because all those moments with Lucian up on Amethyst Bridge were the dream and this is reality. This is why he's here. Why I called him to me. To get rid of these people for me. To free me from their rule.

I know it shouldn't. I know it probably doesn't say much about me, but hearing her neck crack gives me life. Seeing her take her last breath, seeing her broken like a twig, takes my breath away.

She might have never lifted a finger, might have never touched me, but she turned a blind eye to it. Encouraged it. Embraced it as if it was normal.

But dammit, just because her husband and son were born blood bonders doesn't mean they should have done those things to me. It doesn't mean Kevin should have done those things to my mom.

"Are you okay, darling boy? Did she hurt you?" Lucian touches me, but I can only feel its tingle, not the heat of his touch. "I'll get you out of this?—"

He catches on fire and brushes it all over me, trying to melt the ice covering me. He keeps busy with it, so I can't do anything. I can't warn him when Kevin appears, darkness in his eyes, and steps up behind him.

The floor creaks and Lucian turns.

Kevin blows in his face, and the ice trickles down his body.

"You. You're responsible for my son's death, aren't you?"

Lucian conjures his fire, and some of the ice melts away, but it's pointless. Kevin blows more on him and stops whatever progress he made.

"You conjured yourself a demon, Yu-jin? Why? You thought you'd take revenge on us?" Kevin stares at me, but instead of fear, there's a glimmer in his eyes. "You foolish boy. All you did was hand me a demon to feed on."

He raises his hand and digs a dagger into Lucian's chest. The crack of ice breaking splinters the air, and I feel goosebumps crawling up the back of my neck.

No. No. What have I done? What have I…fuck!

Kevin dips in front of Lucian's chest, hiding himself from view, but it doesn't take a genius to know he's filling himself with Lucian's power.

You'd think he'd be upset or angry that both his son and wife are dead, but he's too busy getting horny over possessing a demon's powers.

Pervert.

Bastard.

Disgusting animal.

I don't know if those words are for him or me. I'm the one who allowed Lucian to bring me home. I'm the one who got him mixed up in all this. I'm the one who summoned him in the first place and brought him into my messy life.

And now, because of me, he's enslaved by Kevin, just like me.

I don't know how long it goes on. I don't know how long we stay frozen in place while Kevin feeds on Lucian, but when he pulls away, he's covered in demon blood and looks absolutely deranged.

"Thank you, Yu-jin. What a gift this is. And I didn't get you anything." It sounds almost like a hiss, and it makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

Kevin bends and lifts Michelle's lifeless body with little to no effort and steps away from us. He disappears down the hall, and I hear the distinct creak of the basement door and a series of thuds. He returns without Michelle, hands in his pockets.

He holds out his palm. There's an opaque white crystal on it, and my insides turn. A spell.

What is he going to do next? What's going through his perverted brain now?

"Entrapment," he says.

The crystal in his hand, made through alchemy and magic, holds one spell. It bursts into white dust, fluttering in the air around us like a rain of light and settling on us like dust. The floor around us shines in a white circle. Kevin laughs.

"Get out of that." It's almost like a challenge or an invitation.

He turns his back and walks out of the room, leaving me alone with Lucian.

Alone inside a magical protection spell that will hold us here for as long as Kevin sees fit. As long as Kevin wants to quench his desire for power and control.

What have I gotten us into?