He stared straight ahead to the tiled wall, so I waited until he spoke, almost dully, “You’re the only good part of me, and I’m going to fuck that up.”

“Kellan.” I started for him.

“No.” He shook his head, and I held back. He added, closing his eyes, “I have no more secrets from you. I love you. You love me. We’re bonded, and yet, we haven’t bonded enough.”

I grew warm, remembering how he kissed me, touched me before. An image of him over me again, but this time moving inside of me started an ache inside of me, but it also sparked something else. My own fear. I was scared. What would happen then? Who would come for us? Who else was left to come?

“Your father.”

Kellan swung those dark and so bleak eyes my way. As he did, it was like everything clicked in place. When he looked at me, how he was looking at me, made the world make sense. It didn’t before, if he wasn’t with me or at my side, but now, as he was looking at me—I knew everything would be fine. It had to be.

The side of his mouth lifted up in a half-grin. “How do I look at you?”

“Like you’re dying of thirst and I’m the last drop of water.”

He grunted. The half-grin grew. “That sounds right.”

“Kellan.” I sighed, moving closer. I stopped just on the outside of the shower. If I took one step closer, I’d be inside. The water would move onto me, and I’d be at his side. I waited, my chest growing tight. “My father is still coming for me, isn’t he?”

He nodded, his eyes growing lidded.

“What does that mean?”

“Someone sent the demons after us, but your father found us when we rescued Vespar and Giuseppa. But Shay,” he stopped, swallowing. A haunted look came over him. “We could hide. We could use spells to shield us, maybe go back to that house and stay there. Your father didn’t know about it, and maybe he won’t find us there, but…”

There was always a but. I grew tense.

“Do you really want to do that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want to hide for the rest of your life?”

My life. He said my life, not his, not ours. Mine. That told me so much—I was going to die, but he was not. We had one lifetime, mine. I knew Kellan could hear my thoughts, or at least, sense them, but this time, he remained quiet. He didn’t correct me or deny, and that, too, spoke volumes. It was like blow after blow kept coming. I wanted them to stop. I wanted to be the one to deliver the blows.

“What are you thinking?” His voice had grown hoarse.

“You know what I’m thinking.”

He leaned toward me, the water splashing off his head and sprinkling over me. “Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?”

Was I? Did I want to hide, or did I want to fight? A lifetime with him…or nothing at all? It could all end. I knew the risks. I ground out, “We’ve been hiding all our lives. I’m done hiding.” I stepped inside the shower, the water coating me as well, and I pressed against him. “It’s time to fight.”

His eyes darkened, and then his lips were on mine, and nothing else mattered. We became one that night.

“For the record,” Damien said two days later. “I think this is incredibly stupid.”

Kellan stood next to me, holding my hand, and grunted. “For the record, no one asked you.”

“Shut up.” I held tight to Kellan’s hand, speaking to both and right then, the ground began to quake. “He’s coming.”

Two nights ago, Damien came to the bedroom. He stood in the doorway, his hands folded in front of him, and we could both feel the confession coming. It came off him in waves. Shame. Guilt. Embarrassment. And then he started by saying, “I’ve been lying to you.”

I knew a whole lot of shit was about to be laid on our laps and I closed my eyes, just for a moment. I needed to prepare myself, and after a few more seconds, I nodded to Damien. “Tell us everything.”

He did, later standing across the table from Kellan and me. Aumae joined us as well. We kept the lights off except for one single lamp that was behind Damien from the living room. It seemed fitting, casting him in shadow and lighting up the rest of us. Damien coughed, looking away before starting. He drew in a breath, and held it there, grimacing. “I have to first explain that there’s a war going on in the heavens. I didn’t want to be a part of this. I wasn’t a part of this, but your father,” he looked at me, a wall shifting to the side to show new emotion, “and my father, Sachiel, is on one side.”

“Wait.”

Had I heard him right?

Kellan cursed. “Of course. That makes sense now.”

“You’re my brother?”

“Half-brother. We have the same father.”

My head was pounding. There’d been so many turns and twists when it came to siblings. I looked at one that I thought had been my brother to another that was my brother. I began laughing. There was nothing else I could do. Anything else I was feeling didn’t matter. I held up a hand, shaking my head. “This is just becoming ridiculous now.”

Damien kept going, an apology in his eyes to me, “I’m not as powerful as you because my mother was full human. I lived with my family until I was little. Nine years old. That’s when Sachiel found me. I was leaving the house with my grandpa and Sachiel—”

The vision came back to me. I remembered when I first experienced it. I’d been getting into my car. That felt so long ago now.