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didn’t budge. ‘I just don’t want to do whatever this is I’m doing alone.’
    ‘You won’t have to,’ he said, his lips so close to her own that it made her lose her focus. ‘I made my choice and you’re it.’
    Her stomach dropped away, whether through relief or something else she couldn’t tell.
    ‘Even if you sent me away I wouldn’t go,’ he continued, his hands tightening on her shoulders. ‘Ever since I first saw you there’s been something holding me to you. I don’t know what. And I don’t fully understand it. All I know is that I couldn’t walk away now even if I wanted to. I told you before that I would do whatever it took to keep you safe, that I would fight whoever was trying to hurt you – human or unhuman, demon or monster – and I will.’
    ‘But what if …?’ she stuttered before falling silent. All she could hear in her mind was Flic telling Lucas that he was going to get himself killed.
    Lucas’s fingers squeezed her tighter. ‘I’m not going to die,’ he said in such a low voice it came out as a growl.
    Evie took a deep breath. ‘Lucas, if there’s a chance,’ she said, ‘even the smallest chance, that by fulfilling this prophecy you’ll get hurt then I don’t care how marked this prophecy is, I don’t care whether every damn Sybll in the world tells me it’s going to happen, I won’t let it.’
    He didn’t say a word. He just considered her, his face inches from her own, their breathing running in unison.
    ‘OK,’ he finally said.
    ‘OK,’ she repeated, hearing the wobble in her voice. ‘Glad we’re clear about that.’
    Slowly he drew her into his arms, pulling her close until her head was buried under his jaw. She felt his lips press against the top of her head, could hear his heart beating loud and strong beneath her ear. She pushed back suddenly so she could look at him again.
    He wasn’t smiling. But then neither was she. She studied him – the iron cast of the shadows under his eyes, the paleness of his skin under his tan. He took her hand and led her to the bed. She sat down beside him, their shoulders brushing.
    ‘So, the way through?’ she asked. ‘I didn’t want to give your sister any more reason to shoot me her Gorgon stare, so I didn’t ask earlier, but what was Jamieson talking about when he mentioned the way through? Is it the same thing Issa was talking about – this Gateway?’
    Lucas nodded. ‘Yes. It’s how unhumans get here. How, all unhumans travel into this realm. The way through. Some people still call it the Gateway.’
    She couldn’t help but snicker. ‘The Gateway? What does it look like?’
    ‘I’ve never seen it. I’ve never been through it. Tristan explained it to me once as a break in the fabric of the universe.’
    Her eyebrows rose another inch.
    He laughed gently. ‘Imagine it like a rip in a blanket.’
    ‘And what’s on the other side of that rip?’
    ‘The Shifter realm. And from there, there are other Gateways through to the other realms.’
    ‘How were they made – these rips?’
    Lucas drew his shoulders up and then let them drop, shaking his head, ‘No one knows. They’ve just always been there.’
    ‘What are the Shadowlands like?’ Evie asked next.
    Lucas frowned, his gaze dropping to the floor. ‘They’re wastelands – barren, wild. It’s a place where the sun never seems to rise or set. Permanent dusk. It’s nothing like here. There are no cities or houses to speak of. It feels like waking up on the dark side of the moon – everything’s in shadow, freezing cold.’ He shuddered, then looked up at her, ‘It’s the most lonely I’ve ever felt.’
    Evie took a long, slow breath. ‘You’ve been there?’ She shook her head. ‘When?’
    ‘The accident that killed my mother.’
    Evie stared at Lucas’s hands gripping the edge of the bed. She reached out and placed her own hand over his.
    ‘I was thrown clear when the car flipped. I don’t remember it clearly – I was in the car one