My mom, dying on the side of a dirty road, killed by Ryker. Two-headed Aym, taunting me. Me, blindly and stupidly rushing outside the senator’s house, just like Aym had known I would—just like Misha had known I would. Zayne, burned and dying, still trying to fight. My father, arriving, showing no remorse for the mistake that had been made.

The images whirled together, each one powerful and consuming, but the one that stood out the most, the one I couldn’t unsee, was the look on Misha’s face. The flicker of surprise in those beautiful blue eyes, as if, for one second, he couldn’t believe that I would do what I’d needed to do.

What I’d had to do.

How could Misha have done this? To me? To himself? To us?

My fist connected with the Raver’s snout as sorrow and rage gave way to guilt and dug its nasty, bitter claws into my very soul. I couldn’t get it out of me. How had I not seen Misha for what he really was? How could I have been so wrapped up in my own woes that I hadn’t seen this evil festering in him, hadn’t noticed—

“Trin.”

I heard the familiar voice, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. My fist slammed into the Raver’s snout again and again. Something warm and foul-smelling sprayed my chest.

“You need to stop.”

“It tried to eat a puppy.” My voice trembled on a shaky, frail breath. “A cute puppy.”

“But it didn’t.”

“Only because we stopped it.” I hit the demon again. “That doesn’t make it okay.”

“Didn’t say that it was.” The voice was closer, and the warmth in my chest was reaching out, beating back the dark, oily feelings that had spread like a noxious weed. “But it’s time to end this.”

I knew that.

My fist slammed into the Raver’s jaw yet again, and a few more teeth hit the ground.

“Trinity.”

I raised my fist again, vaguely aware that the shape of the Raver’s head looked wrong in the gloom of the alley, like half its skull might be indented. The demon wasn’t fighting back. Its arms were limp at its sides, its mouth hanging—

The scent of wintermint overshadowed the stench of the alley a moment before a warm, strong arm circled my waist. Zayne hauled me off the prone demon. From the amount of heat he was throwing off, I knew he was still in Warden form.