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Oh… oh, shit. It had released. “It… is it hurting you?”

“My souls are fighting it,” he growled. “They’re destroying it, and the second they do, I’m going to wring your neck.”

Well, that would be her cue to leave, then. She started for the door.

“Are you working with Pestilence?”

Jaw dropping, she wheeled back around. “You think I wanted sex with you so bad that I’d enlist your evil brother’s help? Wow, you really are an egomaniac.”

“Sex?” he roared, startling her into taking another step back. “That wasn’t sex. You tricked me. You drugged me and defiled me. Do you even know what you did?”

She thought her eyes might have popped out of her head. “Defiled you? Are you kidding me?”

“I told you no. I refused.” The tendons in his neck strained as he tried to lift his head. “You… violated…” His voice degenerated into a nasty growl. “You took my virginity.”

She laughed. Virginity. Surely he was joking.

His black expression said he wasn’t, but virginity? No way. Ridiculous.

No. Don’t do this. Regan! His pleas came back to her, ringing in her ears with deafening clarity. He’d told her to stop, but… no, he hadn’t meant it.

He couldn’t have meant it.

He lay there, chest still heaving, raw hatred gleaming in his eying in hes. A trickle of sweat rolled down her temple as she replayed every second of the sex. She’d thought his protests were token, but if he really had been drugged with the wine, and her ability had attacked him, holding him down while she… oh, God.

Her stomach rebelled, and she staggered out of the room. She ran blindly for the outside door, Thanatos’s furious shouts chasing her. She made it outside just in time, and she lost her dinner next to the snowmobile. Hot tears stung her eyes and freezing wind stung her cheeks as she fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone and keys. As quickly as she could, she sent an emergency text to Kynan and Val, and then she started up the snow machine with unsteady fingers.

She could still hear Than’s angry roar over the sound of the snowmobile’s motor. She’d probably hear it for the rest of her life.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Dear God, she was so sorry.

She revved the engine, hoping to drown out his voice, and took off like a shot, holding on for dear life. The ride went on forever, the snowmobile’s headlight barely penetrating the early morning darkness. Or maybe it was her watery eyes making it difficult to see. She just wished the cold would numb her out, but all it did was add to the bleak horror of what she’d just done.

Finally, in the distance, she spotted two figures outlined in the glow of flashlights. One would be Kynan, and the other should be one of his demon in-laws… Shade, she thought. Kynan said he could make sure her egg and Thanatos’s sperm hooked up and did the baby dance.

That wasn’t going to happen.

She spared a glance over her shoulder and immediately wished she hadn’t. Against the gray wall of the rising dawn were the outlines of a massive dun horse and armored rider pounding across the barren wasteland.

Thanatos.

Terror tripped through her, and she nearly screamed. If they caught her, she was dead.

She skidded to a stop, and before she could even get off the machine, Shade gripped her wrist. “Let go!” She tried to jerk away, but he held her steady.

“I need to knock you out for the trip through the Harrowgate.”

Right. And then, as his arm began to glow and warmth spread from his fingers to her blood, her stomach turned over again. “Just don’t—”

A scream rang out, and then another, and she turned to see Pestilence on his stallion come from out of nowhere and broadside Thanatos and Styx. Horseman and horse went down in a massive crash of blood and snow.

“Oh, shit,” Kynan said. “We have to get out of here. Hurry, Shade.”

“Done.” The demon nodded. “Congratulations. You’re pregnant.”

Pregnant. No. No, no, no! God, what had she done?

Weapons clashed and horses whinnied, and Rinnied, egan cried out when Thanatos was crushed beneath the white stallion’s hooves.

More intense warmth bloomed beneath Shade’s hand. “Say goodnight, Aegi.”

“No,