When the twins pull themselves together and wipe their eyes, we all sit together in the sitting room. It’s an awkward, sad, guilty sort of silence.

And then my mobile rings and I stare at Father’s name on the screen, feeling ill. I hold it out for the others to see and their eyes go wide.

“Hallo,” I say.

“I assume you took care of the girl, then?”

“Of course, Father. She wasn’t a virgin anyhow.”

“Interesting.” He pauses and I raise the phone to hide the deep breath I’m taking to calm my pulse. “The spirit I sent to oversee the operation has been sent back to the pit of hell, never to return to earth. Do you know why?”

My eyes meet Anna’s worried ones. “No, Father.”

“Because he admitted he did not stay to see your mission through to the end. He says the two of you persuaded him to leave.”

“Bollocks!” I jump to my feet, my heart in my throat. “That disgusting wanker was distracting. It’s hard enough to try and bang a Neph without a spirit interfering.”

“A whisperer should hardly distract you from your task, son.”

I go still, my mind racing. I must make him believe me. “You’re right, Father. But the deed was done, and the whisperer left on his own. Obviously I couldn’t force him.”

“Hm. I think I’ll pay the girl a visit myself. A lot’s riding on her lack of purity.”

Over my dead body will I let him near her. I clench my jaw and force polite words out. “Do what you must, Father, but I hate to see your valuable time wasted.”

“Good of you to care,” the bastard says before hanging up on me.

Will it never end? Will we never get a bloody break? I yell through my teeth and kick the coffee table, flipping it with a crash.

I feel Anna’s tentative hand on my shoulder as I pant through the rage.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” she soothes. “We all need to get back to work. At this rate the prophecy’s bound to go down soon, and we can’t afford to lose anyone.”

“What about you?” Marna asks her. “Where will you go?”

Anna looks at me. “I don’t know.”

“Well, I don’t think you should be alone,” I tell her. Not after that phone call.

“We’re all gonna have to be alone if we want to convince them we’re working,” Blake says.

Screw that. I’m not concerned with pretending to work anymore. Father obviously doesn’t trust me, and Anna’s in immediate danger. The others should still pretend, but I need to take Anna with me, make a run for it. We are arguing about the best plan of action when the room suddenly darkens. Sunlight from the arched windows is shadowed by an enormous dark angel pushing through the window and walls, into the room, its wings outstretched wide enough to engulf the lot of us.

Shite! It’s too late to run. I lean back hard into the chair as I take in the whole sight, its ramlike horns curling wickedly upward and its massive body like a humanesque beast. Then I nearly swallow my tongue as it advances on Anna.

A dreadful sense of powerlessness overcomes me and I want to throw myself between them and yell for Anna to take out the sword. And then she whispers a single word.

“Daddy?”

My eyes bug out. Belial? Holy shit! I’ve never seen a Duke outside of its body. Whisperers have nothing on him. And why has he left his body? Things must be getting dire.

“Thank God it’s you,” Anna says, talking fast. “So much is happening. Pharzuph is hounding me, and I don’t know where to go.”

“That’s why I’m here.” Belial’s low rumble of a voice fills my mind, so he must be projecting it to all of us. We gather to listen.

Belial turns his huge celestial horned head to me expectantly.

“What do you suggest?” I ask him.

“You have only one safe option,” he says. “Get married.”

Wait . . . what . . . ? There’s no fucking way he just said that. Everyone is staring back and forth between me and Anna, and Anna is looking at her father as if he’s spoken an alien language. She’s shaking her head in disbelief.

“We can’t,” she says. “I have to stay a virgin. The sword—”

“No.” Belial lowers himself so he’s eye to eye with his daughter but projects his thoughts on me, as well. “You have to stay pure of heart, Anna. What’s more pure than committing yourselves in love?”

“But . . .” Anna’s head slowly swivels to mine. His words replay in my ears and the only ones I hear are purity and marriage.

“No.” I stumble back. Those words are Anna, not me. They can never be me. “It won’t work.”

Belial is wrong. He’s desperate and he hasn’t thought this through. If I join myself with Anna, I will be one degree of separation from the Sword of Righteousness. It will sense me through her. It’s smart.

“I’m sorry, Duke Belial. I can’t marry.”

I cannot even believe he’d think this was viable. Does he not remember how he’d wanted to keep me away from her? His reasons, the acts of my past, still live inside me. I can’t let this mistake happen.

“Don’t be stupid, Kai,” Ginger says. “There’s no time for this. If it can save you both, you need to do it.”

No. They’re all watching me like I’m being unreasonable, but they don’t get it. I’m too ashamed to even look at Anna, but surely she’ll understand. The stakes are too high to take this sort of chance.

“Duke Astaroth will be able to see the bond of marriage,” I remind them.

“Well, he’ll see the bond of love between you, which is just as bad,” Gin says.

Has the entire world gone mad? A million pounds of pressure are suddenly stacked on my shoulders and I turn, shoving my hands into my hair, struggling to breathe.

Marrying Anna . . . being with her in all the ways we so desperately want . . .

Blake steps closer. “Dude, come on—”

“Don’t pressure him,” Anna says, hurt in her voice. “If he doesn’t want to do it, he shouldn’t have to.”

What? She’s got it all wrong.

“Anna . . .”

“It’s okay,” she says. “It was a bad idea.”

Does she understand, then? Or is she being passive-aggressive? Am I the only one who sees the danger here?

“It’s not a bad idea,” Marna pipes in. “Really, Kai. Why the hell not?”

I don’t want to argue with her. “Marna—”

“That’s pants!” she shouts. “What’s the problem?”

I turn to face her. “She can’t tie herself to a bloke like me and expect to come out of it white as snow. It won’t work!”

Marna’s eyes soften as if she’s finally getting it. But then she says, “She loves you. And you love her. You’re not going to soil her soul, babe.”

What if I do? “My past has to be taken into account.”

“Your past is in the past,” Anna says. “And it’s not going to . . . rub off on me or something. You know it doesn’t work like that.”

Do I? Because I’ve always had the Midas touch, only the things I touch don’t turn to gold. They turn to ruin and brokenness and depression. It’s one thing to dream of being with Anna, but to actually take that chance is too much. I feel the eyes of the room on me and realize I’m alone in my way of thinking.

In the next moment, Belial is in my face, his horned head large and fierce.

“Don’t play games with me, boy. Do you love her or not?” he hisses.

One glance at the others in the room and their wonder makes it clear I’m the only one hearing this conversation.

“Yes, I love her.” I press this thought at him silently.

“Then what is your fear?”

I swallow. “That once she’s been with me, she’ll not be able to use the sword. Because of who I am, because of what I’ve done.”

“You have to let go of that fear. Let go of your past, and focus on your love. You are changed, and it’s time to embrace your future. You’re not that same self-serving boy I drove away from my daughter. Marry her and buy yourselves time to fulfill this prophecy. Otherwise Pharzuph will find her and learn the truth. This is what will keep her safe. Do you understand?”