Page 74 of Demon Hunger
Tears stung the back of my eyes. Jophiel didn’t play fair, and God didn’t care. He only cared if we failed. He was done with His failed experiment and seemed to be playing this charade for mere appearances. And what was the point of that? Why didn’t He just get it over with?
A tear spilled down my face. I swatted away and turned from Jenna, embarrassed. It was rude, I knew, but I stomped away, headed outside. Jenna came after me, but I barely heard what she was saying.
At the moment, I didn’t care if the entire world imploded.
26
Outside,IranpastSage and Benjamin and left the building, pressing past the crowd.
Before I got too far, Drevan materialized in front of me. I ran straight into his arms and let him gather me against his firm body. I bit my lower lip to stave off the tears and managed to keep them at bay.
“We haven’t lost the war,” he said.
“It’s not fair.”
“I know, but you can’t lose hope.”
“There has to be another way.”
Drevan said nothing to this. He only held me tighter and whispered softly in my ear. “I love you, Lucia.”
I pushed away from him to look him in the eye. There was such tenderness in his expression, such longing that it was impossible not to believe him. Hedidlove me.
“Why me?” I asked.
Compared to him, I felt insignificant, and I couldn’t understand why he would choose me. Did he expect me to become a demon like Khargon? Because that would be the only way a relationship between us couldn’t endure.
And maybe, considering the alternative, that was the only viable option for me. I knew that going to Hell meant being tortured forever. But what about going to heaven? Could it really be paradise when beings like Jophiel lived there? Becoming a demon might be my only salvation. Still, why would someone like Drevan fall for someone like me? Surely, he knew others like him. Beings who had lived alongside him for thousands of years and could understand him better than I ever could.
“Why me?” I asked again, thoroughly confused.
“Can one ever explain what the heart chooses?” he said, caressing my cheek with the back of his hand. It shouldn’t have been, but his one question tomyquestion was the right answer.
I had told myself so many times to give him up, to push him away because he was not for me, because he was a demon, because he was the son of Lucifer, because he was a monster, because, because, because…
And yet, my heart chose him every time—no matter what.
“Drevan.” My gaze scanned his handsome face, three words hanging from my lips. They’d been lodged in my heart for a very long time, and only fear had kept them from spilling to the surface. Except I saw no reason to hold them back anymore. Drevan was my only salvation, and I wasn’t afraid of what that meant anymore. I wasn’t afraid to give myself fully to him.
As he gazed back, he seemed to hold his breath.
“Drevan, I—”
A stampede of people pushed past the front doors, screaming and trampling each other. I turned away from Drevan, my heart taking off into a frantic gallop. He grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to look at him again.
“Lucia, what were you going to say?” he demanded.
But it didn’t matter—not when I glanced over my shoulder, and just past the doors, I saw LeBeau stabbing her Queller toward Jenna, an expression of murder twisting the former director’s face.
“Jenna!” I extricated myself from Drevan and ran toward my friend, dodging the charging crowd as I unsheathed my sword.
A few people rammed into me, almost knocking me to the ground, but I managed to stay on my feet. An instant later, Drevan was in front of me, clearing the path.
“Leave her alone, you bitch! I’m going to kill you,” I shouted, in an attempt to distract LeBeau.
To my relief, my anger-filled growl had its intended effect. Fearing an attack from the side, LeBeau sidestepped, holding her attack on my friend, and expertly adjusted her footing to face me. I came to a stop a few yards from Jenna. We struck similar attack poses, our swords held in front of us, our knees bent, ready to spring at LeBeau.
The crowd continued to pour out of the building, thinning out quickly, for which I was grateful. My eyes quickly searched for Drevan. He had been next to me, and I would have expected him to jump in front of LeBeau to defend us, but instead, he was standing a fair distance away, shoulders squared, hands tightened into white-knuckled fists.
