Gasping for breath, she braced her hands on her knees. She felt Leo’s warm hand on her back, steadying her. Brittle earth and dead grasses crunched beneath their feet as their group drew together in a close circle.

The wind shook the bare branches of the trees, the sound mournful, ominous. Surely the Devil would come for them again, send more and more demons, run them all to ground. No wonder Lord Whitney had such caution and alertness in his gaze. He and Zora were hunted, as she and Leo would be. And the four of them together presented a substantial target.

“We have to part,” Leo said, as if hearing her thoughts. “Safer that way.”

“There is a band of Rom near the Scottish border,” said Zora. “They will take Whit and I in for a time.”

“And what of you?” asked Lord Whitney.

“I’m a saddler’s son,” Leo answered with a small, wry smile. “That makes me well versed in being inconspicuous.”

Anne almost laughed at that. Leo could never be inconspicuous. He radiated presence, whether he was dressed in silk or tattered muslin. She had known that from the moment they had exchanged marriage vows—he was a man of uncommon strength.

“I shall believe that when the proof stands before me,” said Lord Whitney. Clearly, he also knew Leo well.

“We cannot run and stay hidden forever,” said Anne.

“And we won’t,” Leo answered. “A bigger battle is coming, and we must be there to fight it.”

“What became of Livia?” asked Zora.

“No idea,” said Leo. “But of a certain, we will need her for that battle.”

“It’s to happen, then.” Anne rubbed her hands on her arms against the chill. Leo moved to offer her his coat, then stopped when he realized he had none to give her. His borrowed coat was now soaked with Edmund’s blood, pressed uselessly to the fatal wound. “The fight between us and the final two Hellraisers.”

“That it will,” said Lord Whitney, somber. “I do not know what happened with Bram, but John’s power has grown terribly. Of that, I am certain.”

“With his influence in Parliament,” muttered Leo, “God knows what kind of chaos he will lead us into.”

“We’ve faced demons,” Zora countered, “and won.”

“John and Bram are by far more dangerous.” Lord Whitney spoke with certitude. “They are the demons we know.”

“Then that should make them easier to vanquish,” said Anne.

“I know my own evil,” Leo answered. “Defeating that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It will be the same for John and Bram. The darkness, it countermands everything. Devours everything.”

She shivered at the hard-won experience in his voice. “It cannot be hopeless,” she said, trying to convince herself as much as the others.

“There will always be hope,” Leo replied.

Silence fell as each of them considered what lay ahead. It was to be a struggle, one they were not confident of winning, yet they had to try.

At last, Lord Whitney extended his hand to Leo. “It does my heart good to have you my ally again.”

Leo took the offered hand and shook it solemnly. “The loss of our friendship haunted me, Whit. I’m glad to have it back again.”

After releasing Leo’s hand, Lord Whitney offered Anne an exquisite bow, and kissed her knuckles. “Madam, you surpassed my every expectation.”

“I surpassed my own, as well,” she answered, then added feelingly, “My greatest thanks, Lord Whitney.”

“Whit, if you please. Those who slay demons at my side I consider my greatest friends.” He added lowly, for her ears alone, “And for what you have done for Leo, I consider you an angel.”

“Hardly an angel.” She was all too human, too fallible.

“Whatever you call yourself, you’ve earned my gratitude. And his soul.”

The moment Whit released her hand, Anne found herself pulled tight to Zora in a fierce embrace. “Sister,” Zora said, “I take back everything bad I ever said about gorgies.”

Anne was not certain she wanted to know the bad things Zora might have said about gorgies, whatever they were. But she returned the Gypsy’s embrace, knowing that she could rely on her far more than any of her own kin.

As Whit and Zora headed off into the night, a pang of sadness threaded through Anne.

“I hardly know them,” she murmured, “yet I will miss them.”

“We’ll all meet again.” He took her hand in his. “We’re an army now. The four of us fought together, and won.”

“We won this battle. But what about those yet to come?”

He brushed his thumb over her ring, and waited. After a moment, he exhaled. “It’s gone—my power to see the future.”

“You miss it,” she said flatly, fearing his regret.

Yet he shook his head, and his eyes were bright in the darkness. “Its loss holds no value. There is only one thing, one person, I cannot lose.”

Emotion burned her throat, and she struggled to speak.

He thought her silence meant doubt, and he continued, his words low and fierce. “Tonight, I saw my friend murdered. Edmund sacrificed himself for something he wanted desperately. Something he saw in us.”

“Love,” Anne whispered.

Rare uncertainty knotted through his voice. “You said that we can never get back what we once shared. Do you still believe that?”

After a moment, she spoke. “I do.”

He seemed to turn to marble, his face and body rigid.

“You and I,” she continued, “we aren’t the same people we were. Both of us have changed.”

“I love you. That hasn’t changed.”

“And I love you,” she answered. “But my love has changed. It’s stronger now—because I know who you truly are. Just as I know who I am.”

“You are remarkable.”

She felt remarkable. “And you are a very complicated man.”

“A complicated man and a remarkable woman shouldn’t be apart.” He gazed at her as though he did not ever need to look upon anyone or anything else.

This man had fought demons and his own dark self this night, yet here, with her, he showed his vulnerability. To her, this made him all the more powerful.

“We cannot go back,” she said, “but we can go forward. We can build something even stronger than before.” She stared at the rips in his shirt and the bloodstains. “I don’t know what the future holds. We’ll face it together, though.”

Even the shadows could not hide the blaze of pleasure in his face. He drew her close, and kissed her. Despite the chill night, his lips were warm and firm. “My love,” he murmured, “the future is ours to write.”

Did you miss DEVIL’S KISS,

the first book in Zoë’s Hellraisers series?

A HANDSOME DEVIL

1762. James Sherbourne, Earl of Whitney, is a gambling man. Not for the money. But for the thrill, the danger—and the company: Whit has become one of the infamous Hellraisers, losing himself in the chase for adventure and pleasure with his four closest friends.

Which was how Whit found himself in a Gypsy encampment, betting against a lovely Romani girl. Zora Grey’s smoky voice and sharp tongue entrance Whit nearly as much as her clever hands—watching them handle cards inspires thoughts of another kind ...

Zora can’t explain her attraction to the careless blue-eyed Whit. She also can’t stop him and his Hellraisers from a fiendish curse: the power to grant their own hearts’ desires, to chase their pleasures from the merely debauched to the truly diabolical. And if Zora can’t save Whit, she still has to escape him ...

Sussex, England, 1762

The Gypsy girl cheated.

James Sherbourne, Earl of Whitney, could not prove it, but he knew with certainty that she cheated him at piquet. She had taken the last three hands, and his coin, brazenly. Whit did not mind the loss of the money. He had money in abundance, more, he admitted candidly, than he knew what to do with it. No, that wasn’t true—he always knew what to do with money. Gamble it.