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CHAPTER ONE

Ten seconds after Mrs Cleo y class, flipped on the projector and turned off the lights, Baer comfortable where she was currently curled around my waist

Sliding along my stomach, the very active deth of ti lecture on the food chain I stiffened, resisting the urge to giggle like a hyena as she cruised up between my brsts and rested her diamond-shaped head on my shoulder

Five more seconds passed while Stacey stared atBa the side of my neck

I clale as I squirmed in my seat

“Are you on drugs?” Stacey asked in a low voice as she brushed thick bangs out of her dark eyes “Or ishello to the world? Because as ated to tell me”

Even though I knew her boob was in her shirt, or at least I hoped so since her V-neck sweater was pretty low cut, aze dipped as I lowered my hand “Your boob is fine I’m justantsy”

She wrinkled her nose ather attention to the front of the classroo in a deep breath, I prayed that Bambi would remain where she was for the rest of the class With her onevery five seconds wasn’t going to help my popularity, or lack thereof Luckily, with the , I could get aearing turtlenecks and long sleeves, which hid Baht

Well, as long as she didn’t decide to crawl up onshe liked to do whenever Zayne was around He was an absolutely gorgeous Warden—a member of the race of creatures who could look huoyles Wardens were tasked with protectingthe day I’d grown up with Zayne and had nursed one heck of a puppy-dog crush on him for years

Ba the side of my stomach

I had no idea how Roth had dealt with Ba all over him

My breath caught as a deep, unforgiving pang hitwith the cracked stone—the ring that had once held the blood ofthe coolNot because of the familial bond, since I really didn’t clai with Bambi, it was my last and only link to Astaroth, the Crown Prince of Hell, who had done the

I lost myself the moment I found you

Roth had sacrificed hi the one to hold Pai to unleash an especially nasty race of demons, in a devil’s trapthe honors of keeping Pai, but Rothhe’d taken Zayne’s place

And noas in the fiery pits

Leaning forward, I propped my elbows on the cool table, co on about Tears burned the back of my throat as I stared at the e to Roth I closed my eyes

Teeks Three hundred and thirty-six hours, give or take a few, had passed since that night in the old gyotten easier It hurt as if it had happened an hour ago and I wasn’t sure if a month or even a year from noould be any different

One of the hardest parts was all the lies Stacey and Sam had asked a hundred questions when Roth hadn’t returned after the night we had located the Lesser Key of Solo we’d needed to know about ht by Abbot (the leader of the Warden clan in DC who had adopted irl) They’d stopped eventually, but it was still another secret I was keeping from them, two of my closest friends

Despite our friendship, neither of them knehat I was—half Warden, half demon And neither of theed schools But sometimes it was easier to think of him that way—to tell myself he was just at another school instead of where he was

The burn moved into my chest, much like the low simmer in my veins that was always present The need to take a soul, the curse my mother had passed on to me, hadn’t di, it had seemed to increase The ability to draw the soul out of any creature that had one hy I hadn’t ever gotten close to a boy before

Not until Roth had co

Given that he was a demon, the pesky soul problem was a moot point He didn’t have one And unlike Abbot and almost all of the Warden clan, even Zayne, Roth hadn’t cared that I was a mixed breed He hadhe’d accepted me as I was

Scrubbing my palms over my eyes, I bit the inside of my cheek When I’d found my repaired and cleaned-up necklace—the one Petr, a Warden who turned out to behis attack onto the hope that Roth wasn’t in the pits after all That he’d so day, that hope flickered out like a candle in the middle of a hurricane

I believedin this world that if Roth could’ve come back to me, he would have by now, and that meant

When my chest squeezed painfully, I openedThe rooh the haze of unshed tears I blinked a couple of times as I slumped back in my seat Whatever was on the slide projectorto do with the circle of life? No, that was The Lion King I was so going to fail this class Figuring I should at least attempt to take notes, I picked up my pen and—

At the front of the class, theloudly A boy exploded out of his chair as if solow surrounded him—his aura I was the only one who could see it, but it sputtered erratically, blinking in and out Seeing people’s auras—a reflection of their souls—was nothing new for me They were all kinds of colors, sometimes a mixture of more than two, but I’d never seen one waver like that before I glanced around the roolimmered faintly

What the Hell?

Mrs Cleo’s hand was frozen above the projector as she frowned “Dean McDaniel, what in the world are you—”

Dean spun on his heel, facing the two guys sitting behind hi back in their seats, their arms crossed and lips curved up in identical smirks Dean’s mouth was pressed into a thin line and his face was flushed My mouth dropped open as he planted one hand on the white tabletop and slammed his other fist into the jaw of the kid behind hih the classrooasps

Holy granola bar!

I sat up straight as Stacey slapped her hands on our table “Holy shit balls for Sunday dinner,” she whispered, gaping as the boy Dean had punched slu of potatoes

I didn’t know Dean very well Hell, I wasn’t sure if I’d spokene, tall and slender, much like Sam

Totally not the kind of kid who’d be voted uy—into next week